19-Dec-2001 Welcome to the only place on PS2 where you're actively encouraged to take photographs of naked men whipping each other with wet towels. It's a little bit funny. Welcome to the only place on PS2 where you're actively encouraged to take photographs of naked men whipping each other with wet towels. It's a little bit funny.
Life's generally pretty boring. It's a bit like a sheet flapping on a washing line on a grey, drizzly, overcast day. But just occasionally something out of the ordinary happens, and when it does we like to take a photo so we can remember the moment forever.
Like that picture of your best mate collapsed in a drunken puddle of his own urine after you dealt him the old 'hand in a bowl of warm water' trick, any event that casts the smallest touch of sunlight on that relentlessly flapping sheet is sure to warm the soul.
Imagine you're paid fat wads of cash for taking these kinds of mementos, and that the more shocking and surprising the image, the more cash is stuffed into your greedy palms. Such is the life of Pete, the two-dimensional hero of one of the most original and deranged games on PlayStation 2. Now if you were paid extra bucks for extra weirdness, you'd go somewhere guaranteed to serve up the right kind of fodder for your camera, right? You'd go to the craziest place in the world. You'd go to a place where mad flashers expose themselves to dancing teddy bears, where giant lizard monsters cavort with tap-dancing robots. You'd go to Japan, and that's just what Pete does.
CANDID CAMERA Polaroid Pete plays a bit like a cross between an old-skool side-scrolling shoot 'em up and something like Silent Scope. Each level scrolls automatically and you have limited control of Pete at the left of the screen. You can make him shuffle forwards or backwards a bit and make him jump obstacles, but that's pretty much it. Luckily, this isn't a platformer and controlling Pete isn't what the game's about. Much more important is your camera cursor that you can move about the entire screen with the analog stick.
Move the cursor over anything in the level and press the shutter button to take a photo. Just like real photography, whatever was in the frame when you pressed the button will be in the photograph and you have to capture on film as many of the bizarre events kicking off all over the place as you can. At the start of each stage your editor gives you a target score and each shot you take adds points to the total. The madder the shot, the bigger the points total. A man slipping on a banana skin might rake in a measly 400 points, but a dismembered hand goosing a fair maiden in a graveyard will score you a hefty 2000.
Each of the stages has a theme like 'spooky' or, um 'bath-house', and according to each setting there will be one particular shot that you have to snap in order to get the scoop and complete the level. Your editor will hint at what this shot might be prior to each stage, but often you'll have to play through each area time and again, watching with eagle-eyes and an itchy shutter-finger for anything super-unusual.
To stop the action getting too repetitive, each level is absolutely crammed with things to snap. There are at least 50 individual events in each stage and zooming in on objects and characters in the distance or startling people with your flash often triggers brand new scenes for you to capture. Experimenting with what's going on in the background is as much a part of the game as merely observing and taking pictures, and it really adds to the longevity of an otherwise undoubtedly shallow gaming experience. There are even projectiles to jump and avoid too, bringing back that old-skool shooter flava once more.
IT'S MADNESS You may look at the screens and write off Polaroid Pete as oddball and kiddy, but it's one of those games that shows its quirky, adult-oriented brilliance as soon as you start to play. There's severe weirdness going on everywhere, and some genuinely funny moments of inventive comedy. Like when an old man is startled and drops his log in the bath tub, or when the picture of a man on a billboard advert sneezes and blows a nearby window cleaner off his scaffolding. Get it all on film for posterity and fat points.
Polaroid Pete is witty, original and packed with neat little touches. There are ace references to popular film and games culture all over the place, and you'll literally spot new events to snap every single time you play. It can get fairly repetitive, and you're certainly not going to find any kind of real depth, but what's there is sure to keep you snap-happy for a long while.
Weird and just wicked enough to become a deserved cult hit
Uppers
You probably haven't played anything like it. Ever Has that rare and addictive 'just one more go' factor Trying to spot all the subtle pop culture references is a brilliant spectator sport So detailed, you'll notice something new going on every time you play
Downers
Pete is one of the most ill-conceived games characters we've ever seen The gameplay varies little from level to level Slightly dodgy PAL conversion with borders and crazy translations
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You probably haven't played anything like it. Ever
