Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure | Gameguide Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure – Gameguide

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 Google+ 0 Reddit 0 Email — Buffer 0 Filament.io 0 Flares ×

I dusted off the Kinect and slipped Kinect Rush into my Xbox looking forward to a fun exploration of Pixar’s better known films, Up!, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Cars, and Toy Story.  On starting the game, the Kinect sensor scans in your face and creates an avatar that supposedly has a passing resemblance to you.  The mere fact that my girls, sitting waiting for their turn, insisted on me choosing a female character may have confused the avatar software somewhat.

But then it was onto the game.  The central hub of the game is Pixar Park, where you can wander around, meet other ‘kids’ who will tell you what they think is the best place to go play, and then once you’ve made up your mind, you can go to the selected area and launch one of the missions.

The big problem is that there is a lot of walking around, yet the mechanics for walking are not very intuitive, or very responsive.  You’re supposed to swing your arms (as if you were out for a brisk walk) to walk, and turn your shoulders to turn.  Sometimes however, when you turn your shoulders, the Kinect thinks you’re wanting t sidestep, and sometimes the Kinect thinks that the arm swinging is a desire to change direction.

This sadly is a huge issue, because once you get into the missions, a lot of them are platformer type games that involve a lot of walking, climbing, jumping, with an emphasis on quick completion and the collection of coins.  With a Kinect interface that is prone to the occasional misinterpretation, things can get frustrating.

The best part of Kinect Rush are the driving levels of Cars.  Here the Kinect interface shines and everything works well, producing an experience worthy of a Kinect game.

Graphically, the game looks impressive, with just the right amount of detail to make you believe you’re really a part of a Pixar film.

The two player aspect lends a nice element of team work to the game, but at times compounds the control issues.

However, when I left the kids alone with the game for a couple of hours, I got no complaints, so maybe it just works better for smaller people, or kids are more forgiving of control glitches.

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 Google+ 0 Reddit 0 Email — Buffer 0 Filament.io 0 Flares ×