Trust us, get Kinect Sports instead
Format: Xbox 360 Dev: Ubisoft Milan Pub: Ubisoft Out: 10/11/10 Players: 1-2
With the success of launch title Kinect Sports it is obvious that sports games on Kinect both work well for the sensor and the paying customer. There is something about sports games, especially ones such as Kinect Sports, that offer a range of different sports to play that we love. There seems to be at least one sport that most people would enjoy in these types of games, as Wii Sports has previously shown.
The problem with these games though is their arcade style means they lack true realism. The emphasis is on fun gameplay, not detailed, where enjoyment, not accuracy is the key. However, there is a game on Kinect that is trying to break away from this idea: Motionsports. Does it provide the fun factor, as well as some great realistic play?
Well, in short, Motionsports does not. In fact, the title is a real disappointment. It all looks so promising to start with; the game looks stylish in its menus and is easy to navigate. The range of sports on offer is very diverse. There is more of a range than the previous sports games on Kinect and Wii, with disciplines such as horse riding on offer.
This does indeed seem very promising. It is great to see a developer breaking away from the usual sports on offer, like football and golf, even though football is on this title too. However, it seems that Motionsports is a hugely rushed title, with too much promise and not enough end products.
For example, the mentioned horse riding discipline in particular is, in a word, useless. Completely unrealistic and difficult to play. The controls are unresponsive and seem, even with hours of practice, impossible to perfect. This applies to all the game modes, even something simple like taking a penalty in football becomes a frustrating battle against the game, trying to find the exact spot where your movements actually work.
The game modes disappoint in other ways too. For a start, you can’t just jump into a mode that you may find enjoyable. You have no choice but to complete boring games first, before you can get to anything of interest. All control is taken away from the player. It wouldn’t be so bad if the games they allow you to play at the start were any good, but they aren’t and the ones you have to work so hard to unlock to play aren’t either.
Multiplayer is even a letdown with this game – the element that saves most average Kinect titles. The controls are so difficult that it is impossible to play with another player. All you seem to do is get in the way of each other, meaning you will probably kick each other rather than the winning goal in a penalty shootout.
Overall, Motionsports is a huge let down. The stylish looks of the menus within the game and easy navigation is let down by simply below par gameplay that doesn’t show much promise for the future. The title’s lack of development is a real shame and it appears that simulated sports games of this type have a long way to go on Kinect before they rival the real thing.
Ian Davies
Tags: kinect, motionsports, sport, ubisoft
