Start the Party was one of the Move’s launch games, and it can be a lot of fun in a party setting. Start the Party: Save the World continues with the same formula, but includes 20 totally new games as well as the ability to interfere with the current player with a DualShock controller, adding to the interaction. The developers have also increased the use of augmented reality in the mini-games in some clever ways.

A game of Save the World starts in the same way as before - take a photo of yourself, select your avatar (which has your face on it), say your name, and you’re on your way. Your avatar (with your photo in its face) and your name (said in a robot voice) are always used when it’s your turn to get up off the couch and play. It’s your job in Save the World to save the world. It seems a guy by the name of Dr Terrible is being terrible, and you are trying to stop him, so each mini-game is themed around you saving people. Meanwhile your opponents are trying to stop you. For example, in one game you are saving sailors being forced to walk the plank by using the Move controller to place a net to catch them, but one of the other players can control a shark in the water with the DualShock and try to foil your saving ways.

At the end of each round you get a results screen showing each players’ score for the round and everyone’s total score. You can play with up to four people in a game, and the longest game with four people is about half an hour, so it certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome like some party games do. In some rounds you can steal points, which makes things a little more random, and you can, as before, choose different difficulty levels to handicap more experienced players. The cartoony look to the game is improved from the first game and helps to add to the fun atmosphere. Start the Party: Save the World is definitely family friendly.

Every mini-game in the collection can be played with just the Move controller, and all you ever have to do is move it about and press the trigger button, which means the game is very easy for anyone to pick-up-and-play. Each player plays the same mini-game in turn and tries to beat his or her opponents’ scores (while one other player can try to hinder the current player, so you might want to do this more to the current leader). The augmented reality features help with making the game easy to play as well, because you can see yourself on screen and quickly learn how your actions make things happen.

Three types of augmented reality are used: puppets, windows on the screen and video feeds inside objects.

We are certainly familiar with puppets from the previous game, where you and your Move controller are shown on screen but instead of the bulb at the end of the controller there is something else like a hammer. One game has you protecting a caveman by knocking pterodactyls out of the sky with a dinosaur puppet.

Windows on the screen act as overlays over your living room which is the background, and as you move your controller around you select a hole, or window to poke through. This is the kind of augmented reality used in saving the sailors - as you move the controller the net you catch them in comes out of different portholes in the ship.

The video feed inside objects is a new augmented reality form and it’s pretty cool! In one game you have to fly a helicopter to rescue people from a giant crustacean that is attacking the city. You point the Move controller in a direction to point the helicopter’s blades and press T to go. The cool AR feature is that you can see yourself standing inside the helicopter controlling it - not just you face is shown inside the ‘copter but a feed of your current actions.

There’s no truly groundbreaking stuff in Start the Party: Save the World, but it looks like a solid party game. If you enjoyed Start the Party last year and it went down well with family and friends over the holiday period then Save the World looks like a good upgrade or partner game to increase the variety.

Purchase: