Kinect Adventures Review (K: 7/10)

Before I start, I want to say that Kinect Adventures would not have received nearly that generous a score if it was one of the £40 launch titles and did not ship free with Kinect: while each of the 'adventures' are equally diversive and innovative, they won't last much more than a few hours in terms of genuine entertainment, in which case you are probably best off buying one of the other launch games as well (once again, my reviews of some of these are coming later). That aside, Adventures boasts five mini-games, River Rush; 20,000 Leaks; Space Pop; Rally Ball and Reflex Ridge. River Rush involves players controlling a dinghy as it plummets down a waterfall, and works well as you tilt to control the vehicle and jump for extra points. Meanwhile in 20,000 Leaks you stand behind an imaginary glass wall that is constantly leaking from the pressure of the sea, and have to use your hands to stop each leak. Space Pop and Rally Ball both involve using your body to deflect incoming objects, and the former even employs some gravity-based puzzles to mix things up. Finally, Reflex Ride sends you along a mountain course where you must duck, side-step and jump over obstacles while staying on a small platform. Each of these adventures make good use of Kinect's motion-sensing, even taking photos of you playing for certain humiliation later, but as I mentioned earlier once you've played them once, you're unlikely to revisit those that weren't your favourites, and thus bar working towards Acheivements the replay value here is fairly limited. Nevertheless, as a free bundle with the peripheral, Kinect Adventures is a fun starter, and a decent showcase as to what Kinect is capable of!