I thought games for Kinect had died a long time ago, unfortunately I was wrong. But fair play to Virtual Air Guitar who have seemingly cornered the market by releasing Beatsplosion, Squid Hero and now Kung-Fu for Kinect. Virtual Air Guitar have decided to relaunch Kung-Fu High Impact as Kung-Fu Kinect exclusively for the Xbox One.
Kinect games have never been my thing. Sure my kids have a good laugh prancing around the living room but ultimately the game's offer little gameplay for me and if I waft to prance around my living room I'll sink several cans of Special Brew first and put some ABBA on. So I turned to my kids for this review because I knew if anyone was to have fun here it would be them.
When you start playing Kung-Fu for Kinect you'll quickly learn that moving in this world is dependant on which direction you punch or kick. Now I'm a rotund kinda fella and just watching my kids play was exhausting enough but seeing how quickly they became tired did surprise me. The game is bloody manic and you barely get a chance to catch your breath between waves of enemies.
As you punch and kick your way through enemies you soon learn new moves which you can use to batter the bad guys into submission. A lightning bolt will dry anyone in you path, a double punch sends you flying cross the screen, a ground punch that literally shakes your foes and bizarrely a pose which freezes everyone in place. You can also level up attacks and your characters stats by earning points in game.
When you clear a level you are asked to perform a variety of poses. These are then superimposed into a comic book strip that stars the one and only you. My kids loved it and I must admit to raising a smile myself. Graphically this looks like it's been ported straight from the Xbox 360 version. The backgrounds and enemies are all the same generic type which you will see over and over. The music and voice acting is not brilliant cut at least the music is catchy in a retro arcade sense and the voice acting is suitably over the top and cheesy.
Outside of the campaign mode there are challenges to complete. In the Kung-Fu Club you can battle the game's bosses one on one, face time trials to see how many enemies you can defeat in the given time, survival mode, hide and in seek, an archery mode and a mode where you can strike finishing moves. These add a welcome distraction from the main game for a few short minutes because once again Kinect fails to recognise/register your moves and you just end up switching it off.
Kung-Fu for Kinect is fun for about five minutes and if two kids find it boring your on a slippery slope. The repetitive combat soon wears you out and fighting wave after wave of generic looking enemies does little to inspire you to carry on. The special moves are incredibly hard to pull off. This isn't because you have to perform overly complicated movements it's because Kinect just doesn't recognise/register them half the time.
I'm still amazed that there is a developer out there still making games for the Kinect. Having a whole marketplace to yourself is a marketing dream but when drivel like Kung-Fu for Kinect is the only thing to look forward to you know your in deep shit. Kung-Fu for Kinect is just plain dull with unresponsive Kinect gestures that nullify the whole point of the game. Avoid at all costs.
3.32 GB
24/06/2016
Virtual Air Guitar Company
Virtual Air Guitar Company
Action & Adventure, Family, Fighting, Sports & Recreation
Kung Fu for Kinect is available now for £14.99
Code supplied by Virtual Air Guitar Company