Kinect Adventures Review

Posted By Dant Rambo about 1 year, 3 months ago

Kinect Adventures Review

While impressive tech demos do not always mean a new piece of technology will have a bright future ahead of it, they at least help justify it from the get-go. Kinect Adventures, the pack-in title for the Kinect device, definitely has a lot to prove to adopters of the system. Is it the demonstration of the Kinect’s abilities that so many people are wanting to see before they purchase one, or is it just a bug-infested launch game?

Although there is very little offered here, it hits most of the right notes in terms of showing what the Kinect is made of. Assuming you’re in the right setting and far enough away from the TV, the Kinect will read your every movement with ease. While your on-screen doppelganger will not always react with total accuracy, it gets pretty damn close. It may be a problem for games down the road, but Adventures is not a game that demands perfection in terms of capturing movement.

One of Adventures’ worst offenses is promising the player 20 different mini-games. In reality, there are only five offered. There are different variations offered of each of the five, but there are still only five. Adventures has a bit of a problem with presenting itself as something more than it really is. In the game’s adventure mode, you will play through each of these games in various formats, such as a time trial or a point-amassing fest. With only five mini-games spread so thin, they start to get incredibly redundant after a while. Unless you find yourself really pumped on the games, then finishing Adventures will start to feel like a chore.

Rallyball is so far the likeliest to have you crash into your coffee table

Rallyball was a part of one of the first Kinect demonstrations the public was given. It’s a relatively simplistic mini-game that has the player continuously hitting a barrage of balls at a wall of moving crates and targets that give you points. It’s very similar to a Pong/Arkanoid hybrid, only you use your body to hit the ball as it comes at you.

Space Pop requires you to flail your arms and fly about in a zero gravity room popping bubbles as they fly at you from different directions. It works fairly well, but it also encourages you to step forward at times, which causes the Kinect to bug out and ask you to step back. In 20,000 Leaks, the player will use their entire body to plug holes in an underwater observatory. While it also suffers from causing you to step forward at times and subsequently upsetting the Kinect, it generally works pretty well.

River Rush is a game in which you stand on a raft and move side-to-side and jump to dodge obstacles and gather points and time bonuses. It works great, but it feels somewhat similar to Reflex Ridge – a game where you move side-to-side and jump to dodge obstacles and gather points and time bonuses. To be fair, they aren’t entirely the same. The obstacle course takes place on a set path, whereas Reflex Ridge allows you a little more autonomy in terms of where you can go.

What astronauts really do in space

The underlying pattern in all of these games is ultimately what makes Adventures so cumbersome to play all of the way through. No matter what variance you play of the mini-games, you are still gathering things. Gather-fests do not always mean a game is bad, but they invite a feeling of redundancy fairly quickly.

Every time you play a mini-game, the Kinect will take pictures of you at strategic moments and then show you afterwards. The game does a great job of timing when to take pictures, so they are almost always hilarious. It’s a great feature for social settings and when playing with friends, but it’s a little awkward seeing yourself catching air in your living room after the 50th time.

Kinect Adventures is AWESOME!, 4.1 out of 5 based on 50 ratings

Kinect Adventures is AWESOME!

By Fraser

Flailing your limbs has never been more expensive!