Kinect Adventures Game Review

Kinect Adventures places you in the boots of a typical adventurer, with a variety of games and challenges to complete and explore. Players will use Microsoft's Kinect motion sensing technology to compete in these beautiful and colourful events which are fun for the first few hours, then thing's start to feel repetitive. There is allot here for players to enjoy but this mainly feels like a small package of games showing off Kinect's potential.

Kinect Adventures is a bunch of mini games packed into one family friendly package, it comes with the Kinect device itself and provides a taste of what you can expect in the future from Microsoft which is great. You play as a fun-loving adventurer who travels the world in search of new challenges. This all sounds promising, but once you realise the "adventurer" of Kinect Adventures is actually just a man repeating the same 5 mini games over and over, you begin to feel less adventurous. If you're looking for a full game experience then look somewhere else, as previously mentioned this is nothing more than a few mini games showing Kinect's potential, the charm will wear off fast.

The game fits perfectly with the Kinect device, a family friendly interface and cute music to back up the famous adventure theme, there is allot here to experiment with. Players can engage in sets of mini-games in the adventure mode, which gives those competing different goals to complete. There is also the option to select a specific game mode if there is a particular game which interests you. There is also a time trial mode and multiplayer to keep players interested, as well as the ability to take photos during events and share you're experience with friends.

Each of the five game modes, 20,000 Leaks, River Rush, Rallyball, Reflex Ridge, and Space Pop copy the players movement and project it onto the avatar on screen. You will likely need plenty of space to play and equal amounts of energy.

These mini-games are all extremely easy to get into and provide entertainment for the first few hours of play, after this you will begin to loose interest. 20,000 Leaks puts players in an underwater tank which is being attacked by fish, causing the tank you're avatar is in to leak. The gamees concept is very simple, simply move you're hands and feet to block the water leaking into you're tank. This as you would expect might be fun at first with the Kinect motion sensing gimmick, but after a while you feel tired and the repetitive gameplay will bore you. River Rush on the other hand is a racing game which places the "Adventurer" on a river raft, you head down the river leaning from side to side in order to steer you're raft and jumping will make the raft jump. This is the best looking game and really showed what Kinect is capable of graphically, however there is no depth or any real reason to continue playing after you have played through it a few times.

As you complete tasks in the game you will unlock "Living Trophies". These trophies can animate with you're real body and become quite amusing at times, It's always fun to hear you're voice coming out of a cartoon creature.

The problem with Kinect Adventures is that nothing changes over time, once every race or event has been experienced you will only have the option to re-play that same thing again. There is not enough here to keep you're interest for more than a week. Once the initial gimmick of Kinect wears off you will likely not touch this game again, no one wants to race the same track 100 times or pop the same bubble over and over again, there is just simply not enough here.

This game disappointed me because it was the first Kinect game i have played which felt very accurate with the motion sensors, the game always seemed to read my body and unlike the other launch titles it never felt awkward or frustrating, i just wish there were more game modes available as well as much more variety and depth to each specific game mode.

If you buy this game expecting a full title then you will come away extremely disappointed, however if you approach this collection as a demo for Kinect to show off it's capability's, you might just have some fun. Families and small children will likely have an absolute blast and be entertained for quite a while, the hardcore gamer on the other hand will not find much here to be impressed about.

Overall Kinect Adventures is not much more than a collection of mini-games to show off what Kinect's technology can do. It has some very cute music with extremely impressive visuals. There is some fun to be had here but it might be worth saving you're money until some bigger games are released.

Kinect Adventures is a good demo for Kinect 5/10