The Shoot Message Board

Cohort Studios, creator of PlayStation Move on-rails shooter The Shoot, is shutting down. Develop reports the Dundee, Scotland outfit is closing in its fifth year of operation due to "difficulties of being a console developer in a declining console marketplace."

The 25 remaining employees have been told of the closure, after the studio let 27 others go last August. The Shoot was the studio's first of several planned original projects, following contract work on titles like Buzz, Burnout Paradise, and Motorstorm. The company's final game, Me Monstar: Hear Me Roar, will launch as a PlayStation Mini in May.

Does this rail shooter for the PlayStation Move deserve a second take?

#review The Playstation 3's drop into motion gaming had a surprising side effect: A return of the on-rails light gun game. The Shoot is one of two PlayStation Move games hitting just this week. More »

Cohort Studios' on-rails, movie-set shooter -- called, you know, The Shoot -- will be available to add to your burgeoning PlayStation Move software collection on October 19. What's even more exciting? On the same day, you'll be able to pick up the PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment, thw peripheral that makes your Move controller look like a totally sweet, Earthworm Jim-esque ray gun.

The Shoot will retail for $39.99, while the Shooting Attachment will cost $19.99. We think that's a pretty fair price for a peripheral that makes it feel like you're actually shooting a gun as opposed to casting spells with the most magical wand -- an important distinction, we think, for a game titled The Shoot.

#impressions The light gun game, like the fighting game, has enjoyed a revival over the past few years. And while there is no light gun Street Fighter IV, the tech in the Wii Remote, and now in the PlayStation 3 Move, raises hopes that the genre will continue to charge ahead. More »

We now know that Sony's PlayStation Move minigame collection, Start the Party, is supposed to be zany, thanks to subtle cues in this trailer like cartoon sound effects and sped-up/reversed footage of people playing it.

Similarly, we know The Shoot is all about shooting, because of subtle cues in its trailer like the game's title and everything that happens in the trailer. See both after the break.

The PlayStation Move gets its own light gun shooter, without the actual gun part.

"The Shoot" is a pretty fun title. The on-rails shooter propels you through a series of cheesy movie sets, populated by cardboard cut-out civilians, antiquated B-movie aliens and hulking robots. And then you shoot them ... on the shoot. See? What's more fun than a title with a double meaning?

Although the title is a riot, my time with the game left me feeling disappointed and annoyed. Lightgun shooters have a comfy home on Wii, and the point-and-shoot mechanics of games like House of the Dead: Overkill are a natural fit for the controller. The PlayStation Move is similarly well-suited, both in terms of aiming ability and comfortable weighting. But "The Shoot" felt like a second-rate shooting range, marked by a slow pace and obvious simplicity.

Those can't be trotted out as negatives for every gamer, but if you're a Joystiq reader, there's something you have to know: In order to activate a useful slow-motion effect in "The Shoot," you have to -- I'm not kidding -- spin around on the spot like a ballerina with an ice-cream cone in her hand. I imagine Sony would like to separate its motion controller from the Wii's stigma of vapid, gestural-overload games, so pulling an early-days Wii stunt like that makes for a bad impression.

See the motion game in action.

Using the Playstation Move.