Kinect Adventures!

Overview

Kinect Adventures is a launch title included as a pack-in title with the purchase of every Kinect sensor. Pieces of the game was also used during Microsoft's Kinect Beta Program and the retail version was offered as a downloadable title to participants after the program had finished.
 

Gameplay

Kinect Adventures is controlled entirelly through motion based gameplay thanks to the Kinect sensor. Adventures has the player jumping, ducking and waving your arms through different activities, called Adventures. The premise of the entire game is that you are part of a century old group of adventurers that scour the globe for ultimate treasure (represented by tokens). The game is narrated by a man and a woman while story scenes are illustrated through comic book style cutscenes. The adventurers find such treasures as living statues, achievements and avatar awards. 
 
The game has you playing as your profile's avatar (if no avatar exists, the game replaces him a brown haired man for player 1 and a blond girl for player 2). Your avatar actively partakes in each adventure and is constintly scene in the menus, mimicking your movement. Note that avatar gear such as masks does not carry over to the main game. 
 
The game is split into different chapters that each hold different adventures that you must complete according to different rules; One chapter may request you win 3 bronze statues while another may be a timed event. In time event, you must pick up time tokens to keep the clock from running out. To get a medal, you must collect tokens,   dictating the rating you are given at the end of the level, either being Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. Living Statues can also be discovered (and recorded) with a secondary player. Each time you complete an event, a badge on the right side of the screen fills up and you've completed the event once the badge is filled out.  Many of the games are cooperative in nature. 
   
The game provides drop in / drop out local multiplayer, with the screen dynamically splitting when the second player joins in. Menu control is given to the first player logged in, with switching a simple matter of moving your hand in a forward motion to take control. All menus use motion controls to navigate, with your movement represented with a gray disc with a hand at the center. The outer edge turns white as you hold over the item to show that you are making a decision.      
  

Adventures

Each game package is referred to as an "Adventure", typically made up of 3 stages or modes. You can play all of the events that you've unlocked by going to the free play menu. You can also unlock time trial versions of these Adventures.   
 

Rallyball

This was one of the earliest games shown (originally demoed as 'Ricochet' at E3 2009), and plays as a 3D Breakout clone. The aim of the game is to use your limbs to swat a ball down a corridor, breaking the blocks at the bottom. There are multiple special power-ups, including adding extra time and multiplying the balls in play. There are 3 modes of play.
 

Space Pop

Players attempting to pop spheres in zero gravity. Flapping your arms allows you to "float" through the space quicker, and holding your arms at your sides lowers you to the bottom of the stage. You can also move forwards and backwards (the minigame has two lvels of depth) to get all the bubbles. The bubles can come out in different patterns, sometimes going from one depth to the next. 

River Rush

A rafting game made up of 5 different courses. The players lean or sidestep to move the boat horizontally as the boat advances down the rapids, jumping to propel the boat into the air. The two players share the same score and two players can jump higher than one if the jumps are timed correctly. The rapids will  take through pirate ships and off ramps, one course making you pilot the boat on clowds. 
 

20,000 Leaks

Players inside a glass cube attempting to plug leaks by covering them with hands, feet and face to keep water from entering the tank. The game ends when time is up. Cracks can appear on different sides of the cube: left, right or in front. There are two different types of cracks: individual cracks that can be closed by quickly putting a body part on it. Then there are cracks that are linked. This turns the minigame into something resembling the game Twister, where each crack must be plugged at the same time by using both your legs, hands and even head.  
  

Reflex Ridge

A competitive game where players jump, duck and dodge objects to be the first to get to the end with the most tokens. Jumping accelerates your cart while hitting an obstacle slows it down. The course is on different levels meaning that players must take elevators that require him or her to jump to get working. Tokens are sometimes placed in such a fashion that the player must do a pose to get all of them.   
 

Living Statues

Players complete groups of activities to earn Living Statues, odd creatures supposedly found on the players adventures. When a player obtains a new statue, they're given the opportunity to record a short sound clip (generally pitch shifted to suit the creature) through the microphones on the Kinect unit and provide action for the creature model, often leading to humourous results. 

Avatar Awards

Kinect Adventures has support for avatar awards, containing the standard 5 potential awards for a full retail title.

• Adventures Sunglasses - Participate in the reward ceremony for the Chasing the Sun Adventure.
• Adventures Gloves - Participate in the reward ceremony for the Treasure Grab Adventure.
• Expert Adventures Outfit - Participate in the reward ceremony for the Ultimate Treasure Adventure.
• Adventures Sweatband - Participate in the reward ceremony for the Gearing Up Adventure.
• Adventures Watch & Band - Participate in the reward ceremony for the Winning Time Adventure.

Bonus Content

The game comes with three demos: Dance Central, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and Kinect Joy Ride. These demos can be accessed from the bottom left corner of the intro screen.