Kinect Adventures Reviews

Kinect Adventures is the bundled-in game for the new Xbox 360 sensor peripheral, Kinect. In this capacity it serves as a perfect showcase of how Kinect can be used. But at the end of the day, Kinect Adventures comes down to the player’s commitment; you will get out of the game, what you put into it.

I won’t go into too much with the Kinect itself, if you own an Xbox360 and don’t know what Kinect is; well, welcome back from whatever hole you crawled out of. I will provide a link to an excellent article about the technology.

http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2010/11/featur...

Kinect does take some getting used to for navigating menus and such. You hold your hand in space towards the TV and pause over the item you want selected. You need to wait a few seconds for the circle to fill. Something that has been mentioned on the internet too is that you need space for this. 8 feet from the TV to the wall or furniture will do just fine. You will be jumping, flailing your arms and legs all about. So make sure you have space to the sides and above you.

Like I said above, Kinect Adventures comes down to how much a player is willing to put into the experience. If you just stand there because you think you’re too cool for this, you won’t get anything out of it and it’s not for you anyway. However, if you put your inhibitions to the side and enjoy the game for what it is, and then you will have a fun time.

Onto the basics, Kinect Adventures has 5 separate activities to play: Rally Ball, River Rush, Reflex Ridge, Space Pop, and 20,000 Leaks. They each have 2 or 3 levels. There are three levels of difficulty for each activity and three different modes in which to play; Adventure, Free Play, and Timed. Adventure mode takes you through the games in a more stream-lined manner. Free play is just you picking the game, level, and difficulty. Timed is just as it sounds, running through the games with a timer. It is a little complicated at first but after a short while you will understand it and it’s easy to navigate. Things are laid out with large icons to help.

I’ll break down each activity:

Rally Ball
This is the best game of the bunch. You are standing in a gym with a wall at the opposite end. You have to knock the wall down using the balls provided. You are given roughly 45 seconds to knock the wall down. You have to use your hands, feet, or head to send the balls back down the corridor. As the difficulty ramps up, the walls begin to move and fold in, and disappear. This means you need to be much more accurate but there are bonuses you can get. You can get a multi-ball which sends 2 or 4 more into the fray. This makes it much more difficult to keep track of the balls but a better chance to knock down the wall. Each level has three rounds and you get activity points for knocking down the wall and how much time is left.

River Rush
This is a game where you are in a raft going down a river. You have to jump and side-step left and right to steer the raft. There are activity pins scattered everywhere that you need to grab. This is probably the best game for co-op because the pins can be difficult to reach sometimes. Those extra arms will come in handy. The river is set up like an obstacle course as you have to jump up ramps and onto ledges.

Reflex Ridge
This is an obstacle course set on a mine cart track. You have dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge! Obstacles will pop up that you have to jump over, dive under, or side step. You can also jump or pull handles to pick up speed. There are pins to collect as well, so you have to contort yourself a bit to grab most of them. The timed version of this is probably the most challenging thing to do in the whole game.

Space Pop
Arguably the worst of the mini-games, you are floating in space and have to collect bubbles in a timely manner. You literally have to flap your arms like a bird to get airborne and then you can side step or flail your arms to collect bubbles. Put your arms to the sides and you will go back to the floor. You also have to step forward or backward to collect the different rows. While it does a good job of showcasing the Kinect’s ability to see 3D, it’s just not very fun.

20,000 Leaks
You are encased in an aquarium underwater, and the fish on beating on the glass. As the glass cracks and water flows in, you have to plug the holes. Fish will put cracks on the floor, sides and front. You can use your hands, feet and head to plug the holes. This is probably the least challenging of the games, as most of the time you barely have to move except where your arms are.

I will say this about Kinect, it works as well as you could imagine. Lag is rarely a problem and when it does show up, it rarely has an impact on the game. It is very cool navigating menus with your hands and playing games with no controller. For older folks like me who have grown up with controllers, it will take some getting used to. Kinect also takes photos of you while playing the games that you can share if you want. You can upload pictures to Kinectshare.com and then further upload them to Facebook, MySpace, etc. It’s a really cool way to share the experience and get others interested.
Graphics wise, its a very attractive game with a cartooish vibe to it. Your avatar will fit right in with the surroundings. Music is pretty standard fare and doesn't add much but doesn't hinder either.

Achievements aren't incredibly difficult but they can be time consuming. Don't expect the full 1000 unless you have someone willing to play with you or have a friend who also has Kinect. There is one achievement that asks you to play with someone online.

