Kinectimals Game Review

Christmas is approaching fast and for anyone considering buying Microsoft's Kinect, they might be interested in Kinectimals. The game is extremely cute and places you in a world where you can take care of you're favourite big cat species. The game looks absolutely fantastic and will surely find a place in the hearts of most children, even some adults.

Kinectimals may well be the cutest game ever made. There are over 30 felines in here and every one looks adorable, cute, fluffy, and most importantly they look real. The animations are outstanding and really help bring these little guys to life. Everything looks beautiful, the environments are colourful and feel full of life and this helps make the game feel like it's more than just a video game. Young children will be blown away the first time the get to select a little friend, the Black Panther is my personal favourite.

On the island of Lemuria you're guide is Bumble (Talking Lemur fairy) voiced by Richard Horvitz from Invader Zim Fame. He accompany's you to the Bonding Circle where you can select which Cat species to adopt. At the beginning you've only got a limited selection to choose from, all the Big Cat's are there though, Lion, Tiger, Cheetah, Leopard, and my favourite little guy the Panther. After giving you're chosen feline a name and petting him for a while you are off to begin a magical journey together. There is a loose story which alerts the player to the fact that there could be treasure on the island or other hidden goodies, Bumble can become slightly annoying for the older players but his cuteness will likely win you over.

After this you are left to do whatever you want, explore, pet, wash, play catch, jump rope, drive RC cars and much more. As this is a Kinect game all actions are done through motion controls. You will be able to reach out and pet you're cat on TV as if he is really there in you're room, toss small balls for him to fetch and kick bigger ones. The games does a great job of making the player feel like they are really looking after one of these beautiful little cubs. You can even teach you're friend to do tricks. Each toy starts a microgame experience with specific goals, for instance, if you select a Frisbee, a little box will appear asking you to throw the Frisbee a certain distance or hit a target. This adds depth to the game and makes it a longer lasting experience.

Everything you do with you're pets earns you money and experience points (extra for completing the pop up tasks) which can be used to unlock additional toy's and furniture for you're house. They can also unlock new game content so there is a ton of unlockables for anyone who loves to collect everything that a game has to offer. Each area has it's own Discovery Bar which tracks you're experience progress. As the bar fills up you will unlock five mini-games which you can complete to open up new areas to explore together.

The structure of the game makes it feel extremely satisfying. You will find that you're unlocking new items and goodies at an almost constant pace which feels very rewarding and made me want to play more and more. The game never stalls or feels boring and you're Cat will constantly bring you toy's and thing's he wants to play with, expect to be extremely tired after playing for a while.

The game is no doubt perfect for what it is in almost every area expect motion controls, and when a game is built to use motion controls that should be the most important factor of the game. Tossing balls can result in a mess. Balls fly in all directions and even fall out of you're hand at random, the jump rope just seemed to slip out of my hand and trip my pet up on every occasion. The mini games all require you to get a high score in games that revolve around tossing something and this just makes the game frustraiting at times. Overall i was disappointed with the motion controls considering Kinect is very expensive to purchase, i just expected more.

The other big criticism i had with the game is that it's far to menu heavy. When i play a game like this i want to feel as if my pet is real, not like he is a character in a video game. When i want to play with my pet, if i want a toy i will have to hold my arms out for a few seconds, then wave them to select a box, then wave again to select a type of toy, it all just feels to much at times and really takes away from the experience and belief that this little cub on my TV is real. I also think it might be hard for children to navigate the menu as well and could cause allot of problems. It's even quicker to travel to the other side of the island than it is to do something as standard as tickle my cat behind the ear.

Overall i was extremely impressed with the variety and depth of the game. The Cats look absolutely outstanding, they are cute, fluffy, colourful, and animate realistically. The game is very charming but as with most Kinect games from launch, poor controls and a terrible menu system take allot away from this otherwise fun and delightful experience.

Kinectimals is fun and beautiful with poor motion controls 6.5/10