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This thread has been linked to the game 'Kinect Sports'.
Kinect needed a game to showcase its talents. The Wii had Wii Sports so it was a natural leap for Microsoft to produce a similar sports game on Kinect.
Kinect Sports contains 6 sports; Volleyball, Bowling, Football, Table Tennis, Boxing and Track and Field (which itself contains a further 5 events). This is bolstered by mini-game versions of these sports. The game is actually made by Rare, a strange choice considering Rare's usual line of games, but one that seems to have paid off.
A Good Sport
The question everyone wants to know is 'Is this better than Wii Sports/Sports Champions?'. The short (and probably controversial) answer is; yes. The game makes full use of Kinect and is incredibly easy to use. Menus are easy to navigate, you can use Xbox Live Avatars for players and there are some neat touches that put this ahead of Wii Sports like the inclusion of licensed music when you win an event.
Sporting Champions
Hearing Queen's 'We Are The Champions' blasting out of your speaker while you watch your latest replay can be very satisfying. Kinect Sports even saves a video replay of your antics while playing, which you can choose to delete out of embarrassment or upload to Kinect Share and stick it on Youtube for further embarrassment! (yes, I've done this and it's been passed around the office a few times).
Sporting Chances
The mechanics of the sports are well thought out to make use of the hardware, though Football is an interesting choice for inclusion as it's a hard game to implement with motion controls. Rare have tried hard to bring the game to life with Kinect, in fact its the part they've spent the most time on, and it does work to an extent. Obviously it's a dumbed down version of the sport but it's fun. All the sports are easy to use though and work just as you'd expect. There is very little lag in the game as a whole and quite a challenge to beat the leaderboards on the harder difficulty settings.
To give you an idea of how easy it is to use, my 6 year old found it easy to navigate the menus and play the games. She enjoyed most of the games though games like Javelin require quite a bit of accuracy in throwing and co-ordination.
Sports Wear
Graphically, Kinect Sports trounces Wii Sports by being able to use the power of the 360. Having Avatars is a good exchange for the Wii's Mii characters and the way they turn almost invisible to see events in front of you works well in avoiding any camera issues.
Everything is bright and colourful in the Kinect Sports world too, it's obviously designed to be eye catching to new customers of Kinect and it certainly works.
Top Sport
The most important part about Kinect Sports, though, is that it's just so much fun. There is enough of a difference between this and Wii Sports to set it apart; the video replays and youtube uploads, the Olympics mode and, of course, the control method itself. In short, Kinect Sports is a perfect way to showcase Kinect. The only question is; why didn't Microsoft bundle it with the system?
9/10
Kinect Sports contains 6 sports; Volleyball, Bowling, Football, Table Tennis, Boxing and Track and Field (which itself contains a further 5 events). This is bolstered by mini-game versions of these sports. The game is actually made by Rare, a strange choice considering Rare's usual line of games, but one that seems to have paid off.
A Good Sport
The question everyone wants to know is 'Is this better than Wii Sports/Sports Champions?'. The short (and probably controversial) answer is; yes. The game makes full use of Kinect and is incredibly easy to use. Menus are easy to navigate, you can use Xbox Live Avatars for players and there are some neat touches that put this ahead of Wii Sports like the inclusion of licensed music when you win an event.
Sporting Champions
Hearing Queen's 'We Are The Champions' blasting out of your speaker while you watch your latest replay can be very satisfying. Kinect Sports even saves a video replay of your antics while playing, which you can choose to delete out of embarrassment or upload to Kinect Share and stick it on Youtube for further embarrassment! (yes, I've done this and it's been passed around the office a few times).
Sporting Chances
The mechanics of the sports are well thought out to make use of the hardware, though Football is an interesting choice for inclusion as it's a hard game to implement with motion controls. Rare have tried hard to bring the game to life with Kinect, in fact its the part they've spent the most time on, and it does work to an extent. Obviously it's a dumbed down version of the sport but it's fun. All the sports are easy to use though and work just as you'd expect. There is very little lag in the game as a whole and quite a challenge to beat the leaderboards on the harder difficulty settings.
To give you an idea of how easy it is to use, my 6 year old found it easy to navigate the menus and play the games. She enjoyed most of the games though games like Javelin require quite a bit of accuracy in throwing and co-ordination.
Sports Wear
Graphically, Kinect Sports trounces Wii Sports by being able to use the power of the 360. Having Avatars is a good exchange for the Wii's Mii characters and the way they turn almost invisible to see events in front of you works well in avoiding any camera issues.
Everything is bright and colourful in the Kinect Sports world too, it's obviously designed to be eye catching to new customers of Kinect and it certainly works.
Top Sport
The most important part about Kinect Sports, though, is that it's just so much fun. There is enough of a difference between this and Wii Sports to set it apart; the video replays and youtube uploads, the Olympics mode and, of course, the control method itself. In short, Kinect Sports is a perfect way to showcase Kinect. The only question is; why didn't Microsoft bundle it with the system?
