Xbox 360 Game Reviews
Review Kinect Disneyland Adventures (Xbox 360)
Taking the Mickey?
Parents, take your child or children aside and ask them what the happiest place on Earth is. If the answer isn’t a resounding and enthusiastic “Disneyland” then you’re not doing your job properly. Those Disney DVDs are chocked full with adverts for their vast wonderland getaways aimed directly at an audience that’s...
Review Family Game Night 4: The Game Show (Xbox 360)
Wrong answer
After four instalments of EA's Family Game Night series you'd expect the company to have the format pretty down-pat by now, but regrettably Family Game Night 4: The Game Show is totally off the mark. Based on the Family Game Night TV show, the game is split into five activities, each based on a Hasbro board game: Connect 4 Basketball,...
Review Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Hunting Party (Xbox 360)
Aim for something else
The appeal with Kinect was always supposed to be that you didn't need a controller to play. With the "You Are the Controller" mantra so engrained in Kinect's marketing, it's a bit of a surprise to see a Kinect game ship in a large box with a hefty peripheral. Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Hunting Party certainly does...
Review Grease Dance (Xbox 360)
It’s got groove, it’s got meaning
If you’re a die-hard Grease fan who’s daydreamed about roaming the halls of Rydell high with the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies, then Grease Dance is an absolute must-purchase for you. For everyone else it’s not as sure a bet as Greased Lightning, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had. At first glance,...
Review Kinect Fun Labs: Musical Feet (Xbox 360)
Can you stamp the high note?
Keeping in mind that Kinect is supposed to be a piece of equipment which the entire family can enjoy, Kinect Fun Labs: Musical Feet initially appears to be a lot of fun; recording and playing a virtual keyboard in your own living room while also messing around to other sounds such as a dog barking or cow mooing. Upon...
Review Twister Mania (Xbox 360)
Twist and shout
Twister, as a traditional video game, would be destined to fail. Pressing a button to put right leg on red would just be nowhere near as fun as wiggling your limbs to screw over some poor sap struggling to make their body obey the almighty colour spinner. But Kinect’s Twister Mania is no traditional video game, eschewing buttons...
Review MotionSports Adrenaline (Xbox 360)
Adrenaline junk
Last year's MotionSports was deeply average, but then it was never going to compare favourably to Rare's Kinect Sports. Ubisoft hasn't surrendered the sporting crown easily though, returning with MotionSports Adrenaline's all-new range of extreme sports. Far from the familiar motion-gaming sports that made up most of last year's...
Review The Sims 3 Pets (Xbox 360)
Ruff?
Traditionally, The Sims hasn't transitioned to consoles particularly well: the move from mouse-clicks and keyboards to analogue sticks does nothing to streamline the controls, and seeing as The Sims is all about control that's a major problem. The Sims 3 Pets still doesn't fully conquer the issue, but it does a good job of hiding any cracks...
Review Hulk Hogan's Main Event (Xbox 360)
Oh brother
In the sweeping midst of Hulkamania, Hogan set out three demandments for Hulkamaniacs: to train, say your prayers and eat your vitamins. A fourth was added a few years later in 1990: to believe in yourself. Had Hogan had the foresight to add a fifth — “don't make terrible video games” — we all would have been spared of the tedium...
Review Kinect Sports: Season Two (Xbox 360)
The best just got better
Despite posting impressive sales figures and delivering some engaging titles, Kinect has arguably struggled to find that elusive ‘killer app’ that is capable of convincing both casual and hardcore gamers of its worth. While the original Kinect Sports was a fantastic grounding in Microsoft’s brave controller-free world,...
Review The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn (Xbox 360)
Bored quiff?
You know the drill by now: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a film tie-in. It also uses Kinect. It can't be any good, right? Well, the drill has changed slightly this time around. Unlike THQ's efforts such as Kung Fu Panda 2, Tintin is a standard controller-led platformer, with Kinect's functions tucked away in the...
Review Minute to Win It (Xbox 360)
Bored in 60 seconds
Another day, another Kinect mini-game collection themed around a reasonably popular TV game show. This time out it's NBC's Minute to Win It, in which Food Network chef Guy Fieri takes a break from introducing the nation to diners, drive-ins and dives across the country to give contestants a chance at the big bucks through...
Review Michael Phelps - Push the Limit (Xbox 360)
Naked men
When it comes to the world of swimming, there's no bigger name than Michael Phelps, but even his mighty reputation isn't enough to secure Michael Phelps: Push the Limit a gold medal. Any game that starts with a warning that it's physically draining even by Kinect standards should set alarm bells ringing, but Michael Phelps smartly rations...
Review Dance Central 2 (Xbox 360)
Step out of the ordinary
If history has taught us anything it’s that dancing games will eventually go the way of the Guitar Heroes and the Rock Bands before them – although we anticipate the grave will be filled with less plastic instruments. Like any trend, what goes up must eventually come tumbling down but if Harmonix’s dance-em-up sequel...
Review Nicktoons MLB (Xbox 360)
Not quite a home run
With the real MLB season coming to a close, the sport is rapidly approaching its Toy Story moment: when no one is around to see, what happens to all the players? They're recruited by Nickelodeon, apparently, for a simplistic and, despite its best efforts, charming take on America's pastime. Nicktoons MLB falls under the same...
