Slice Zombies for Kinect Review (Xbox One)

From Slice Zombies for Kinect's very title, you can pretty much predict what it's going to consist of.

If you guessed "Fruit Ninja Kinect with zombies instead of fruit" then you're pretty much on the money. That isn't to belittle developer MADE's work though, rather it's the easiest way to inform readers of what the game is all about. Zombies appear on the screen and you have to chop them up with a flourish of either hand. Zombies pop up from the bottom of the screen, appear out of nowhere, jump in from the sides of the screen, or zoom past on rocket packs, so you'll need to keep your wits about you. If you allow too many to get away from you, your game is over.

Similarly to Fruit Ninja, bombs make an appearance too. Cutting through these will lose you a life also. Coins need to be collected as you're going about your zombie-slicing duties, as they allow you to purchase new blade types, backgrounds, and power-ups. With enough coins, you can even add an extra life to the mix, meaning that high scores are easier to obtain later on. Each game awards you with XP, which is required for you to progress up through the 21 player levels, unlocking access to more items from the in-game store.

Everything works as it should in terms of Kinect tracking. Slice movements may be a little less subtle than in Fruit Ninja Kinect 2 at times, but it certainly isn't to the point of causing a problem. However, the gameplay itself loses something by not being as progressive as what can be found in Fruit Ninja. In Halfbrick's game, you'd start off slow – no matter what level of ninja you were – and gradually build up to the point of things becoming difficult to manage. That was half of the fun, in some modes. Often with Slice Zombies for Kinect, you'll find that the game starts by throwing 30 coins onto the screen along with four bombs and four zombies. There's no incremental pace here at all or slow induction of panic, and the game suffers for it.

What also causes Slice Zombies for Kinect to suffer, is the distinct lack of variation in play. This is a $10 game that's based on a mobile title and that fact really does show here, more so than in other games we've seen that come from similar roots. There's a lone mode of play available for a lone player. Once you've survived one session of play, your only option is to play again and again until you have enough coins to purchase a power-up or new background from the in-game shop. In fact, the game even assists with this, providing an auto-timer that ticks down until the next all but identical round starts again. As your player level increases, the game does tend to get tougher, and the power-ups can be fun, but these things certainly aren't anything that would necessarily encourage repeated plays.

Indeed, in terms of replay value, all you have here are high score tables and achievements. While the high score tables are – as the rest of the game – a relatively straightforward affair, Slice Zombies for Kinect's achievements are what will keep most players coming back. There are some big points on offer for relatively little effort, although the one for completing the game will prove toughest to get, given that it requires you to buy everything that's available from the in-game store. There are some 10,000 coin items in there, and when you're picking up coins in the region of a few hundred per round, it'll take a little while.

However, even picking up that final achievement so you can check it off the list isn't going to take as long as the amount of gameplay provided in titles at a comparable price. For the same money, you can pick up any number of games that contain more playing time than you'll find here, including Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China, Ultratron, Unmechanical: Extended Edition, Kalimba…