Kinect Adventures can be a lot of fun if you are willing to put your ego aside and just have a good time with it. It’s a solid title to pack in with Kinect and gets away from the obvious sports aspects of the sensor. If Kinect doesn’t seem like your cup-of-tea, Adventures won’t do anything to change your mind. You have to be willing to act like a goof and not worry about how you look. My kids are 12 and 9 and have had a blast with the thing since we got it. The neighborhood kids have been amazed by it and people on Facebook are buzzing about the photos we put up. Kinect is here to stay and Adventures is only the first step on a long journey.

Kinect Adventures is, as we all know by now, the launch title bundled with a standard Kinect bundle.

I'll attempt to keep this review more of the actual title and not diverge into an analysis of the hardware and technology inside Kinect, though some references may be obligatory.

As it stands, out of the available launch titles for my money Kinect Adventures is one of the best ones to get your hands on. The game feels polished whereas some (Motion Sports) have a feel of developers either rushing to get a product through the door or of developers somewhat unsure and struggling to make use of the stream of data supplied to them by Kinect.

The game was clearly developed closely along side Kinect as the final integration you see on screen between yourself and your avatar is smooth and fluid, and it the game ultimately reassures you Kinect works and it's not just a gimmick. Basically the premise is that you are a Kinect Adventurer, tasked with completing courses and challenges around the world to collect the pins/gems needed to confirm your authority as a heroic and gifted adventurer. What, you didn't expect Mass Effect 3 did you?

Anyway, starting with the core make up of the game, the graphics are suitably charming and cartoony to keep in line with the look of the avatars and the tone of the game. Anyone who has playing Guitar Hero using their avatar will know seeing your avatar rock out in amongst a different style of graphics often looks a little odd.

The sounds and music content of the game are good and lend a fitting party-esque atmosphere to the game though the main title/menu music will start to drive you bonkers after a little while.

The crux of the gameplay of course comes to the motion tracking and it works very well here. As the game starts your room is scanned and you are asked to stand in a position which is optimal to your room layout. This will then configure Kinect to use a smaller or larger playspace. Very handy for people like me who may play in the privacy of their bedroom in single player, yet in the lounge for a multiplayer session. Using this method the game cleverly maximises it playability whereas others restrict themselves to requiring a huge space to play in.

The menu system is very similar to that which is powering the Kinect hub (as you'd expect from a game developed by Microsoft Studios) requiring you to hover your hand over items to select them which is very easy to do. Multiplayer control is handled just short of elegantly with a player stepping forward to have control passed to them and the redundant gamer temporarily dropped to background level.

From here you'll be choosing from five different game play styles. First we have River Rush which is the raft riding gameplay we'll be quite familiar with by now. Sidestepping, jumping and scrambling for gems are required and the mechanics work well, fun and simple to play it's easy to pick up.

Rallyball is perhaps my favourite as you frantically bash balls against bricks and objects aiming to smash them all as quickly as possible. The design here is perhaps a little clever with the only requirement to 'return' a ball being to have a part of your body (any part) touch the ball as it comes toward you. It's not overly simplified and it is possible to miss and miss often, but it's easy to see the compensations made for casual gaming here than in any other game mode.

Next we have 20,000 Leaks which puts you in an underwater glass cage as you scrabble to plug leaks as fish bash the glass. This mode is the best for demonstrating the motion capture technology in my opinion. When sharks attack you'll often be required to plug two holes with your hands, two with your feet/legs and one with your head. Movement does matter here and not being accurate doesn't see Kinect molly coddling your actions. That's not to say it's over hard, it absolutely isn't, but you will be required to match the shapes you see on screen for a Platinum (the best) medal and do so quickly.

Reflex Ridge is a series of jump, duck, grab and dodge as you roll along a course on a mobile platform. Good fun and very tiring on the higher difficulty levels! Repeated jump, duck, jump, duck, jump duck whilst trying to grab pins is a sure way to get the resting heart rate up and require a sit down at the end of the round. This is the one game mode where players co-operate but do so independently on their own platform. That leads to a competitive edge (even though the best score is taken as the team score at the end) and is a great laugh with multiple players.

Finally we have Space Pop. Essentially the popping of bubbles in a zero-g atmosphere as you flap and wave your arms to gain/lose height on screen. A nice 'breather' game it's somewhat therapeutic as you burst your way through the levels packed full of the little buggers.

Combine these modes with the built in picture snapping ability of Kinect and the 'Living Statues' which you control with your body and voice and you've got a solid launch title which, yes, is a 'casual game', but a fun one by any means.

