ErinAS was primarily a PS3 gamer, but picked up a Kinect last November. See what she thinks about this platform transition and a few of the motion games she tried out.
A few months ago I finally broke down and acquired an Xbox with a Kinect. I was a PS3 woman but after the second hardware fail in less than 90 days and losing all our saves AGAIN, I was open to giving Microsoft a shot. As luck would have it, I happened to score a good deal on a complete system at a local charity auction in Boston for www.monkeyhelpers.org (so you can say my Xbox acquisition helped the helper monkeys).
I was slow to move platforms and was not a fan of the controller compared to the PS3, so I mostly play Kinect games.
Let the Gaming Begin!
One of the first titles I picked up was The Gunstringer, since I’m a sucker for skulls and terrible puns. I’d highly recommend it as a good one to start off with. It’s a great use of the controls (you use your left hand to move the puppet and right to fire his weapons) and a fun story. My only complaint is my arms get tired after a few levels (though according to my husband I’m gesticulating far more than is strictly necessary so that’s probably my own fault).
Twisted Pixel chose an interesting way to tell this sordid tale in giving the story an omniscient narrator who is telling the story to a live theater going audience who are watching the gunstringer progress through each level. The audience provides oh and ahs and a laugh track almost as if you were playing along to a sitcom! The game brings you through several different types of levels including shoot ‘em ups and platforming on your quest to destroy the gang of outlaws who set you up and left you for dead. One of my favorite game play mechanics is when it incorporates boxing and you get to air punch your opponents as you run up platforms. There are also several different shooting techniques that range from running around guns a blazing hitting anything that moves, duck and cover, and shoot while you are riding a vehicle, all of which mix things up just enough so the levels don’t get too repetitive. All and all a solid effort that makes natural use of the Kinect controls.
Next up was Dance Central as I’m a huge Harmonix fan girl. I love the menu system they created, as it seems to be the only way I can navigate with any accuracy so far. I hope more games adopt it. I’d highly recommend the game for fitness and getting you moving. The music is fun even if it’s not quite the genre I’m normally into. “Santa” brought me Dance Central 2 for Christmas, which improved on an already fun game. Harmonix updated the fitness mode so it’s a lot easier to keep track of how much you’ve worked out . They also improved the parts that were annoying about Break it Down mode (where it teaches you how to do the moves properly) so you can do things like only work on moves you fail or record and watch videos of yourself. They’ve also done a neat job integrating the voice control commands and incorporating a much more fun 2 player simultaneous dancing experience. I’d recommend picking up both DC 1 & 2 since you can import the songs and just have a bigger library of songs to choose from.
Christmas Games Round Up
Santa also brought me two more games for Christmas, Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do and Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking.
Monkey See, Monkey Do I clearly neeeeeeeeeeeeded because of my love of monkeys but after my first few playthroughs, it’s not really one I’d recommend. For the highlights they did a good job selecting games you’d actually find at a carnival like dunk tanks, skee ball, and ring toss. The interface is cute in that the menus to chose games are like sign posts different parts of the park including Coaster Corner, Launchpad Lane, Carousel Junction, Whirling Way, and Teacup Court. It’s also the first game I played that actually uses your Xbox avatar and puts your friends in the game as well (like they took a page from their previous Nintendo titles that incorporated miis) . The biggest deterrent to my enjoyment of the games are the actual controls. While they attempted to utilize the Kinect controls and the instructions seem intuitive they end up being clunky and sometime the games just seem to altogether not respond to my motions. Overall I’d recommend waiting till its super cheap in the bargain bin and even then probably only if you have kids.
Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking on the other hand is my showcase game for when someone wants to see what the Kinect is all about. Ubisoft did a great job translating the franchise over to the Kinect controls. I love their use of the “window” in a building the rabbids have taken over that turns the camera on you and your living room so it seems you are peering in. The games are clever and a good work out too. One of my favorites is a crazy version of whack-a-mole where you have to stomp around on rabbids as they pop-up through your actual floor in the mirror image of it on the screen. It never ceases to get my heart rate pumping and the “audience” of people not playing are always howling with laughter. My biggest complaint with the game is I am awful at navigating the menus and am constantly scrolling and swiping trying to actually select what I want. The party game interface is also a little tedious to setup so I’ve instead stuck with Quickplay mode when showing it off to friends.
The Honeymoon Isn’t Over
All and all, I’m still in the honeymoon phase with my Kinect, since I just got it in November. Call me a romantic, but I’d like to think we’ll last. I do like the fitness aspect of the games and while I wouldn’t want every game ever to have motion controls, I really enjoy the games that make good use of the technology. It may be one of those fad peripherals, but I hope game studios continue to throw some of their R&D budget at making unique games that innovate the use of motion controls.
About the Author
Erin is a born and bred Masshole gamer who started at a young age watching her dad play Atari. She currently owns all three major platforms as well as has a home arcade cabinet and 2 pinball machines (Erin has games instead of children). Erin is actually pretty terrible at a lot of video games and continues her trend of watching her husband play games and “managing” him from the comfort of the couch sans controller. Her favorite type of games are point and click adventures, platform, and rhythm which fits nicely with her love of prog rock and live music.
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