PixlBit

Nick finally gets to try Kinect, click through to see his thoughts.

Though Microsoft is touting Kinect hard this E3, seemingly it is quite challenging to actually get some play time with the peripheral. Thankfully, we had a booth tour scheduled for Ubisoft which gave me an all-access pass to check out Motion Sports, one of the Kinect games being developed by Ubisoft.

The game is a collection of six different sports which includes Football, Soccer, Skiing, Boxing, and two others I can't seem to recall right now. For the demo, both Football and Skiing were on display.

I tried my hand at Football first, which seemed to be the less interesting one of the two. Basically, the mode tasks players with avoiding the other team on a barren field while their defenders attempt to tackle you from every angle. As you work your way down the field, you will have to do things like duck, jump, sidestep, and even stiff arm opposing players. My movements were picked up well, and the single time I lost was due mostly to a mistimed jump rather than any sort of technical snafu.

The more interesting part of the demo was the Skiing part. The journalist ahead of myself had an extremely hard time with the demo, so I was slightly worried as I stepped up the peripheral. Once the race started, I found myself very easily and efficiently moving down the mountain with a minimum amount of effort.

Interestingly enough, the key to beating the mini-game was to merely move you body in the same way you would if you were doing the actual sport. This was exciting, and a definite step up from the Wii Balance Board, which truly only uses weight distribution in order to work. Kinect seems to focus more on your shoulders which does tend to be better with something like Kinect.

It's unclear just how good the final product will end up, being that it's nothing more than another sports compilation. Additionally, the developer on-hand didn't specify if submodes are available for the variety of sports, which would be the only way to give the title a bit of depth. Without something else to do in each mode, the game would clearly wind up being extremely shallow and one-dimensional.

I'm curious to see how the final product turns out, and how it stacks up against other Kinect experiences.