For whatever reason my stop at Konami felt like the right time to finally give Kinect a shot. They were happy to oblige by giving us some time with two of their games, Adrenaline Misfits and Dance Master.
Adrenaline Misfits, or at least the level we played, revolved around a downhill snowboard racing. After a brief setup that involved me standing in a box and raising my right hand to confirm my existence, I was literally off to the races. Not unlike standing on a balance board, leaning left and right shifted my weight in real time. Unlike a balance board, it actually worked with noticeable variation. There was a siginifcant difference between leaning a little left and a lot left, and it all played into the onscreen representation of turning. If shifting weight sounds simple, consider jumping to be the spectacle. I expected jumping to allow my character to clear a few hurdles, but I didn’t plan on jumping 180 degrees in real life and then watching my character nail the exact same move. On top of that, such tricky behavior was rewarded with a turbo boost. It’s a killer reward for sure, especially when it encourages outrageous moves. One could hope the rest of Adrenaline Misfits offers a similar level of interactivity.
Dance Master, which I played with fellow editor Greg Schardein, was an entirely different experience. The two of us had to iniatiate the game in a similar manner as Adrenaline Misfits; sync our bodies in an outline, raise our right hands, and then select a level ala Minority Report. Once we did that the insanity started. We both stood next to each other and had to mimic our digital representations on screen. Characters moved their hands or bodies and, at set points defined by circles, we had to mimic their actions. Both speed and form were critical to netting a good score, which we definitely got much better at as the song built toward its conclusion. In the end Greg and I squeaked out with a D (with the lowest score being an E). We also looked completely ridiculous in the process, drawing friendly sneers from friends who weren’t secure enough to give it a shot. Regardless, Dance Master was a bunch of zany fun, and should easily settle in the family/casual/party genre just fine.
For whatever reason my stop at Konami felt like the right time to finally give Kinect a shot. They were happy to oblige by giving us some time with two of their games, Adrenaline Misfits and Dance Master.
Adrenaline Misfits, or at least the level we played, revolved around a downhill snowboard racing. After a brief setup that involved me standing in a box and raising my right hand to confirm my existence, I was literally off to the races. Not unlike standing on a balance board, leaning left and right shifted my weight in real time. Unlike a balance board, it actually worked with noticeable variation. There was a siginifcant difference between leaning a little left and a lot left, and it all played into the onscreen representation of turning. If shifting weight sounds simple, consider jumping to be the spectacle. I expected jumping to allow my character to clear a few hurdles, but I didn’t plan on jumping 180 degrees in real life and then watching my character nail the exact same move. On top of that, such tricky behavior was rewarded with a turbo boost. It’s a killer reward for sure, especially when it encourages outrageous moves. One could hope the rest of Adrenaline Misfits offers a similar level of interactivity.
Dance Master, which I played with fellow editor Greg Schardein, was an entirely different experience. The two of us had to iniatiate the game in a similar manner as Adrenaline Misfits; sync our bodies in an outline, raise our right hands, and then select a level ala Minority Report. Once we did that the insanity started. We both stood next to each other and had to mimic our digital representations on screen. Characters moved their hands or bodies and, at set points defined by circles, we had to mimic their actions. Both speed and form were critical to netting a good score, which we definitely got much better at as the song built toward its conclusion. In the end Greg and I squeaked out with a D (with the lowest score being an E). We also looked completely ridiculous in the process, drawing friendly sneers from friends who weren’t secure enough to give it a shot. Regardless, Dance Master was a bunch of zany fun, and should easily settle in the family/casual/party genre just fine.
