Kinect Adventures is the game that is bundled with the Xbox 360′s Kinect controller.  But that doesn’t answer the question if it is worth popping into your 360 and giving it a shot.   Well let me help you answer that question!  Obviously you are going to want to continue reading.

So for those that don’t know yet, Kinect Adventures uses the new technology that comes with the XBox 360 Kinect sensor.  What that basically means is that you don’t need to hold a controller in your hand to play the game.  You, your whole body, is the controller.   Just stand in front of the sensor and you are well on your way.

Kinect Adventures is a collection of minigames that are fun to play, and some will actualy leave you breathless.  When you are interacting with the game, you can’t cheat the movements like you can with some of the Wii games.   When the game says dodge to the left or right, you must move your entire body left or right.  When you have to jump, you better get your feet up off the ground and jump!  The sensor will know whether or not your feet have left the ground.

There are a total of 5 minigames that are within Kinect Adventures. They aren’t that hard to get the hang of, or even master for that matter, because this is a family oriented game.   It is meant for small children or even grandparents to jump right in and play.

Rally Ball tends to be my favorite of the games within Kinect Adventures.   The easiest way I can describe Rally Ball is to say that it’s a cross between “Breakout”, 3d Pong and Dodgeball.   The object is to hit the ball into the blocks and targets at the far end of the court.  You want to clear everything at the end of the court as fast as possible to rack up the most points possible.   To keep the ball in play, you need to hit it with your hands, feet, head and even body.   It does not matter, as long as it hits your body and bounces back.

River Rush is the game they tend to show case a lot within Kinect Adventures’ adverts.  Your avatar is placed within a raft, and you need to navagate the raft through obsticles and rapids collecting as many adventure tokens, gems or clocks as you can.  Each of the different items depends on what style you are playing, beat the clock, adventure mode or treasure collector.  You need to move to the left or right to get the raft to move that direction, and jump and I mean fully jump up in order to jump the raft.   It’s fun, but this is my least favorite.  It is interactive, and if you are with someone else playing, it can be fun, but it’s not the most intense.

Reflex Ridge is the most active game in Kinect Adventures.  If you aren’t breathless by the end of a round in this game, then you are in perfect shape and you aren’t a chubby gamer like myself.  You are on a platform that travels through a course of different obsticles that have you ducking, dodging left or right, jumping, and even grabbing and pulling. Oh, if you jump your platform moves faster through the level.  This is by far one of the most interactive games of the five and one that I started off not liking and now love to play!   What?  I’m getting in shape while playing it.

Space Pop is a game that seems to be more meant for those of younger persuasion.  The idea is to “bump” into as many bubbles as possible causing them to pop.   If you flap your arms, and keep them held up at your sides, you float up into the air. Hands down at your sides, you sink back down to the floor.   The bubbles appear in many different patterns and the idea is just to pop them.

20,000 Leaks I also thought to be more for the younger kids, but it seems that the harder levels can get pretty interesting.   You are in a glass box, at the bottom of the ocean, and the fish have it in for you! They ram into the box you’re in and you need to maneuver your body to plug the leaks.   The faster you do it, the better your score.   While the early levels can get boring.  The later levels can be an amusing Kinect version of Twister.   Also, I found that playing 20,000 Leaks gets you used to how large the play space for the Kinect is.

On the whole the game is very enjoyable to play.  The game does offer up a bunch of avatar awards, for those of you that like to dress up your avatars.  Also, the game takes pictures of you as you play which you can upload to the internet and then share on Facebook if you want, via Kinectshare.com.

What took me a bit by surprise with this title, is that it uses the Unreal Engine for the graphics.   It does show because the graphics are nice and the scenery around some of the courses, like reflex ridge are well done.   Though, I personally noticed myself worrying more about my body positioning.

After buying a Kinect it is worth popping this one into your Xbox and having a go.   Also, if you are someone that is hungry for gamer score, the achievements in this game aren’t difficult to unlock, but will take some time and, quite literally, some energy.

Go on, give it a try!  What do you have to lose?  You already bought the Kinect and you are going to have to get off the couch to play it!

Summing it up:
Positives: Fun, Innovative, lots of avatar awards,

Negatives: can be considered “childish” (but who cares!)

Score: Worth the price of Admission