Kinect Games Review

Did you get anything good during the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales? So much for one day, many websites are having a cyber week. This year was my first year waiting at midnight at Best Buy. Hurrah for price matching (and not having to get trampled at Walmart).

We picked up some new kinect games because $15 sure beats paying $50 (and my gym membership expired).  Let the games begin!

First impressions:



Kinect Sports Season 2

They did a good job differentiating between the first version. The sports are completely different, last time was bowling, boxing, volleyball, soccer and track and field. Boxing was my favorite. This time around, the games are darts, skiing, baseball, football, golf and tennis. See what they did? No cross-over. Say you purchased Season 2, it might get you to pay $50 for the first one. No price drop needed. This new version does not take away from the awesomeness that was the first version.

Darts was very frustrating in the beginning, mostly because I never knew the rules. What those numbers and extra circles mean something? You don't just aim for the bulls-eye every time? After a game or two, I was able to finish a game in three or four rounds. Once you figure out how to play, point-based games go much quicker. Skiing was very frustrating for me because either the sensor was not picking me up or there was a bad lag.

The one sore spot is the menu set up. There are too many layers. It takes awhile to get to the activity you want and you have to go back a few times to change players if you want to use your own xbox account.

Kinect sports is a good line of games with a mix of team and solo sports. Just like real sports, even though you are playing the same game, each time is a different experience that never ceases to entertain.


Dance Central 2

The original game was the reason I originally purchased an XBox.  So far I've only dance battled in this version and it's pretty different. You no longer take turns dancing but really battle at the same time. A new element of different solo moves, opportunities to earn bonus points and a flash competition to takeover a variety of dance moves are all new additions. I do not like the flash battle because once my competitor understood how to play this portion he stole all the bonus points and completely slaughtered my score. Performing your own dance moves flawlessly no longer cuts it. Characters are in crews of two.

Same great graphics, song selection is a bit more varied this time.

Just Dance 3

I never played the original games, but the wii version was featured in a Katie Perry video. Success to hidden marketing. The basic neon graphics do not compare to dance central and make following moves a bit more difficult. What is great about this game is you can play four players at one time. I'm not sure how this would work because I imagine people would be bumping and hitting each other especially if you have a small play area. Song selection is more of the dance and pop variety, less hip hop. Songs are very upbeat and quick requiring lots of jumping, aka a great workout. Despite liking hip hop, I liked the song selection on this game a bit more than dance central.

My only issue with this game is that I never heard the Barbara Streisand song before and after playing this game I can't get it out of my head. Doodoodoodoodoo... And you can't not sound strange when singing it.

This game would be great for a large, rowdy party or workout.

Maybe it's just consumer loyalty, but I still prefer Dance Central 2 over Just Dance 3.