Continuing the Countdown to Kinect, today's Kinect game is Kinect Adventures - and this time, it's a game that's something a bit special. Rather costing £40, like every other title in the line-up, Kinect Adventures won't set you back a penny, as it instead comes bundled with every single Kinect sensor that gets sold, giving you something to use to test out your brand new purchase. A mini game collection that's said to 'capture the spirit of adventure', you can float around in outer space, ride down white water rapids, tackle obstacle courses and explore underwater observatories - all from the comfort of your own living rooms.
If you've been reading our other previews, you'll know the drill by now, as Kinect scans your body into the game thirty times a second, letting you use nothing but your own skin and bones to control what happens on screen - jumping, dodging and kicking your way through the minigames. With 20 adventuring themed minigames on offer, Kinect Adventures is no slouch, as you and your avatar set out on an expedition, completing the minigames as you go, collecting 'living' statues - animated statues that you can record movements and voice for - as rewards for doing well. And as with most Kinect games, if you want a more lasting memento of your embarrassment - or maybe want to take your humiliation public - Kinect Adventures even takes photos and videos of you while you're playing, which can then be uploaded to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
The cheery, and rare, Monobrow yeti - a reward for doing well.
While the game comes sporting a full single player mode, it's in multiplayer that the game really comes into its own, as a friend or family member can drop in at any time to help you out - whether you're steering a raft through some rapids, or dodging the obstacles on the obstacle course, you can call on a friend to lend a hand. In theory.
We went hands on with a very early version of the game in July, and while the game was certainly still a lot of fun, it was obvious that there was a bit of a learning curve to getting involved, as you get used to using your entire body as a controller. In the rapids mini game, for example, you have to stand rather close together, and step left and right to steer your raft down a white water river - but with two people playing together, this turned into a rather painful experience, as we found ourselves constantly bumping into each other - and to add insult to injury, when we tried to stand a bit further apart, Kinect ended up losing track of us.
Riding rapids in a inflatable boat. Probably easier in real life.
After that, we had a go on a mountain top obstacle course, which put your avatar on what was effectively a giant, flat, minecart, as you hurtled past poles, bars, and other obstacles, which popped out across the course in an attempt to smack you in the face. Out of the two games we tried, this one easily worked the best, but there still seemed to be a bit of a delay between you jumping and crouching to avoid the bars as they came towards you - meaning you had to jump/duck a while before the bar actually reached you. Again, getting used to having your whole body as a controller took a lot of getting used to here, as you don't need to just lean left and right - you need to step left and right to avoid the incoming obstacles - and making sure all of your extremities are out of the way of the obstacles requires a completely different kind of thinking to any game you've played before. If nothing else, it's an adrenaline pumping, sweat inducing ride.
Playing Kinect Adventures isn't the most ladylike of pastimes.
As we mentioned earlier, the version of Kinect Adventures we played was a very early build - and we were using an early version of Kinect, too - so hopefully the delays, and tracking problems will have been sorted by now, as the game has gone through several revisions since we played it, back in July.
Due out on the 10th November, Kinect Adventures comes bundled with the Kinect camera (which is out on the same day), which has an RRP of £129.99. We'll be running a 'Countdown to Kinect' feature on the run up to the launch too, with details on a new game every day, as well as a FAQ detailing everything you might want to know about Kinect - so make sure you check back regularly! In the meantime, here's a trailer for Kinect Adventures, with a rather easily impressed girl:
