Motionsports Adrenaline Review
A franchise that continues to struggle as it attempts to stand out from the rest of the playing field
Motionsports Adrenaline is a follow-up title to Motionsports from 2010 by Ubisoft. Once again, players are tasked with stretching their legs as they prepare to take on some extreme sports activities using Kinect. Much like its predecessor, Adrenaline offers a few distinctive sporting events with varying levels of excitement and basic multiplayer features. Unlike Kinect Sports series from Microsoft, the game focuses on a more realistic visual style and that at least makes it distinguishable from the tons of other Kinect titles out there.
This sports title does its best to avoid direct competition with other franchises by offering something truly different, at least as the concept for the gameplay. You won’t be kicking a ball around or running on a track – instead, there are six activities in the game that hope to replicate stunts that most people won’t attempt in real life. The event types are Wingsuit, Kitesurf, Kayak, Mountain bike, Rock climbing and Extreme skiing. The activities, though they are unique in concept, play just about the same as all other Kinect games – having you constantly jump, stretch and swing your arms around. And hey, if that sounds like fun – by all means give this title a try. But in reality, you’d be getting much the same gameplay as with any other sports title on Kinect.
Most of the modes involve the player getting from point A to B in a race, or collecting various goodies scattered across the path. Some events, such as gliding, require so little effort that it’s one of those games you could probably cheat by playing sitting down – there’ s no effort, and thus little fun to be had. The most complex mode, rock climbing, is little more than reaching for the next point to grab onto and pulling yourself up – and yes, the climbing path upwards is rather limited. Having said all that, the game still manages to somehow misinterpret your movements at times. Given the minimal and basic effort that the game asks of the player, not tracking your movements properly seems unacceptable. Perhaps it’s due to the game’s lower budget that the programming was never touched up, and given that Skiing is actually a port from the original Motionsports, that may as well have been the case.
Because of the game’s more realistic visuals, your Xbox avatar isn’t used – instead there is a selection of a few customizable characters. By playing the game, new character outfits and challenges can be unlocked with the points earned. This is a welcome change from the rest of the Kinect sports lineup and adds a tad of personality to the experience. Each event takes place in one of just 6 locations across the globe, said to be based on a real place - but you’d be hard pressed to find any distinguishing features of a generic snow covered slope versus the real thing. Thanks to the visual style, the locations do look nice though, particularly the tropical settings.
It wouldn’t be a proper Kinect title if it didn’t include multiplayer, and Adrenaline indeed shines in that respect. There are plenty of options, for both local and online play, to compete in the game’s challenges. There are modes such as Speed Round and Survival, which are all rather basic twists on the core gameplay but nonetheless present good multiuser scenarios. There’s no doubt that in the heat of a challenge, limitation of Kinect’s tracking is forgotten in favor of random fun and the game certainly tries its best to make that happen. Players can even interact with each other during the minigames, for example by collecting smoke bombs to throw and disorient their opponents.
So at the end of the day, though Motionsports Adrenaline tries to be different from the rest of the Kinect lineup, it only manages to do so with the visuals. It’s a good looking game, with a realistic style and character customization but clumsy controls and motion sensing. The collection of activities on offer present a new take on sports but multiplayer is the only saving grace to an otherwise limited and thus overpriced package. It is a good way to pass the time with a few friends, but not much more than that.
Our ratings for MotionSports Adrenaline on Xbox 360 out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)
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