Eurogamer Kinect Sports Review:

Once the king of core, Rare's latest incarnation in a turbulent existence is as standard-bearer for the Xbox casual revolution Microsoft hopes will be ignited by the arrival of Kinect. The British studio's first offering for the device is a game that owes not just its existence but many of its ideas to the release that defined motion-control gaming four years ago: Wii Sports.

Making no attempt to disguise its influences, Kinect Sports features six main activities: Football, Bowling, Track & Field, Boxing, Volleyball and Table Tennis.

[Troll_Police]

"Goalkeeping requires split-second reactions, so to compensate for the unavoidable delay between your arm shooting out and your Avatar doing the same, the game flashes a symbol on-screen showing where the ball is heading. It doesn't hamper the enjoyment of Kinect Sports, but does highlight some of the technical constraints developers are dealing with."

[gigaware]

Oh stop it these kinect games are outscoring Move games.

[SpitFireAce85]

was spent on marketing or bribing...

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

[Pyscho_Mantis]

Sport champions which was bundled wiht the move scored as high as Fable 3 getting around 85 as did move. But I have to admit that some games were not critically acclaimed.

[Steve_0]

@gigaware,
Who are you talking to, Troll_Police or Eurogamer? Because he's just quoting the review.
Face it, Kinect offers little more than the EyeToy, or PS3 Eye. That said, Move doesn't do much more either, it's a better implementation of motion controls than Kinect as far as traditional games are concerned, but it doesn't offer a better experience than just using a DualShock in a lot of the games.
Know what's my favourite "motion" games? Super Mario Galaxy, Mario kart, and Super Smash bros. And what's the common theme? All these games can be played sitting back comfortably, with a controller and buttons and joystick in your hand, with limited need for motion controls that fail to enhance the experience. These games don't need a Wii or Move and certainly not a Kinect to be made and played.

[vhero]

"Boxing is the game's weakest event by a knockout. It's a terribly messy affair that lacks any sense of making a connection with blows, the result being you might as well just be standing a room flapping your arms around. "

What is to blame for this?? Bad developing?? Or the camera.. See most devs say no lag and then blame the games for being unresponsive.. I am not saying there is lag here but come on this is just proof Kinect can't do everything even with 1st party devs behind it working on Kinect sports for over a year (and its a simple game too) they couldn't do something as simple as boxing! So ask yourself why?

[despair]

yea the score surely does not match the review.

[WildArmed]

For a 'Wii Sports Resort' type of game it got a decent score.

was expecting more 4-6s

[Shazz]

funny how move games got trashed for working very well but beind kinda bland yet kinect games are somewhat not even working properly yet scoring 7s hmmm gd to see that 500 mill marketing going to gd reviews

[gigaware]

Move is wii tech you have to take into account Kinect is way more advanced and different plus it's new so the scoring and pro and cons will be all over the map.

[despair]

I was wondering that myself, I checked reviews for various games on 4 different sites and all seem to make excuses for the controls problems. IGN's Joy Ride review was up there with the worst, I mean it controls like crap and doesn't work like you want it yet it gets over 6 score because it has content?

There are countless games where the content is huge but the gameplay mechanics are broken or poor and they get rated 3s and 4s, why is it kinect gets a pass?

@gigaware

that does not make sense, scoring is based on a standard system, if it gives problems to control then it should be rated down, if it is short or bland or boring then rate it down. New tech or old rating systems stay the same.

[cmrbe]

The difference is application and target audiance.

If you read all the core gaming site reviews. While they point out that the tech is not nearly as good as MS wanted it to be. They still give it good scores because in all intent and purpose the target audiance which is extreme casuals will not really mind or even know the difference. Ignorance is a bliss in other words.

IF Kinetic was aimed for the core gamers as well. I think for sure Kinetic project as a whole would have gotten some pretty bad scores from core gaming sites but its not so it gets a pass.

Move on the otherhand was always known to aimed at both casual and core gamers alike (Thank god). As such it is held to much higher standards by core gaming sites which is what i want.

