Reviewing a Kinect Sports game is not too dissimilar to reviewing a Cliff Richards album.
From the outset it has a hardcore, devoted and highly engaged audience, and because it’s so inoffensive, it’s all but impossible to critique in a similar way to its peers.
Yet where Cliff’s warbling is now targeted at an increasingly niche fanbase (most of them can’t even remember their own names nowadays, let alone Cliff’s), the first Kinect Sports took Wii Sports’ proven popularist formula and – literally – ran with it, selling a whopping 3 million copies and guaranteeing a sequel.
Season 2 features six new (distinctly more global) sporting events; golf, skiing, baseball, American football, darts and tennis.
Considering the original’s success in targeting the family and kiddywinkle audience, Rare have kept the mechanics and complexity as simple as ever. Every minigame perfects the pick-up-and-playability of its predecessors, with each forcing you to act out corresponding bodily actions, as though you were playing the real sports, to succeed. So for skiing you have to squat, turn and jump, while American football forces you to run on the spot and throw overarm hikes etc.
The only duff game in the group is Darts, which requires a little too much precision for the Kinect to ably track and react accordingly.
Still, as ever, this is a game that works best in big groups – and whether playing with your family around the christmas tree, or with a bunch of mates after a few drinks, if you can forgo the lack of depth and skill needed to play, it’s unquestionable, all-inclusive fun.
And you can’t say that about Cliff Richards.
[Rating:3/5]
Kinect Sports: Season 2 is out now and available on Xbox 360.
