Well, it’s been a busy few days at the E3 Conference in LA. There have been a slew of announcements about what’s new and exciting in the video game industry. The coolest announcement on the Xbox Fitness front by far has been the (to me) surprise announcement that Microsoft has teamed up with Nike to create something called Nike+ Kinect Training. Here’s the video they put out with typical frenetic [ Read More ]
Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure The best Kinect fitness game so far for younger ones Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure is one of the best games so far for younger players from age 5 to 10, and one that can be thoroughly enjoyed by the whole family. Rating by steve: 4.0 stars As I mentioned in my review of Kinect Star Wars, movie tie-in games have never been [ Read More ]
Well, ’tis the season for game publishers to start announcing games we can expect in the 2012 Christmas shopping season. The biggest announcements will probably come in a few weeks at the E3 Conference. But here are some promising games that people are talking about already. Kung Fu Superstar from new studio Kinesthetic Games looks like a pretty interesting game where you can channel your inner Bruce Lee. The game [ Read More ]
Junk Fu Sometimes the best Xbox Fitness games don’t have to be the most expensive ones. Junk Fu is a surprisingly good workout game that is fun, addictive, can provide a great workout, and at 240 Microsoft points costs less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Rating by steve: 4.0 stars It’s funny, but for months now I’ve been reviewing $50-60 Kinect games, hoping to find one that [ Read More ]
Rhythm Party Captures the spirit of the original DDR Konami has gone “back to basics” with this Xbox Marketplace downloadable game and has produced a fun, simple, and effective-as-a-workout dance game that goes back to its roots of pattern matching vs. real dance steps. Rating by steve: 4.0 stars Continuing our review of Xbox Marketplace games that make for great (and cheap) workouts, I’ve decided to review Rhythm Party by [ Read More ]
While it’s been a bit quiet lately on the Kinect Fitness game front, that’s all going to change very quickly. In the latest rumors, possibly to be announced as soon as the E3 conference in a few weeks, Microsoft is preparing a new feature on the Xbox 360 dashboard and a new wireless tracking device that will measure heart rate. Granted EA Sports Active 2 already has such a device, [ Read More ]
Star Wars Kinect The Force is Strong with This One Years of suffering through movie tie-in games have gotten me weary of the genre. I’m happy to say that Star Wars Kinect breaks the mold and delivers a game that, despite its flaws, moves the Kinect forward as an active gaming system. Rating by steve: 4.0 stars I’ll admit, after playing every movie tie-in game from Ghostbusters on the Apple [ Read More ]
UPDATE: Since I originally wrote this post, Amazon has updated their listing to say that miCoach by Adidas will be released on July 24, 2012. As always, if you pre-order from Amazon and the price drops (or rises) between now and the launch date, you’ll get the lower price. Be the first on line–this should be a good one! Happily, it looks like Adidas MiCoach is back on track, set [ Read More ]
UPDATE: 5/26/12 Happily, I was able to get all my points back. It felt like Microsoft had the whole process down to a science. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good in the sense that they’re able to provide decent customer service instead of arguing with you back and forth as other companies do. But it’s bad when you consider that the reason they’ve gotten so [ Read More ]
Kinect Sports Basketball Challenge Add-On Basketball for Kinect Sports 2 A worthwhile add-on for users of Kinect Sports 2 which adds variety to the game but unfortunately carries over a lot of the sins of its parent., Rating by steve: 4.0 stars I’m admittedly not a fan in general of downloadable content (DLC). In theory, it’s great for a publisher to be able to improve a game piece by piece [ Read More ]
PowerUp Heroes Your Kinect Avatar Gets Super Powers A fighting game that can provide decent fun and exercise, but which ultimately seems to fall short of the Kinect’s potential to provide immersive, virtual reality gameplay. Rating by steve: 3.5 stars I’ve been meaning to do a review of PowerUP Heroes by Ubisoft since it was released in October 2011. It has four out of five stars on Amazon, all of [ Read More ]
Just Dance 3 is half price at Best Buy right now. Jump on it while you can! Just Dance 3: Best Buy Exclusive Katy Perry Edition – Xbox 360
Hurry! For the next two hours and change (or whenever they sell out), Zumba Fitness Rush is on Amazon’s Gold Box. 10% gone already as of the time of this writing.