9/10
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Kinect needed a game to showcase its talents. The Wii had Wii Sports so it was a natural leap for Microsoft to produce a similar sports game on Kinect.
Kinect Sports contains 6 sports; Volleyball, Bowling, Football, Table Tennis, Boxing and Track and Field (which itself contains a further 5 events). This is bolstered by mini-game versions of these sports. The game is actually made by Rare, a strange choice considering Rare's usual line of games, but one that seems to have paid off.
A Good Sport
The question everyone wants to know is 'Is this better than Wii Sports/Sports Champions?'. The short (and probably controversial) answer is; yes. The game makes full use of Kinect and is incredibly easy to use. Menus are easy to navigate, you can use Xbox Live Avatars for players and there are some neat touches that put this ahead of Wii Sports like the inclusion of licensed music when you win an event.
Sporting Champions
Hearing Queen's 'We Are The Champions' blasting out of your speaker while you watch your latest replay can be very satisfying. Kinect Sports even saves a video replay of your antics while playing, which you can choose to delete out of embarrassment or upload to Kinect Share and stick it on Youtube for further embarrassment! (yes, I've done this and it's been passed around the office a few times).
Sporting Chances
The mechanics of the sports are well thought out to make use of the hardware, though Football is an interesting choice for inclusion as it's a hard game to implement with motion controls. Rare have tried hard to bring the game to life with Kinect, in fact its the part they've spent the most time on, and it does work to an extent. Obviously it's a dumbed down version of the sport but it's fun. All the sports are easy to use though and work just as you'd expect. There is very little lag in the game as a whole and quite a challenge to beat the leaderboards on the harder difficulty settings.
To give you an idea of how easy it is to use, my 6 year old found it easy to navigate the menus and play the games. She enjoyed most of the games though games like Javelin require quite a bit of accuracy in throwing and co-ordination.
Sports Wear
Graphically, Kinect Sports trounces Wii Sports by being able to use the power of the 360. Having Avatars is a good exchange for the Wii's Mii characters and the way they turn almost invisible to see events in front of you works well in avoiding any camera issues.
Everything is bright and colourful in the Kinect Sports world too, it's obviously designed to be eye catching to new customers of Kinect and it certainly works.
Top Sport
The most important part about Kinect Sports, though, is that it's just so much fun. There is enough of a difference between this and Wii Sports to set it apart; the video replays and youtube uploads, the Olympics mode and, of course, the control method itself. In short, Kinect Sports is a perfect way to showcase Kinect. The only question is; why didn't Microsoft bundle it with the system?
9/10
Kinect Sports contains 6 sports; Volleyball, Bowling, Football, Table Tennis, Boxing and Track and Field (which itself contains a further 5 events). This is bolstered by mini-game versions of these sports. The game is actually made by Rare, a strange choice considering Rare's usual line of games, but one that seems to have paid off.
A Good Sport
The question everyone wants to know is 'Is this better than Wii Sports/Sports Champions?'. The short (and probably controversial) answer is; yes. The game makes full use of Kinect and is incredibly easy to use. Menus are easy to navigate, you can use Xbox Live Avatars for players and there are some neat touches that put this ahead of Wii Sports like the inclusion of licensed music when you win an event.
Sporting Champions
Hearing Queen's 'We Are The Champions' blasting out of your speaker while you watch your latest replay can be very satisfying. Kinect Sports even saves a video replay of your antics while playing, which you can choose to delete out of embarrassment or upload to Kinect Share and stick it on Youtube for further embarrassment! (yes, I've done this and it's been passed around the office a few times).
Sporting Chances
The mechanics of the sports are well thought out to make use of the hardware, though Football is an interesting choice for inclusion as it's a hard game to implement with motion controls. Rare have tried hard to bring the game to life with Kinect, in fact its the part they've spent the most time on, and it does work to an extent. Obviously it's a dumbed down version of the sport but it's fun. All the sports are easy to use though and work just as you'd expect. There is very little lag in the game as a whole and quite a challenge to beat the leaderboards on the harder difficulty settings.
To give you an idea of how easy it is to use, my 6 year old found it easy to navigate the menus and play the games. She enjoyed most of the games though games like Javelin require quite a bit of accuracy in throwing and co-ordination.
Sports Wear
Graphically, Kinect Sports trounces Wii Sports by being able to use the power of the 360. Having Avatars is a good exchange for the Wii's Mii characters and the way they turn almost invisible to see events in front of you works well in avoiding any camera issues.
Everything is bright and colourful in the Kinect Sports world too, it's obviously designed to be eye catching to new customers of Kinect and it certainly works.
Top Sport
The most important part about Kinect Sports, though, is that it's just so much fun. There is enough of a difference between this and Wii Sports to set it apart; the video replays and youtube uploads, the Olympics mode and, of course, the control method itself. In short, Kinect Sports is a perfect way to showcase Kinect. The only question is; why didn't Microsoft bundle it with the system?
9/10