First of all people you need 6-8 feet of space to operate kinect efficiently

Kinect and Kinect adventures was released on the 10th of November in the UK to bring a whole world of new entertaining gaming. Both the add-on and game are bundled together. The kinect accessory has added a new dimension of gaming which keeps people fit too.

The kinect accessory currently when released retailed at approximately £129.99 however now you may get the peripheral and game from £79.99

Links below are provided by me for you to get the best deals (last updated 13/06/2011

Amazon £105.99 in stock (free shipping)

Game.co.uk £79.99 currently out of stock but you may place and order at this price. £109.99 with additional game zumba fitness (free shipping)

Play.com £119.99 in stock (free shipping)

Zavvi £109.85 in stock (free shipping)

For all wondering whether kinect will work with the older xbox console i.e

Core
Premuim
Elite
Arcade (arcade console will not work due to the fact that their is limited hard drive space and kinect requires a fair bit of memory to work correctly, 190mb of space is the rough space required)

They will work fine with the new gadget and the adapter is included with the kinect device. All the difference is, is that the old console requires more power and an adapter to allow a firewire connection attach to a spare usb port.

That's that cleared up.

How Easy is kinect to set up?

Extremely easy just connect the cable provided without extra power lead and adapter for xbox slim console and your away.

For people using the older consoles use all the cables provided and connect the cables out carefully following the instructions.

Kinect adventures

The game as many of you know by now is bundled with kinect whether you buy kinect on its own or with the bundled 360 slim. Kinect games come in many different activity levels, ranging from standing to active, this game actually is what is known as a crossover game meaning it incorperates both standing and active activities, a nice mixture as many different ages will be playing this.

The game itself has 5 games these inlude the following:

Rallyball: This game involves you the player bouncing a ball into obstacles in front of you , hit the obstacles to gain points and progress on through the game. during the game the ball will rebound off objects and you need to deflect the ball back into the remaing targets.

A few tips whilst playing the game:

Use your head to serve the ball
Use all body parts to deflect the oncoming ball dont just be a lemon.

River Rush:

In this game you control a river raft and you must use your body to guide this raft safely down a mountain. For this game the main things to remember is move side to side and jump at the applicable moment. The main objective is to grab as many of the pins labelled A on screen, the more you get the better the medal will be at the end of that game. Oh and dont forget to try and go between the markers if possible.

Reflex Ridge:

Reflex ridge is almost deemed as an assault course, in this game you must dodge obstacles whilst collecting either the pins labelled a or time pins, there are many obstacles you will meet on this game. To start each level you must pull handles to start. There are objects you must side step to dodge obstacles you must duck and ones you must jump over. This game can be fast paced so you may struggle to avoid all obstacles on your very first attempt. This game you can play two player easily by having your friend stand next to you. Oh and i almsot forgot jumping continously speeds the game up.

Space Pop

Space Pop has to be the most relaxing game of the five on this disc, the idea of this game whilst in a room on the moon is to flap your arms and move to burst the bubbles on screen, to rapidly descend place your arms along side your body. Step left or right to move, drop your arms to descend and flap your arms to float.

20,000 Leaks

This is my favourite game as it is not too energetic and you dont stand around like a lemon either. You the player stands in a tank at the bottom of the sea and you are attacked by fish, including puffa fish lobsters and sharks, their aim is to flood you tank by crashing into your glass tank. You must seal the cracks in the glass that they cause by covering the holes with your hands feet and occasionly your head also. Cracks will appear in front of you, to the sides and on the floor, Watch out for those cracks on the floor.

Achievements

For people buying this game with the expectation that the achievements will be easy to obtain, this is very hard to put your finger on, people who are very atheletic will pick up many of the achievements if not 1k the game over time. People that are not so energetic never fear you will get a fair few achievements over time. Do not play this game thinking you will get this game to 1k in a short time, although all the achievements are obtainable they are relatively time consuming.

Summary

At the end of each adventure mode which consists of anything from 3 -12 matches or so you will get a medal and can you can record your own message which you can upload online, this is purely optional, for people fearful of your photos being released to the general public, you can choose whether to view them on kinectshare.com only or from that website you can choose to share your pictures, videos and voice recordings to Facebook and Myspace. Every so often you can also unlock your very own avatar awards Each of the five games has five various tracks/ courses/ variations. Each game can be played on various different levels of difficulty also.

There are many modes that you can play, Freeplay, Online, Adventure and a few more modes are also included.

