Kinect Adventures

Calling the game that comes with Kinect an adventure is perhaps a little misleading. What little narrative does exist doesn’t really cut it, and certainly won’t impress even mildly serious gamers. However, with its capacity for multiplayer, _Kinect Adventures_ is just the right thing to get people started. While it doesn’t have lasting appeal, it is free, and the mini-games are a good way of showing Kinect off to interested friends.

_20,000 Leaks_: 20,000 Leaks places your avatar inside a see-through box under the ocean and then sends fish charging at the walls. The purpose of the game is to block the subsequent cracks with your hands, feet, and sometimes head, before too much water pours in. It starts off simply and gets progressively more difficult, and can be quite fun, especially when played in pairs. However, there does seem to be some difficulty with the tracking of feet: my avatar kept trying to kneel, for some reason, although these issues may not persist when one plays in a large empty space with the perfect lighting conditions, etc.

_River Rush_: This is the game that I always recommend to friends having a go on my copy of _Kinect Adventures_, and that’s because I personally found it the most fun. Whereas in the other games you don’t really seem to be going anywhere (except for Reflex Ridge, but that is confined to a rail), River Rush sends you rafting down a river, with posts between which to navigate, obstacles over which to jump, ramps from which to soar, and coins to collect. This game really gets you moving, dodging from side to side to steer the raft left or right, and jumping to collect coins or to boost from a ramp to a higher platform.

_Rally Ball_: Rally Ball is like a version of Breakout in which you are the little platform from which the ball is released. When the ball returns to you, you can use hands, feet, head or chest to send it back to the targets in order to break as many as possible. This mini-game is an interesting way of seeing how Kinect reacts to your intentions on moving non-existent objects with real-life movements, but loses its appeal quickly.

_Reflex Ridge_: Like River Rush, Reflex Ridge gets you moving, but feels much more restrictive. While River Rush really gives the feel of navigating a raft through a river course, Reflex Ridge only requires the player to sidestep, duck or jump and then repeat until the platform on which she’s standing comes to the end of the rail.

_Space Pop_: Last, and least, Space Pop seems as if it would have been far better suited to an early exposition of Kinect and its potential. The player moves around to pop bubbles, flapping her arms to fly up and lowering them to return to the ground – and _that’s it_.