[Rampant]

despair: Ok, so ps2 games should be rated the same in graphics as 360-games. And 10$ games should be rated the same as 60$ games in replay value and longevity. GOTCHA!

[despair]

@Rampant

Who the hell is talking about graphics? I'm saying if the tech is not working up to par then it should be reviewed and rated as such. The next problem is that reviewers never take into account the target audience with other games, take for example the new Naruto game, the target audience is obviously fans of the anime/manga yet reviews keep bashing it for not appealing to a wider audience.

Why must some things get a pass while others get blasted for the same problems. Every single kinect review for Gametrailer, Eurogamer or IGN that I read/watched mentions problems with the controls not being responsive or doing what you want it to on occasion or even frequently.

If lets say NFS Hot Pursuit stopped turning properly when you moved the analog stick every so often or Nitrous worked sometimes but not others then you can bet the reviewer will say something like "the game is broken and even though there is a lot of content to unlock you wouldn't bother because of buggy controls."

Look at IGN's review of a PS Move game like Tumble, the reviewer said the game didn't do what he wanted at times and he got fustrated and basically you can infer that he gave up and rated it a 3.5.

The exact same reviewer did the Sonic Kinect and Kinectimals game and one of the first things he said about Sonic Free Riders is that it takes a while to get accustomed to the controls and it was frustrating that it was not set up easier or more logical, he rated the game 7.5.

With kinectimals its not nearly as bad as many aspects work correctly but certain items don't work at all like you want and things like jump rope just fall flat, he rated it 7.0.

I'm not even mentioning the overly simplistic gameplay mechanics employed in most of the games or the shallow experiences they offer, hell reviewers barely mentioned that to play Joy Ride you have to be standing all the time, standing to play a racing game? Explain how is that a logical and unbiased review system?

[Shazz]

so in your view as long as something is advanced its ok for it to be buggy and not function properly all the time ?

[vhero]

Agreed like my earlier comment and stuff like this

"Outside of the game, menu navigation via Kinect can become a right pain. Rare's solution is, unsurprisingly, the same as Microsoft's for the dashboard: guiding a hand icon to the relevant part of the screen and holding it for a set period to confirm selection. "

they constantly complain half the games don't work proper and yet give it a half decent score?? WTF?? But then again MS have spent 500 million.. That can't be just on adverts..

[puamdefoke]

It is official,.. 360 games,.. have lower standard scale,.. about, graphics,.. well just about everything,..somewhere between wii,..and ps3,..

So stop comparing the game scores across the platforms,..

If anything Kinect game scores should be compared to PSN PS-EYE games and EYE of judgment,..

that makes sense,.. We all know what Kinect can do,..

[Jazz4108]

Some jealous butt hurt fan boys in here. Its funny to watch. Gets popcorn.

[thief]

Read the review for this game, compare it to the review for Ratchet Crack in time, you will never guess both got the same score.

They really should just come out and admit that there is a different scale for 360 and wii games because they cant compete with the PS3

[Thegamer41]

Saying Move is wii tech is just plain ignorance, would you agree if someone said Kinect is Eye Toy tech? Both statements are not correct if you actually do some research and quit being a fanboy you would know. Also a device does not have to be 'way more advanced' to run be better and deliver what was promised not to mention the games for each platform.

[EasilyTheBest]

...its just a review! I think a lot of really sad people have got up this morning hoping to see all 2 3 and 4s out of 10.
The reviews so far are great, Microsoft must be very happy.
This is early on hopefully things will get even better.

[Shazz]

you must have missed the joyride reviews

[Jazz4108]

I thought a lot of kinect games would score similar to moves launch which was 2 and 3 s but there not and this is surprising but its also very good for ms. Now please ms don't forget your audience who put you where you are at. I have faith we will see a good amount of core games but not until later next year. I won't be picking up a kinect until child of eden and I doubt I will ever get move. The wii never was my cup of tea and they play too similar for my tastes plus the games are not the best yet but I have hope for sorcery.

[cmrbe]

x360 fans now only look at mainstream media like NY times and Electric Pig for their game reviews now because they have been wiinised.