Kinect Sports Season 2

The Short


Pros
- Back with six new sports: Skiing, Baseball, Darts, Tennis, Football, and Golf
- Golf is pretty great and has a decent selection of courses
- Utilizes voice commands to get through the menues that actually works pretty good
- Still has the same "minigames break off from the main game" as the first one
- Graphics still look very nice, and your avatar is back for more SPORTS

Cons
- I swear somehow their body detection got worse between games
- While the first game had two duds, this game only has two good ones, and thats me really being lenient by putting darts on the "good" list
- Speaking of darts, despite being one of the best one the rounds go on for WAY too long
- The more traditional sports (Football and Baseball) are stripped-down versions that are...pretty bad.
- The annoying announcer is just as annoying as before
- Has ads integrated into the main menu screens. Seriously? Like a "Lite" version of an iPhone game? Was the blatant product from the first game (which is also in this game) some how not enough?

Kinect Sports is back, but not better. 

The Long

Heres a confession: I didnt play Kinect Sports Season 2 nearly as much as I played the first game. This is mostly because I dont think its very good, but the point of me bringing this up is because this review will probably be more skimpy on the details than the first games. So if youre wondering why Im being lazy, now you know. 

Anyway, Season 2 has a handful of six new games to play: American football, tennis, darts, skiing, baseball, and golf. If half of these sound like they wouldnt really work with Kinect...well, you are probably right. Lets blitz (har har football jokes and Im posting this on Super Bowl Sunday) our way to the endzone (two for two!) of this review by covering each sport individually to earn a...uh...Im out of football jokes.

And heres some more footballz for you. Yay. 

Football is to actual American football what a home run derby is to baseball. As in, it isnt. You have four downs to clear the entire length of the field, meaning any strategy regarding getting first downs is gone. If you fail on your first three to score a touchdown you can opt to try for a field goal, and then it switches sides. Thats it. How awesome.

Essentially what you have to do is squat down for the hike (always a family favorite activity), get the ball, and then the game will give you ideas on who to throw it two. The throwing controls are super wonky, so often youll throw it badly, but on the off chance you do catch it you get to do more PowerPad running as fast as you can (knees up!). Thats essentially the game. How fun. Next.

Hooray! Im not in a Wii game!

Tennis should be a shoe-in, especially since they did table-tennis so great in the last iteration, but theres a weird disconnect between what you do and how the character reacts. It isnt too awful overall, but it certainly feels a lot more loose that the table tennis game or Wii Sports iteration, which makes you not want to play it. Serving was fun (just like how serving in volleyball in the first game was fun), if I dont really understand how the Kinect registers it, but the whole thing just feels...too loose. Again, this is weird considering how tight-knit table tennis was, and Id just assume this was essentially the same thing.

Back to the bad ones

Skiing isnt awful, its just...boring. So boring. Basically you just squat down in front of your Kinect (why do all these games involve copious amounts of squatting?), and then make as if you are turning by sticking out your legs in either direction. You can slow down by standing up taller, and there are a few jumps on each course. 

As far as controls go, it works just fine. I had a few issues turning sharply on a whim, but overall once you get the hang of it its fairly easy. The problem is that its monotonous. You just crouch down as you circle through flags and avoid obstacles. The courses are really limited, and while its sort of fun competing two player, the experience is just bland. The sense of speed and air is there, its just...really dull. 

Another game too complex for the tech

Baseball reminds me of football, which reminds me of soccer from the last game, in that they had to trim stuff down quite a bit for it to work. However, in this case they both trimmed and made it more complex. As the pitcher, theres a bunch of different styles of pitches you can pull of (I cant) that do different...things? Its weird. As the batter it was about as bad as hitting baseballs on Wii Sports was. Read: Im not good at it. You have to actually run (knees up!) from bases to bases, which is fun I guess, but catches are practically automatic and as a whole the game just feels gimped. They also trimmed down the length, but in this case Im glad. This would last forever if they didnt, which is the problem with the next sport Im addressing.

Aim for the guy in the suit

Darts is one of the better games, if only because its simple and actually feel like you are emulating the "sport." Basically you aim the dart, which gives a slight reticle hint as to where it will land. You then pull back and throw. It requires skill (if you know the real rules of darts, youll know it gets tricky near the end. I wont elaborate here) but the issue is that it takes forever. You play three rounds, which each round lasting anywhere from 5-10 minutes. Im sorry, but thats too long for just chucking darts at a board.

I thought it was funny that it asked me how my TV was set up relative to me, so that it would best emulate an actual dart board. This made me thing: why dont I just buy an actual dart board? Its pretty much the same thing, except that is real and probably a bit more fun. Regardless, darts is ok in my book. 

And well end on the best game in the bunch

Golf is golf. Plain and simple. You move your body to adjust the direction you are aiming, you pull back and swing. It still has that inherent Kinect problem with speed/strength based moves (ie: it cant gauge with a good deal of accuracy how hard you hit something), but its forgivable because it isnt that bad overall. The game has a fair amount of courses (or fairway amount of courses, right guys? Guys?), the holes move along quickly, and the later ones require some actual skill. This game is actually kind of a blast, and I actually enjoyed playing it single player (unlike every other game in both Season 2 and the original Kinect Sports), so kudos to them for that. They made a very good golf game. Which the Wii did a billion years ago. But thats ok, I forgive you. At least this game mode wasnt a (sand) trap! (puns. The highest level of humor.)

Menues are much improved as well.

So thats about it for the events, lets quickly cover a few other changes. This game has full voice command, meaning you can navigate the menues just by yelling at your Kinect. To my surprise, it actually works really well. I mean, its no Siri, but its certainly preferable to holding my hand on a button for two seconds and hoping you dont slip off of it.

Something I dont like thats actually quite infuriating is that there are ads in the main menu, in the form of a sliver banner ad on the top (like youd expect from an Android or iOS free game). Why the hell are there ads in a game I paid for? I can understand product placement (though I dont like it), but between this and the new Xboxs UI completely coated in ads (seriously: 75% of the home screen is ads. Im not kidding.) I can only think Microsoft hates their customers. Its worth noting (though nobody at Microsoft cares about me or reads this review) that between this (which is a MS published/developed game) and the new Xbox Ive been convinced to not buy their new system when it comes out. Ever. When I buy a laptop my Windows isnt covered in ads, and if it did wed call that a freaking VIRUS. How this is acceptable on something thats already covered in branding, product placement, and much more completely baffles me. So screw you, Microsoft. You greedy bastards. 

Seriously. Look at this. That little box in the upper left is the game I have in the drive, and the lower left is quickplay.  Everything else on the whole damn screen is ads. Its completely freaking disgusting. 

Anyway, now that weve finished that tangent, Im fully prepared to give Kinect Sports: Season 2 a bad review. I dont know how they messed up the motion controls in this one, or why they picked sports that anybody could have told them would translate poorly to the experience (remember soccer, Rare? Remember how that was kind of crap?), but I guess they just wanted more money and since the first one sold like hotcakes they had to get on that and cut a few corners. Thank goodness they didnt cut the ads out while they were cutting features, though. That would have been a nightmare.

I bought it on black friday for $15, and I dont feel bad about it because I really dig golf. The rest of the sports arent horrible, they just arent great, so you could probably glean some fun if you had some friends that didnt mind the Kinect tracking them horribly. As it stands, I say dont pay more than $15 for it. Its a mess, and theyll get a cut from the ads anyway, so no worries about them being underpaid. 

Two out of five. And again, screw you Microsoft. I hope it was worth losing a loyal customer over (it probably was for them, but whatever.).