Review of Kinect Adventures for Xbox 360 by Protomario
17This game is included with Kinect much like Wii Sports was.
Kinect Adventures is a 2010 sports video game for the Xbox 360, which utilizes the Kinect motion camera and is included as a pack-in game with the device.[1] It was officially unveiled at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.[1] The game is a collection of five adventure and sports minigames and was developed by Good Science Studio, a subsidiary of Microsoft Game Studios.
Kinect Adventures uses full body motion to allow you to play a variety of minigames, all of which feature jump in-jump out multiplayer play. Each minigame lasts about three minutes. The game also supports Xbox Live multiplayer. At many points during the game, Kinect's RGB camera takes photos, which are shown to the player(s) and saved to a storage device. These can then be viewed within the game, with the option of uploading these to a private repository on Kinectshare.com
and downloaded to a computer or uploaded to social networking sites.
While most of the minigames are co-operative in two player mode, Reflex Ridge is a competitive game. The object of all the minigames is to get the highest number of adventure pins, which are collected in different ways. Adventure pins earn the player(s) medals which, in story mode, effect progression. Medals can be bronze, silver, gold and platinum, in order from least to most pins needed to acquire each.
As a pack-in game, Kinect Adventures also contains features which aid users in proper set-up and use of the Kinect sensor.
In adventure mode, the player(s) follow a linear progression of pre-selected challenges drawn from the five minigame types. In order to progress, one of three conditions must be met:
* A certain number and quality of medals must be earned in several levels, or
* A certain number of "Treasure pins" (effectively identical to Adventure pins other than their appearance) must be collected across several levels, with the Adventure concluding as soon as that number is acquired, or
* A certain number of timed mode challenges must be completed.
At the end of each Adventure, the player(s) earn either an achievement, a new timed play mode, an avatar clothing award, or a Living Statue character model which can be uploaded to Kinectshare.com. The player is invited to record several seconds of character movement and vocals (which are then digitally modified to fit the character, such as a high pitch modification for a chipmunk).
Free play mode features the same challenges as Adventure mode, but the player is able to select the game type and difficulty level at will. All levels are initially unlocked, with no need to play easier challenges before being able to play difficult ones.
Timed play mode, which must first be unlocked by playing timed levels in Adventure mode, is similar to free play mode in that individual challenges can be selected. Adventure pins are replaced by Time pins, which award the player(s) more time to complete the challenge. The time limit is more rigidly enforced, meaning that if time runs out, the game is over. In other modes, the games are timed but play can continue if more rounds or waves remain. Some two-player challenges in this mode allow the two players to share time, meaning that there is only one time limit for both players and actions performed by either one can increase or decrease the time limit. Only Reflex Ridge, Rallyball, and River Rush are playable in this mode.
Reference-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect_Adventures