Parent's Guide: Kinect Sports: Season Two - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Kinect Sports: Season Two is a compilation of minigames for the Xbox 360 using Kinect. Requiring the Kinect sensor, you'll play your way through a variety of motion controlled sports themed minigames, made up of American Football, Darts, Golf, Baseball, Tennis and Skiing. Instantly similar to anyone who's played Wii Sports (thanks to three of the games being the same), thanks to using Kinect, the games here are controlled using your body rather than a controller, as you swing imaginary golf clubs and tennis rackets, or clonk baseballs with an invisible bat.

In terms of the age rating to which this will most appeal, Kinect Sports: Season Two is, as ever, tricky to rate. In our experience, and that of our audience, some children seem to pick this up very quickly, whilst others struggle to make it through an entire game, either because they can't do what the sensor's asking them to do accurately enough, or because the sensor can't track them properly (long hair and long skirts throw it).

While tennis is fairly straightforward, darts and baseball both require a lot of precision, with darts requiring you to hold your hand up to move a cursor around, before pulling back to lock your target in, and throwing forwards to launch you dart. Kinect tracks the entire process, but should you get any part of it wrong - like not moving your hand back far enough, or moving it too close to long hair or your head - it gets confused, which may be frustrating for younger children, especially.

Skiing, meanwhile, is simple enough it can be enjoyed by all, as all you have to do is lean from side to side, while American Football is slightly more confusing, but will at least get people active as they leg it down the pitch. If your child could cope with the first Kinect Sports, and enjoyed it, the chances are they'll get on well with this - but if they can handle Wii Sports, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll pick this up as quickly. It's actually a lot less intuitive, and trickier than Wii Sports to begin with - hence the higher age recommendation.

Kinect Sports: Season Two is entirely free of any from of mature content that parents may be concerned about. There's no violence, gore, sex, or swearing, and none of the games involve any sort of physical contact. The most violent it gets is the ability to whack tennis balls at mascots, although it's all handled in a very cartoon fashion.

Kinect Sports: Season Two can be played as a family in two ways. Many of the games support two player split-screen, where two people can play each of the games together - baseball, for example, sees one player bowling/fielding, while the other bats. A lot of space is required for this to work correctly, though, as you'll need enough room to perform each of the required motions without overlapping each other - quite a feat in most modern living rooms. Other minigames let you take it in turns to have a go - like darts, for example - but again, you'll need to make sure you've got enough room for everyone to get entirely out of the way, as Kinect gets rather confused if it can sense the odd arm/leg in the background.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360