Kinect Adventures

Included with all Kinect sensors, Kinect Adventures is the first experience that most gamers will have with the Xbox 360’s new motion controller. Microsoft Game Studios and developer Good Science clearly thought this through well; the Adventures disc includes calibration utilities to properly get Kinect up and running, in the process also introducing you to the system and its new interface, after which you go straight into the game.

Adventures is a reasonably good choice for a pack-in title. It’s definitely not the best showcase for Kinect’s capabilities – you’ll have to look to Kinectimals or Dance Central for that – but it offers a range of accessible, enjoyable activities to ease you into the full-body control paradigm. And use your full body it will! More so than perhaps any pre-Kinect console game, Adventures’ five included mini-games require the active involvement of just about everything that’s attached to your torso.

It also does a commendable job of showing off Kinect’s potential to burn calories through playing. We’ve had exercise games before, particularly on the Wii, but we haven’t before gotten to direct a raft down a river-based obstacle course by leaning or jumping. Kinect Adventures is certainly a very physical experience, and you’ll work up a good sweat after mere minutes of playing. But the game is still new and unique enough to distinguish itself from other motion-controlled offerings.

The physicality does come with a caveat, though: Kinect and Kinect Adventures may be aimed at the expanded, casual market, but Grandma will have to sit most of this one out, as it will absolutely slaughter her knees and greatly accelerate her need for that hip replacement. It’s not gentle on the average gamer physique – let’s face it, if you’re a gaming hobbyist you’re probably not in peak physical form – and your legs and back will complain the following day.

Not only does Kinect Adventures require you to constantly use your body, but it admirably succeeds in using your body in different ways. Two of the games, 20,000 Leaks and Space Pop, are decidedly more relaxed affairs than the other three, but still manage to do something interesting for control inputs. 20,000 Leaks has you getting into ridiculous poses to plug water leaks, while Space Pop effectively brings in distance from the camera as a gameplay aspect.

The included games are definitely fun, and there are few who wouldn’t find them engaging on some level. The colourful presentation helps quite a bit, and the game’s habit of taking embarrassing photographs of you and displaying them at the end of a round will certainly milk the laughs in a party setting. Also quite charming are the living statues, cartoon-like animals brought to life through your voice and movements.

Longevity does become an issue, though. The ramp-up in difficulty and complexity as you progress through the various levels is far too slight, and the campaign mode – consisting of various events lumped together as “adventures” – feels redundant. It doesn’t take very long for Kinect Adventures to show off all of its charms, and after a few hours a desire for an experience with more depth and substance is bound to kick in. At this point, the number of included mini-games can feel a bit slight.

It somewhat makes up for this with the inclusion of surprisingly robust multiplayer features. During any single-player event, a second player can jump in at any point and they’ll instantly join the game. It’s a rather inspired touch, bolstering Adventures’ appeal in social gatherings. Online multiplayer is also supported and works well.

This leaves Kinect Adventures as a pack-in game that one could hardly complain about, even though it’s unlikely to still see much playing time a few months from now. It’s a great introduction to the system, and definitely provides some entertaining moments. Just make sure you pick up at least one other game when getting a Kinect.

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