Lets face it, Kinect Sports wouldnt exist without Wii Sports or perhaps even the Wii before it. But putting aside the quibbles of who done what first and who innovates this and that lets take a look at Kinect Sports Season 2.
The original Kinect Sports is the 360's best selling controller free game. Largely due to the excellent adaption of sports on offer and impressively accurate sensing technology that made the sports both a challenge and a fun experience to play, particularly with friends.
So whats on the cards for Season 2? Well this time round the 6 sports included are American Football, Skiing, Darts, Golf, Tennis and Baseball. The first 2 ( American Football and Skiing ) are without a doubt the weakest of the lineup. In the Footie, you only have the ability to control attacking play. Whether or not this was due to an indecision of how to do motion defense is anyones guess, but this makes this sport feel luck based which isnt the feeling you want when challenging for the glory. The skiing sport essentialy doesnt do anything wrong, but it just feels as though its an aftertought. Like Rare couldnt decide what other sport they wanted to do. Its a very straight forward crouch and lean race to the bottom which feels over before it's begun. With that said the control in these are very respnsive and dont give any troubles or hinderences.
The other 4 sports are much more entertaining, and when challeging friends this is where youll find your time spent. In particular Golf (as you may imagine) is a brilliant have some mates round and get your whos the daddy on. The controls work so well in golf, it feels natural and free in a way that makes the experience so special. With 4 of you playing getting up to take your shot and sitting down while somene else takes theirs is seemless. No controller swapping, no setting up. It just works, and works fast. Its not a massive deal, but just adds to the enjoyment of a free flowing evening. Wind affects shots as you would expect and selection of clubs and routes through the courses is all there to challenge your skill level and daring when chasing the leader whos a shot ahead. Simply put Golf in Kinect SPorts is the best most fun sport Ive ever played on a videogame.
Darts works surprisingly well. I was dubious about this one whilst unwraapping the game. But remarkably the acuracy of movement is phenomenal. Even the weight of your pullback and throw is brilliantly accurate. This sport is one of those brilliant games over Xbox Live. Hitting that Shanghai to win Game 3 is perfect in your face stuff. Tennis itsself is another multipayer tour de force. It plays as you expect. Topspin, slice, fast and slow balls are all there to wrongfoot your oponent. Serving is surprisingly hard to master properly and rallys between good players can get extremely tense.
Lastly, Baseball. Again the controls are accurate and responsive whether batting or pitching, with the latter having th ability to pitch slow, fast, curved etc to strike out your opponent. Once the batter hits the ball ( providing he hasnt a straight home run ) the batter has to run on the spot with the option of sticking their leg out to slide. Depending on where the ball is hit, the pitcher can catch in the field by reaching out quickly to points on the screen. Its a good fun game and can be highly entertaining with friends.
Throughout the whole Kinect Sports 2 experiene Kinect will take videos of you playing and show you them back at the end adding some music to them automtically which can then be posted on social networking sites including Facebok and Youtube. Celebration dances return when youve done a good golf shot for example or hit a 180 in darts to further agonise your opponent. The music throughout is littered with classic tunes like we are the champions and another one bites the dust adding more multiplayer rub in your face funto the mix. Its so well crafted as a multiplayer game that game time starts to change much more to when can we get together again. Its that N64 era 'what you guys doing saturday night' feeling returning all over again.
Voice recognition works throughout the title, whether selecting clubs in golf or simply navigating the menus. Its all in there to make the game seem technology free. On that it hits its marks beautifully.
Ive been playing Kinect Sports Season 2 now for 2 weeks, and I'm yet to want to put it down. Its the new multiplayer game that goes in everytime, and a game that should be in anyones collection. For pure fun alone this title deserves praise. Whether you like Kinect or not, this title has already given me and my friends alot of laughs, fun and competitve jiving.
Selnor choice of 2011 award.
Rating: ( Based out of 10 ) All Selnor rated games are only Rated on Fun. Thats why we play isnt it?
Rated:
9.5 / 10
