You will probably need a little background for this one. The Eye Toy is peripheral for the PlayStation 2. You plug its cord into a socket on the front of the console, then you sit it on top of your TV set, and then your smiling mug appears on the screen. Or, more accurately, your unwashed, squinting, grimacingly unattractive mug appears on the screen.

The Eye Toy is a webcam for your PlayStation, only without the web part. This is a blessing, really, for as everyone from Paris Hilton on down can testify, the last thing you want is moving pictures of yourself circulating on the internet. Particularly if you are unwashed and squinting and grimacingly unattractive.

Eye Toy: Play is the game that comes in the box with the Eye Toy camera. Or rather it is the collection of mini-games that comes with the Eye Toy camera. There is no central objective in Play, and no grand quest for you to complete. It is just twelve kinds of idiotic fun, all of which involve you humiliating yourself in front of your friends and family and houseguests. The way it works is simple. You stand in the middle of the room, facing your TV, and then you wave your arms and make an ass of yourself.

All the Play mini games cast you, in all your unwashed squinty glory, as the protagonist. In the mini game called "Kung Foo" you stand in the middle of your TV screen like Peter Mansbridge on a very bad day, and you must swat away the evil ninjas who attack you from all sides. They rush in at the top of the screen and at the bottom and in the middle as well. You must wave high to bat away the high ones. You must wave low to hit the low ones. You must bat extra low to hit the extra-low ones, who are pandas and not ninjas but who are nonetheless evil. If you can connect your on-screen hand with an attacker the attacker will fly away in a cloud of hurt. The whole thing is deeply satisfying, never mind that you look like a very bad dancer while you play.

Speaking of dancing, a game called "Beat Freak" plays phat rhythms and challenges you to swat at turntables located at the edges of the screen. In time with the music, little icons that look like CDs fly from the centre to the corners. If you can connect with the turntables just as the CDs arrive, you... Uh, you do not win a prize or anything, but you get to keep playing. If you cannot manage that, the game ends and you must give your grandmother a turn.

Now here is the thing about giving your grandmother a turn. For years, especially around the holidays, you have tried to interest her in video games. You have told her that it is a simple matter of pushing "A" for the gas and "B" for the brakes and steering by moving the little stick left and right. For years, you have pulled out hairs and bitten your tongue lest you curse Granny's incompetence out loud. On other occasions you have marveled at her technophobia. Why, you have pleaded, won't you try, Granny? Why why why? The answer has always been simple: Unless you grew up playing them, video games are hard verging on impossible.

Eye Toy: Play is different. It is simple and intuitive. It is a delight to play, even if you are 80 and it is your first-ever video game experience. You wave your arms and neat stuff happens. Music plays. People in the room laugh and ask if they can have a turn. Everybody gets out of breath with all the jumping and arm-flapping. It is the perfect family treat for the holidays.

Enjoy the moment, and remember this: One of the mini games is called "Slap Stream." It is not for your grandmother. It is full of belligerent rats who drop trou and fart at you. Hilarious, but lost on the over-70 set.