RallyBall:- This game deserves a 7/10, it is a great game and definitely can wear you out quickly although it can become a bore after 30 minutes playing or so. Seems very repetitive

River Rush:- This game gets a 8/10 the courses are difficult to remember and therefore makes the game more challenging, there are enough things to keep you entertained on this game and plenty of challenges as well .

Reflex Ridge:-9/10 What a game from start to finish on this game you are constantly moving. It is not easy to remeber the pattern of the obstacles if you wanted to try an beat your existing run. The three courses it gives you in the game are very varied.

Space Pop:- 4/10 Oh dear this game is very dissapointing and has not met my expectations the game is very slow and repetitive and just doesnt have the fun factor to play this game again. Almost a 2D game in a 3D world if you get what i mean. (Eyetoy quality of game comes to mind which was good at its time but no longer is).

20,000 Leaks:- 10/10 The developers couldnt have got this better if they had tried, the game literally keeps you on you hands and toes. This game you will never tire from . Entertaining at the best of times and with friends and family watching you play the game its a real hoot.

Possible Kinect issues

There has been recent news about wether or not the Kinect Peripheral is causing problems to the older Xbox 360 consoles, apparently the Kinect add-on can cause the Xbox 360 to red ring, this is not confirmed and people should not worry yet. If there is any more on this problem i will update this post with according message and how to contact microsoft about getting a repair for the small minority who dont know how to contact Microsoft.

Number to ring Microsoft is : 0800 587 1102 (UK users)

See link provided for details

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12121999

Please comment on my review (The Good And the Bad so i can improve in the future, Message me if you have any queries with the game).

This is the game that comes with the Kinect. Because of this, I was not expecting much out of it. Boy, was I surprised. This game is actually pretty fun.

Although it only has a few game modes, there is a huge variety of levels to play (about 70 levels).

I found that there was a good balance between physically intense games, such a rafting or rallyball, and relaxing games like 20,000 leaks and space pop.

I thought I'd have to get something like Kinect Sports to get a good workout, but Kinect Adventure can kick your butt into shape all by itself. After about 15-20 minutes of playing, I am done. Not because I don't want to keep playing, but because I'm completely warn out by that point.

I don't really want to go into the mechanics of the Kinect device here, but I will give you one piece of advice that I had to learn the hard way: WEAR SNEAKERS! You're going to be doing a ton of jumping around and putting a lot of stress on your feet, ankles, and knees. Some rubber soles will absorb most of the impact.

There is also a bunch of avatar awards for this game, so completing it lets you pimp out your avatar and show off your success. You can also upload cool "living statues" which you'll just have to play the game to discover.

If your going to play Kinect, then your going to play Kinect Adventures. I would recommend when you get your Kinect, don't worry about getting another game for it, just give Adventures a try first. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Considering this is one of the first Xbox Kinect games, it is very good. There are a few things which could of made it better but this game will give you alot of entertainment and keep you playing for a while. And after all, you might aswell play it when you get it with the Kinect Sensor.

Achievments

This game has 32 achievements, and 1000 gamerscore. Most will be quite easy to get if you are an energetic person. But if you are a lazy, boring person who wouldn't run 100m to save there life then this game will not be good for you, and getting achievements. Some of the achievements involve playing with another person offline which could be a bad thing for some people. Others involve a few hours game play. But for achievements you can do this in 10 hours.

Game Play

This is actually a fun game, you could play this and have alot of fun after you have completed it. But the game is more fun when trying to complete it. There is an adventure mode in which there are some challenges you have to complete. You can unlock avatar awards by playing adventure mode which is a bonus. You earn badges and statues by playing adventure mode. There is free play mode which lets you play any of the games you want to play on Kinect Adventures. There are alot of achievements on Free Play and the good thing is you dont have to do them in a certain order.

Rallyball: This game is like squash if any of you have played it. You must keep the ball on the court and destroy the blocks to advance through the game.

20,000 Leaks: In this game you must plug all the leaks that appear while you are in an underwater cage.

Reflex Ridge: Personally, I think that this is the best game. In this game you must get through the obstacle course with different obstacles. You can jump, duc and dodge past obstacles.

River Rush: You are going down a river on a raft and you must collect as many badges as possible to get your rank. There are rocs and wood and other things in the way though.

Space Pop You are in space and you must pop these floating bubbles that go around the space ship room. Pop as many as you can.

This is not a must buy but it is a fun game. For those people who dont like games that look a bit kidish I would say stay away.