Review Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster (Xbox 360)
"C" is for "charming"
It’s every child’s dream to be able to play with their favourite TV characters. To them, they’re not pretend; they’re just as much a part of their reality as anything else. The talented folks at Double Fine have teamed up with Sesame Workshop to give kids the chance to play with their favourite Sesame Street monsters in...
Review Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox 360)
Leader of the pack
We've seen a handful of games call themselves "Better with Kinect" — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and Virtua Tennis 4 are two of the more high-profile titles, but neither managed to use the sensor for more than mildly entertaining side games. Arguably, Forza Motorsport 4 is the first game to show the...
Review Just Dance 3 (Xbox 360)
Hands in the air like you just don’t care
With a whopping ten dance titles shuffling towards store shelves in time for the holidays, you’d be forgiven for writing off every single one as being just another dancing game. Whilst that’s arguably the case, the Just Dance series hasn’t earned its millions by just being another dancing game...
Review PowerUp Heroes (Xbox 360)
Here to save the world?
After last year's disastrous Fighters Uncaged we thought we'd never want to touch a Ubisoft fighting game for Kinect again, but then along came PowerUp Heroes to change our mind. It's easy to see the big difference here: whereas Uncaged was set in the dirty world of street-fighting, PowerUp transports you to a world of...
Review Kinect Fun Labs: Mutation Station (Xbox 360)
Malformed
We all imagined that Kinect Fun Labs was Microsoft's way of providing engaging, free content to Kinect fans, but with the third paid add-on it's clear the emphasis has shifted towards a microtransaction model. Does Kinect Fun Labs: Mutation Station offer enough to justify the adoption of this new sales strategy? While Kinect Sparkler...
Review The Penguins of Madagascar: Dr. Blowhole Returns Again! (Xbox 360)
The legacy of Reel 2 Real lives on
Dreamworks’ Madagascar films are notable for two things: Resurrecting Reel 2 Real’s 1994 jam I Like to Move It and spawning a zoo filled with a team of goofy penguins. Said penguins proved popular enough to get their own spin-off show on Nickelodeon, which then went on to birth TV specials, DVD collections and...
Review Burnout CRASH! (Xbox 360)
A crashing disaster or a wheelie good success?
When it was first announced, Burnout CRASH! was dismissed as a cash-in on a very popular video game series. Nothing like the titles before it, nothing to do with racing and what seemed like boringly simple controls portrayed this game as one that'd head straight to the scrapyard. But those first...
Review The Gunstringer (Xbox 360)
A fistful of crazy
You'd be hard-pressed to find a development studio with more spring in their step than Twisted Pixel or a game with such joie de vivre as The Gunstringer. Where a lesser studio may have slapped some skeletal cowboy puppets into a Kinect-enabled rail shooter and called it a day, Twisted Pixel snatches the western marionette theme...
Review Rise of Nightmares (Xbox 360)
Shocking?
Kinect has been on the market for a less than a year, and in that time has amassed no fewer than six dancing games, five fitness titles and an alarming number of minigame compilations, but where are the more mature titles for single players after a story? Rise of Nightmares may not completely fill the gap, but it'll do in a pinch. The...
Review Champion Jockey (Xbox 360)
Cracking the whip
Admit it. The concept of a horse riding simulator isn’t instantly appealing. When you consider that the medium of video gaming allows us to explore unlikely fantasies and pretend to be characters we could scarcely dream of becoming in real life, it makes you wonder who in their right mind would want to step into the grass-soiled...
Review Kinect Fun Labs: Air Band (Xbox 360)
A musical joke?
After Kinect Sparkler turned out to be rather dim, the second paid addition to Kinect Fun Labs is here in the much more pleasing form of Air Band, which lets you become a musical ensemble with just your bare hands. You and a friend can jump in to one of five musical styles — disco, rock, pop, latin and country — and mime playing...
Review Hole in the Wall (Xbox 360)
Bring on the wall!
Hole in the Wall is as simple as a game title can get; a wall with a hole in it comes hurtling towards your Avatar. As the player, you must use your body to fit through these holes and avoid being knocked into a pool of water behind you. There are two main modes of play on show; Quick Survival and Show. Quick Survival mode fires...
Review Fruit Ninja Kinect (Xbox 360)
Juiced up
In an age where smartphone advocates are gloomily predicting the End of Days for dedicated home consoles, it’s incredibly ironic that one of the best-selling iPhone and Android titles of all time (over 20 million downloads, and rising) is made even more compelling by its fusion with Microsoft’s home console-based Kinect peripheral...
Review Avatar Superstar (Xbox 360)
Lacks the X factor
It feels unfair being overly critical of an Xbox Live Indie game. For a measly 80 Microsoft Points you know you're not going to get an experience on-par with the best games out there, but we must still be truthful in our critique of Avatar Superstar. The screenshots and branding suggest that this is a karaoke experience, whereas...
Review Kinect Fun Labs: Kinect Sparkler (Xbox 360)
Fizzles out
Kinect Fun Labs is a set of interesting toys, tools and gadgets designed to show off what Kinect can do, and while the service started off free, it's now embracing paid add-on content with Kinect Sparkler. While the price is a measly 240 Microsoft Points, however, it's still expensive for the content. Kinect Sparkler is a doodle pad,...
