Carnival Island Sure Looks Like A Fun Place To Go.

Apparently Sony just forgot to tell us all about it.

The Carnival Games series has been a huge success on the Nintendo Wii, so it's surprising to see Sony completely ignore Carnival Island's existence. Admittedly it's not the type of release that's likely to resonate with the gaming stereotypes that typically frequent video game websites, but how can you expect to sell a product without letting anyone know about it?

For what it's worth, Carnival Island actually sounds pretty neat as far as mini-game compilations go. We actually have a bit of a soft spot for silly party games, and while we'd never choose a game like Carnival Island over a more traditional blockbuster release, they serve their purpose as budget titles.

Carnival Island starts off as a drab, lifeless festival — more Milton Keynes jumble sale than Disney Land Paris. As you play games and unlock new ones, the festival starts to come to life, and colour is restored to the world. You'll play as either a boy or girl, participating in a series of mini-games such as basketball, ring-toss and skee-ball.

While we've seen these types of titles before on other platforms, the hope is that the accuracy of the PlayStation Move will elevate the mini-games beyond the bog-standard waggle fests we're used to. There's certainly some evidence of that based on the trailers Sony has (quietly) released to the press.

Carnival Island also includes Facebook support, with a Magic Mirror mode allowing you to manipulate photos taken with the PlayStation Eye and upload them to your wall. Saved images will also show up in the game's loading screen, which is a neat little touch.

Perhaps most promising is Carnival Island's roster of 35 unique mini-games, which is quite a lot even by the genre's standards. While it's unlikely that every mini-game will be brilliant, there should be more than enough to keep families occupied when the game releases later in the year.