Kinect Sports Review

Is Kinect Sports a must have for Microsoft’s shiny new Kinect sensor this holiday season. Or, is it just a rip of off the overly popular Wii Sports. How does it stack up against the other Sports titles on the market? Find out in our full review after the break.

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?

Toying Around With Kinect Share

You can share your photos and videos from Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, and Joy Ride over at www.kinectshare.com Pretty neat little feature to have. The little (well, fat) animal was me, I was just playing around with my girlfriend.

Review: The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout

Now whip it - into shape - shape it up

Kinect really does work and so does this game. However, there are a couple of problems with kinect itself and this particular game. You need a lot of room space to play kinect. The ideal amount would be 10 x 10 space. The perfect placement for kinect might also take some trial and error. I have my kinect sensor placed about 3 feet off of the ground and The Biggest Loser requires you to do floor exercises. I had a hard time getting kinect to track me while I was on all fours. Maybe not a deal buster, but it was frustrating during the challenge games.

The Biggest Loser also has a horrible menu system. I hope this is game specific menu fail, if not, every kinect game is going to be a pain to navigate. It will take you a good 20 minutes to figure out what is going on, which is unacceptable. I felt blind for those first 20 minutes.

You start the game out by doing a training lesson with a virtual trainer to see how fit you are. It will then recommend the difficulty you should proceed at. The difficulty ranges from light, moderate, challenging, hard, or intense. You can also setup your exercise program to target specific areas of your body. Arms and chest, core, butt, legs, or full body. After you do that, you will go into this full body scan mode. It basically gets your measurements which you can tune afterwards if something is off. Supposedly you can go back and get your body scanned again. That way it can tell if your body shape has improved.

A Day In The Life: Kinect

A day long running blog. Refresh for latest updates.

10:54PM -- Looks like Battle Star is on instant watch. :)

10:48PM -- I was going to check out some netflix movies but live seems to be down. Hanging out with Cindy. Retiring for the night.

10:36PM -- Correction. The dork that use to play xbox all day. Who is now  just a tired little baby nodding off at all hours.

10:30PM -- Crisis averted! Found some Honey Smoked turkey Breast meat. Rand al thor's mothers is better. Not the dude from the dork books but the dork that plays xbox all day.

10:10PM -- Cleaned up. Ate some broccoli and an orange. Looking for more food , may need to take a trip to the walmart.

9:14PM -- I guess it is time to get cleaned up and eat something.

 

 8:47PM -- If I giveaway 4,000 Microsoft points to the best leapfrog photo would people be interested in participating?

8:41PM -- Almost done with exercising. I know this was supposed to be all about kinect. I guess it would have been different if it was new to me. When I got it in the mail a few months ago, I ripped it opened and played for hours. Kinect sports is fun,  has a lot to offer. Bowling is fun. Long jump was hilarious, I almost killed myself trying so hard to beat my previous jumps. Soccer and volleyball were both a lot of fun as well.

7:47PM -- Working out and doing a 007: Blood Stone review.

7:34PM -- Backyard Football will not be as quick as the first. Still shouldn't be that bad. EA sports MMA seems pretty good, I need to check out more to get a better idea. A lot of online achievements in that.

 7:25PM -- (5) for (60gs) in backyard football: Rookie Rush. I think leapfrog is good for the day. Going to lift real weights. My upper body isn't sore, it's my lower body.

7:00PM -- Just need a few more achievements for the day to keep the little leapfrog going. The new backyard football is what I will play.

6:58PM -- Just tried out the kinect video chat. Pretty cool how it follows you around. Now you can spazz the F out without having to adjust your camera.

6:56PM -- I wonder how jealous my cat will be if I play Kinectimals.

 6:13Pm -- (2) for (10gs) in The Biggest Loser.

5:45PM -- The two biggest losers, playing The Biggest Loser. A Kodak moment.

5:22PM -- Ate some cottage cheese. YAY! I will actually play some kinect today. Smrnov and I will be work out buddies on The Biggest Loser. The horror. I told him I will just be sitting there like a beached whale.

 4:43PM -- Also installed  Cabelas NA.. I don't feel like playing much. 4 hours plus of The Biggest Loser over the past 2 days wore me out. Probably going to finish off this piece for games radar then play something.

3:56PM --  (1) for (15gs) in EA sports MMA. Installed backyard sports Football: Rookie Rush which took a whole 50 seconds.

 3:30PM -- (4) for (60gs) in EA sports MMA.

2:53PM -- Had a roast beast sandwich and a banana.

2:36PM -- (3) for (45gs) In EA sports MMA

 

2:22PM -- HOT Tip for megamind to cure the freeze glitch that happens at the end of levels.

DubNut86 says "Hey mate, still having problems with Megamind? My friends playing off a USB drive and is on the 4th level with no problems at all. Just thought i'd let you know and hopefully save you playing 40 levels!"

You could probably use a Memory card also. Just don't use your HDD to save to. Thanks Dub!

2:18PM -- (3) for (45gs) in EA sports MMA. Got a hot tip for Megamind coming up.

2:10PM -- Too much hugging in UFC and MMA. Just saying.

1:52PM -- Check out my review for probably the most hardcore exercise game on kinect.

