Kinect Nat Geo – America The Wild (Kinect required) was recently released by Microsoft Studios after being developed by Relentless Software who are better known for the Buzz! game series. Essentially it’s set out as an interactive TV show aimed at educating families together but more so children of ages 7 and up; does it succeed in creating a balance between learning and fun?
The game features eight interactive episodes (which are officially listed as 30 minutes each, but can last for 45 in my experience) from the Nat Geo show America The Wild, exploring various exotic and wild animals along with the host Casey Anderson. It’s clear from the outset that it’s basically the television show with various cuts along the way to introduce the interactive side to keep the viewer involved. I’ll start with some of the usual aspects featured in the episodes, first up is photography. At certain stages there’ll be a key scene in the show where it requires you to take pictures of a scenario stated on screen e.g. “Close – Up of a Bear” and using voice commands (actually shouting “Snap”) it takes a snap when you see it. I tried these episodes with various members of my family and it gets quite competitive as to who gets the picture first or if it’s a terrible picture, who can quickly take another one that’s better.
Then we have the “Sidetracks” where you must pay close attention to any virtual footprints appearing on screen, to which you shout “Tracks”. This takes you into a special made part of the show where Casey uses well trained animals or his own Grizzly Bear to demonstrate aspects of the animals daily life, hunting and how to track these such as a bear or a mountain lion. It’ll teach you things from these areas and then test you with a question or a picture relating to what you’ve hopefully paid attention to. It could be something as simple as telling the difference between a Grizzy Bear and a Black Bear or spotting a sneaky mountain lion, so this improves not only your listening skills but visually challenging.
Finally we have the “Go Wild” section where it places the animal head of which you’re studying on your body as you take part in a specifically themed task. My favourite was me having to swat hornets whilst dressed as a bear, very funny to watch and take part in especially if someone joins in with you. My only concern was that on some games/tasks it didn’t seem to pick up the action I was doing which caused frustration and obviously incomplete objectives that needed replaying. An example of this was pouncing on birds during a mountain lion hunt, when you moved towards them like it said it would come up with the Kinect warning that I wasn’t positioned far enough left or right. Disappointing for an adult, would put a child off if it wouldn’t recognise what they were trying to do and giving them no points.
The navigation on the main menu is jumpy when using Kinect which is a shame but luckily they allow Xbox controller usage for it, kind of defeats the point though. Apart from watching these episodes there’s only one extra mode which is Party Go Wild, basically the part from the episodes but just whenever you fancy a task chosen at random.
A very neat touch from Nat Geo is the inclusion of a one year Season Pass for the Nat Geo TV App which is Kinect exclusive and requires an internet connect. This not only lets you access the interactive episodes that you already own on disc but also various other non-interactive tv series exploring dangerous, rare and even pet animals.
You can’t discredit the game for its educational value as I learnt some interesting facts and feel that I could genuinely track a Grizzly Bear without being seen or smelt. This shows that the technique of learning along with questions/activities does work and will work with this game. The only flaws being the occasional Kinect unresponsiveness, lack of anything extra to do apart from the eight episodes which would be over within 4 to 6 hours and the short lull in excitement whilst the host talks too much about something. I believe this is reflected by its current pricing, seen for under £17 at online retailers, just don’t expect it to last long with no real replayability as I found by re-watching an episode. Great for kids and families with a good attention span and patience to bare with the Kinect system.
6/10