My Street

Sony's My Street seems like a good idea at first glance. Take a bunch of neighborhood kids, pit them against each other in various games that young kids actually play, and wrap it all up with some multiplayer online features. Unfortunately, the result is a hodgepodge of underwhelming mini-games and limited multiplayer.

The most basic problem with My Street is that there are seven mini-games to choose from. This is a shockingly small amount of games in which to participate in. Compared to titles like Fuzion Frenzy or Mario Party which offer over 50 games each, My Street feels more like a demo.

The mini-games offered aren't all that appealing, some feel like rip-offs, such as Chicken Herding, which is obviously Chu-Chu Rocket in a different package. Marbles is plain dull, Lawn Mower and RC Racing are both weak due to control issues,, Volleyball is difficult because of timing issues and not much fun, and the puzzle title just completely lost me, with Dodge Ball being the only title that deserves any sort of lengthy play-time.

There is also a single player adventure mode that tries to link the various activities by requiring you to earn your way to each mini game by finding objects and beating opponents. Yet, it's annoying in that you have a daily time limit in what can be completed, as well as no real purpose in going through all these motions, when one could just play the games directly.

Multiplayer is limited to the same four player experience you would find if you just hooked up with your buds for the same ineffective thrill. For some reason, the USB keyboard isn't supported, so you are stuck using the clunky controller to communicate. Blech...

This was obviously a title that was throw together without much care. It may have been something to pad the portfolio of online titles released for the PS2. Whatever the case, you should steer clear of this, there are much better multiplayer mini-game titles out there, and while they don't allow for multiplayer fun, this doesn't either.