Parent's Guide: Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure is an adventure game for the Xbox 360 and Kinect, which requires a Kinect Sensor to play. Dropping you into one of five Pixar worlds - Cars, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, and Toy Story 3, you'll rub shoulders with Pixar characters, and take in locations from the films as you run, jump, and explore your way through a wide variety of levels.

The controls in Kinect Rush are what's likely to stump younger players. Simultaneously easier to get your head around than Kinect Disneyland Adventures, yet not all that much easier to control, Kinect Rush allows you complete freedom of movement, unlike a lot of Kinect games. By turning left and right (or moving your shoulders), you can turn left and right in the game - holding your arms like you're running, and moving them up and down lets you move forwards. Although it's fairly intuitive for older players, younger children are likely to struggle having the precise motor skills needed to get their character to go exactly where they want them to go, hence the recommended age rating being on the high side.

Another barrier to younger children comes in actually loading the game up to begin with. Starting off by trying to scan you in, Kinect Rush requires your child to stand in front of the sensor (far enough away you can fit in a silhouette it asks you to stand in), with your arms at a 45 degree angle, and legs together. If you don't stand in exactly the same place, this procedure can take quite a long time - especially if you have a fidgety child. And seeing as you can't hold their arm in the right place for them (as the camera will get confused), it can be a bit of a faff getting into the game.

Older children, however, will likely have a lot less problems, and will enjoy the appealing mix of Pixar themed action, and freedom in the levels. Whether you're holding your hands in front of you as thought you're holding a steering wheel in cars, or holding your arms above you to grab onto zip wires, pretending you're scaling a wall, or rowing a boat through the rapids in Up, there's a huge variety of things to see and do - it's just one for the older players.

Although the game's been designed to be played in co-op, we actually had problems getting two people to play together - especially when you had to solve a puzzle. With several puzzles asking one player to stand in one place while another goes and pulls a switch, or similar, it's a bit frustrating that the game seems to have troubles recognising that you want to stand still when you're playing in two player - meaning your character often ends up edging forward, and leaving the essential position. In single player, we didn't find this was an issue though - but families may prefer to take it in turns.

Based around five Disney/Pixar films, there's nothing at all for parents to be concerned about here. With nothing in the way of sex, violence of bad language, the content here is similar, if not tamer then the films themselves - so it's thoroughly family friendly stuff.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360