I found myself laughing at how absurd this gimmick is, but I honestly had fun.
Kinect Adventures can basically be seen as the competition for Wii Sports. Both are pack-in games that comes with the accessory or console. Both were meant the show off the tech while making it accessible even for non-gamers. This does succeed in the accessibility factor, but does it hold up in being as addicting as Wii Sports?
The bulk of the game comes from the adventure mode. In it you unlock either living statues which you can make recordings with, accessories and clothing for your 360 avatar, or simply achievements for your gamerscore. In it, you try all 5 minigames of various difficulties. The games consist of 20,000 Leaks, River Rush, Rally Ball, Reflex Ridge, and Space Pop.
20,000 leaks is the most humourous of the five games. It's a twist on twister (pun not intended). You are in a glass cube, and fish try to break through it, resulting in holes in the cube. You have to contort your body in various positions to cover up the holes. It's very straightforward and repetitive, but I found myself not being tired of this game mode.
River Rush seems to be the most in-depth mode due to the level designs. You stand on a raft and lean and jump to avoid obstacles, go through markers, and collect pins. The levels can be quite varied which impressed me while playing them. This also seems to be the best game mode, as you are both on the same raft. Teamwork and coordination is of utmost importance in this mode.
Rally Ball is a version of breakout. You smack a ball and get it to hit bricks and power ups. I find that collecting the power ups makes it too chaotic. I find it nearly impossible to work with two balls at once. I also found that it's quite difficult to aim properly when I only had one target left. Still, this was quite fun.
Reflex Ridge is my favourite of the package. You are on a moving platform where you can only control its speed by jumping. During this, you either have to move our body in certain positions to collect pins, or duck, jump, or shift to the sides to avoid obstacles. This was also effective as a workout. I can honestly say that this game made my legs sore the next day.
Space Pop is easily the weakest mode. Bubbles are moving around throughout the room, and you are either flap your arms to fly up, or keep your arms beside your body to shift downwards. You do this to pop as many bubbles as you can by touching them. I find this mode to be the weakest as it seems to have a perception problem. There is a front and back section of the level, but because of how it looks like in the game I found myself going too far forwards and backwards, and the kinect has trouble detecting me. This was also honestly underwhelming as I end up just walking to the sides to pop the bubbles.
There is an option to include another player. However, I find that for the most part the game doesn't accommodate well for two people. The required scores to achieve medals does change, but the environment itself does not. 20,000 Leaks, Rally Ball, and Space Pop become a lot easier as the environment is the same width, meaning that you easily cover more ground. You do not have to move around as much as you have another playing covering one half of the environment. For reflex ridge, you are both split up, and only one player has to achieve the required medal to complete the level. It's basically like having two chances instead of one. As mentioned above, I find that River Rush is a success for two players.
The adventure mode is quite accessible. I find myself getting all the required medals easily. Some Reflex Ridge levels seemed impossible, but those levels were just about collecting as many as you can, with the levels getting progressively easier until you collect the required amount. When I completed the adventure mode, I found myself having no motivation to replay the other game modes, except when showing them off to other people.
Basically, this fails to reach the level of Wii Sports, which is one of my favourite Wii games because of the fact that it is both accessible and addicting. I've noticed that on Amazon the package is on sale for $200. I find this to be absolutely absurd. It is definitely not worth this price tag. However, I managed to find this on the Canadian classified website kijiji on sale for $25. I'd say that was honestly worth it. This is an incredibly dumb gimmick, and I found myself laughing at the absurdity of it, but surprisingly I had fun.