1:50PM -- Trying out the non kinect game MMA sports

1:45PM -- The Machine MRG said...."There is no way i have 10' x 10' space in my living room. Does it work as well when you say 5' away? I understand it would probably still work but does it make it totally unplayable?"

I will try getting really close here in a little bit to see and report back. The distance you need is more important than the width when playing solo. 7 X 5 would probably work for most games. It really depends on the game.

1:39PM -- Oh and  I am in great shape already.

1:36PM -- I really am too sore to even think about another kinect game. Seriously, if you want to get in shape get The Biggest Loser.

1:08PM -- Could not find Dance Central. :( I'm kind of reluctant to buy a bunch of games since most require a lot of physical activity. Kinect is a one game at of time thing for me. Gotta relax at some point. Anybody have The Biggest Loser? Hit me up for some MP. I have motion sports on the way, but I really want to try Dance Central.

12:26PM -- Had a granola bar, got cleaned up, headed out for a moment. Should be back in 30 minutes or less.

11:59AM -- Bounty up with xbox live message.

 11:37AM -- Doing yesterdays bounty and putting something together for Gamesradar.

11:22AM -- I was going to start out with Megamind, but I don't feel like suffering. That game is short, seems like Meat Balls short. The problem is that the glitches happen at the end of the levels.

11:12AM -- Calf muscles are tight from playing The Biggest Loser the last couple of days. Make sure you are playing these games in shoes.

11:06AM -- The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup

4:34AM -- Miss Mittens is taking the reins while I sleep. I wonder if she can steer this thing.

3:45AM -- Almost done with this review. I am going to have to do shorter reviews in the future. I will never be able to review everything.

3:03AM -- (3) for (130gs) in Megamind. Looks like it glitched out on me because the level will not end. :(

2:35AM -- (5) for (180gs) In Megamind.

2:06AM -- Going to play a tiny bit of Megamind just to check it out.

 1:57AM -- Fixing up this review, blah. Tired. Why is KG messing with my boy, Charlie V? KG is a punk.

1:42AM -- Lakers 5-0. They are good this year. Like really, really good.

12:40AM -- Kinect sports has a variety of games to keep you and your friends entertained. Soccer will give you a work out, bowling will allow you to relax, and boxing will allow you to take out your aggression.

12:38AM -- The Kinect games I have tried are Adventures, Joy Ride, Kinect sports, and The Biggest Loser. Kinect Sports is my favorite of the four.

12:29AM-- Trying to figure out how to type while I sleep here in a bit. Back to the Lakers game, then I will finish off that Biggest Loser review. Big long, super fun, day planned.

12:17AM -- Caddius said... "The fear is spending $150 on a useless piece of equipment, again."    I know what you mean, man. Maybe I like it more because it was free, who knows. But I went in thinking it would be rubbish and laggy. It probably won't work well at all with shooters or anything action packed. But the developers that bring in the great ideas will hit a home run. It's a great piece of technology. I still kind of wonder how it all works.. Tracks your whole body, head to toe. Very impressive stuff.

12:12AM -- Another cool Kinect feature is the voice recognition. It works really well whether you are on the dashboard or watching a movie. To activate recognition all you have to say is, "xbox" then give it a command. I find myself running around the living room yelling "xbox! Make me a sandwich!" Never works though. :(

12:11AM -- Watching the Lakers right now and trying to finish up my review of The Biggest Loser. The demise of Kobe Bryant was greatly exaggerated.

 12:00AM -- Yes, Kinect is good. Yes, it does work. I was able to beta test the thing for the last couple of months. The only big downfall is the space requirements. You will need a fairly large area of about 10x 10 to get the best results. I also believe that it will be huge, massive, and colossal. A lot of people want it to fail, I just don't think that will happen. Microsoft is tapping an entirely new market. Not sure what so many people are scared of.

Kinect Launch Titles

Here's what 15,000 gamerscore smells like.

Kinect Adventures (Microsoft Game Studios)

Kinectimals (Frontier Studio/Microsoft Game Studios)

Kinect Joy Ride (Big Park/Microsoft Game Studios)

Kinect Sports (Rare/Microsoft Game Studios)

Dance Central (MTV Games)

The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout (THQ)
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (Ubisoft)

EA Sports Active 2 (EA)

Deca Sports Freedom (Hudson)

Dance Masters (Konami)

Adrenalin Misfits (Konami)

Sonic Free Riders (Sega)

Motion Sports (Ubisoft)

Game Party: In Motion (Warner Bros.)
 Zumba Fitness (Majesco)

I know I'm a little late to the party with this information but I can't wait to try them all out.  Look for lots of information about anything and everything Kinect related.

I'm also taking challenges in any boxing game. So come get some! But beware, I'll be capturing it for everyone to witness.

Vision Cam, You're Not The Father of Microsoft's Second baby, Kinect

Dance away young fellow, but what's in her uterus is going to be a star.

Achievement Bounty 9-22-2010

You're in the Movies is complete trash and I don't need the assistance of Maury Povich to tell me that the Vision Camera and Kinect are not going to be blood related. I'm not really sure what Microsoft was trying to do with the vision camera games, just be happy they are letting it RIP. Out with the old, in with the new.