Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure – Xbox 360

This is the first Kinect game besides “kinect sports” that I thought was very well done. What must be said about this kinect game is that the programers are finally figuring out how to make character navigation work for the controller free setting. The character movements in this game are SOOOOOOOOO much fun. Running/walking/climbing, its all very well done (unlike the ridiculous navigation in Disneyland Adventures). For this you simply swing your arms (just as you are actually walking) and turn your body to move. Also, the car racing portion is the best vehicle controls that I have used, and they are actually quite effective (I was very disappointed with the driving controls for “Joy Ride”. This title is clearly geared for younger crowds, but my wife and I REALLY enjoy playing it, being the pixar fans that we are. The graphics are great, and the voice overs are VERY true to character. Game play is not as repetitive as I had expected it to be, we keep finding more and more things you can do like actually bending over to swim under the water and find more secrets! Anyone who loves Pixar or simply wants a game that makes great use of Kinect’s possibilities, I do not think will be disappointed. This game has shown me there is great things to come for Kinect, and other designers will learn from the the excellent tracking and controls in this game…

We have only recently added an Xbox to our household. I wanted to select Kinect games that would keep our kids interested and provide some problem-solving opportunities and collaborative play. This does both beautifully. Every time we pop this game in we find something new and fun. Once our 7 year old had the hang of it he was able to navigate the menus with ease.

What we like:
– two players can play together in a split screen or share a single screen
– one player can opt out without stopping the game (just step out of the game area and it automatically converts to a single player mode)
– menus are fairly easy to navigate
– interesting levels that offer a variety of physical, problem solving, memory, and accuracy play
– the games and activities are true to the Pixar characters and their worlds
– you can skip the treadmill if you play with your kids

What we don’t like? There is very little we dislike about this game. Sometimes we can’t tell who is the controller when we switch players, but we are probably confusing the game. The age of players in our house are – 37, 45, 8, an 6.

This does require some space. We have a long and narrow living room with the television set up on one of the long ends. This allows us to be about 6 feet away from the Kinect sensor. We have about 5 feet to move side to side, so it gets a little crowded when we have two players up. I would also suggest wearing workout shoes if you are playing on a hard surface. My legs and feet were killing me after 30 minutes of running and jumping in place.

This is definitely a game I would highly recommend to friends and family.

My kids love this. All of my kids from ages 4 to 9, and even my husband love playing this. Good variety and selection of levels to play. Great for Rainy days and family game night. Took the young ones a few tries, but once they got the hang of things, they played for hours.