I’m used to posting reports of sales at places like Amazon and Best Buy, but Groupon of all places is selling The Biggest Loser for Xbox at a ridiculous price of $19. Granted, the game has been available for about $29 lately (including shipping) from Amazon, so it’s not exactly the “$50 value” they’re claiming. But still, $23 ($19 + $4 shipping) for a brand new game is still not [ Read More ]
UPDATE AS OF 4/30/12 A lot’s been happening with MiCoach. Not long after the news below, Adidas filed a lawsuit against THQ who was evidently holding the code they’d developed to date hostage–refusing to continue development on it but also refusing to let go of it. Happily, as of a few weeks ago the lawsuit was “amicably resolved” according to the sites Gamesta and Joystiq, clearing the way for a third party [ Read More ]
Zumba Fitness Rush Majesco gets it right with this sequel to the original Zumba Fitness The original Zumba Fitness for Kinect was plagued with horrific tutorials and spotty motion controls. Happily, it’s all been fixed with this new version, called Zumba Fitness Rush. Highly recommended for Zumba fanatics and beginners alike. Rating by steve: 4.5 stars Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years (in which [ Read More ]
Just in case you didn’t hear the news, Zumba Fitness Rush is coming out today (2/13/12). I’m still waiting for my copy to come in, but I’ll be posting a full review of it. If the Wii version (called Zumba Fitness 2) is any indication, this version hopefully clears up the motion tracking and tutorial issues that plagued the first version. If you can’t wait, you can purchase your copy [ Read More ]
Let’s Cheer An excellent cheerleading simulation game for the Kinect Let’s Cheer for Kinect is another one of those games that many people will scoff at the idea of, but when you look beneath the surface you’ll find a surprisingly well designed game that really shows what the Kinect is capable of in terms of being a simulation and teaching tool. Rating by steve: 4.0 stars The target audience for [ Read More ]
Michael Phelps: Push the Limit A surprisingly good Kinect fitness game that’s both entertaining and a decent workout. Michael Phelps: Push the Limit takes the odd idea of having a swimming simulation video game and actually makes it work, resulting in a game that’s both fun and can provide a decent workout. Rating by steve: 4.0 stars I admit, like most of you probably are, I was really, really skeptical [ Read More ]
After posting the last bit of news, I realized these deals are all part of a larger promotion that Amazon is doing. To help everyone with their 2012 New Year’s Resolutions, Amazon is having a big sale on a whole bunch of fitness games for the Xbox Kinect. Some of the better deals you’ll find: Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 for $29.99 Just Dance 3 for $29.00 Zumba Fitness for [ Read More ]
Jillian Michaels Kinect is going for only $19.99 right now. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the same when it was $40, at $20 it’s not a bad deal, assuminng you have lots of space and patience! In the meantime, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is only $29.99!
Ho Ho Ho! Happy day-after-Christmas! So, you overate for Thanksgiving with turkey, pumpkin pie, and a dozen other thigh-enlarging foods. Then you doubled up on Christmas with candy, cookies, and another feast. Perhaps someone very nice got you a brand new Xbox for Christmas. The good news is, if you have the Kinect add-on, you CAN get a lot of exercise and lose weight. The question I hear a lot [ Read More ]
Usually, Amazon is the one that shamelessly copies other companies’ promotions. But this week, the tables are turned. Best Buy has a couple great deals on Xbox systems and games; nice thing about it is that you can pick up your items at your local store which guarantees you’ll have it (while I normally swear by Amazon, during this week and next sometimes any shipment through the US Mail can [ Read More ]
Looking for Christmas Deals on the Xbox and Kinect? Here are a couple good ones from Amazon: – Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures, Gunstringer, and Fruit Ninja – $99 – 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect Bundle – $299.99 with $80 Amazon Credit – Kinect Sports – $24.99 – Dance Central 2 – $24.99 – Disneyland Kinect Adventures – $24.99 Usually when Amazon slashes prices like this it’s because they’re matching [ Read More ]
King Fu High Impact A groundbreaking fighting game that will set the standard of future Kinect Exercise games Kung Fu High Impact introduces something innovative to the world of video games: instead of using an avatar or a cartoon representation of you, YOU yourself are the actor in the video game. Your real-time video image is used as you kick, punch, and jump your way through a comic book world [ Read More ]
