MotionSports Review

MotionSports is a kinect launch title made by Ubisoft Milan. It has six different sports to choose from. Horseback riding, hang gliding, boxing, soccer, football, and skiing. Sounds like a blast, but does it take home the gold?

MotionSports is fuel for kinect naysayers. To begin with,  it does not track your body extremely well. With extended play time it did seem to be tolerable. One of the two things happened. There was an update to fix it or there is a learning curve. The truth is driving me bonkers.

Once again, another poorly implemented menu system. Very dull and square. It pretty much looks like a rehash of the worst menu system found centuries ago.The graphics are on the poor end. Unlike kinect sports, it goes for a realistic touch. Lets just say the graphics are not sweet enough to send you running to the dentist for fillings anytime soon.

There are only six or so challenges for each sport. For instance, football has a few running back challenges, quarterback challenges and a few kicking challenges. They get progressively harder as you go along.  The strange thing is the unusual progression system. In most cases, you have to play a challenge numerous times before the next one is available. 

The game keeps track of your high scores for every individual challenge. On the flip side, it leaves you in the dark on what your highest medal is after you leave the end game screen. Diamond being the highest medal obtainable. 

Boxing was actually pretty decent. It gave me a good work out and I enjoyed crushing skulls. I probably enjoyed it a little too much. The good news is that boxing does support offline verses mode. Great for couples that have been together longer than five years.

Hang gliding might be very enjoyable for some. It sort of reminds me of Pilot Wings, but it is still lacking the amount of challenges to do. The same goes for all six games on the disc.

Horseback riding does work surprising well, no complaints really.

Football is really a mixed bag. The running back challenges served up some fun moments however, quarterback and kicking challenges, YIKES! Very frustrating trying to throw the perfect pass or kick into the wind.

Soccer seemed alright and was the game I played the least. The first couple of challenges are shootouts where you alternate from striker to goalie. Kinect sports soccer was a lot more enjoyable to me.

I wanted to pick up my real controller during the skiing portion. Need I say more since the tag line for this game is, "Play for real."

Achievements

To get all the achievements it will take a lot of practice and dedication. You basically have to perfect every single sport. It will not be easy by any means. I think I ended up with around 330 gamerscore. I only aced the boxing portion and I might officially be down for the count.

Conclusion

This is probably not the game you want to play the first time you fire up your brand new kinect sensor. You may vomit in your mouth. A better option would be Kinect Sports.

Score: 4.0