For a Kinect game to be fun, it has to respond properly to your actions. If you are flailing your hands in the air and there is no response--or even a delayed one--then chances are you won't play for long. Poor control is just one of the problems with Ubisoft's MotionSports Adrenaline, a collection of six "extreme" sporting activities. Unfortunately, these promising activities are rendered almost unplayable by unresponsive controls, limited options, and noticeable glitches.
6344355Gliding down a mountain looks more like bouncing due to the unresponsive controls.
MotionSports Adrenaline offers six intense sporting events: rock climbing, kayaking, kite surfing, mountain biking, skiing, and wingsuit skydiving. Each sport has the same race objective where you complete a given course in as little time as possible while collecting coin pieces that are scattered throughout the course. Though racing fast and collecting points are important, performing stunts and avoiding obstacles that come your way also contribute to your score.
The first problem with the game is that there is no easy way to learn how to perform the given actions for each sport. Outside of the basic visual aids that appear in the loading screen, there is no tutorial to show you the right or wrong way of approaching each action. In general, the controls are pretty basic: Shifting/tilting your body left or right will move your character on the screen in that direction, but sports that have you holding onto an object do not respond to your actions in a timely manner. In both mountain biking and kite surfing, you hold onto an object--the handles of either a kite or a bike--but to turn the handles, you have to shift your hands either left or right. In almost every race with these two particular sports, the motions required for turning left and right often register only intermittently or after a noticeable delay. On courses where a number of obstacles are in your way, the likelihood of hitting one is greater because the sensor won't recognize the actions in a timely manner.
To help you earn points to better your score, certain onscreen stunt markers appear. These typically direct you to throw your arms or legs in a particular direction and mimic the image on the screen. In most races, there is a noticeable delay, and any gesture that requires you to have one arm hover over your torso is almost never acknowledged. Rock climbing suffers from the weakest recognition, though. The objective here is simple: Climb to the top of a cliff while avoiding the various obstacles that come your way. The problem is that most motions require you to lift your arms above your head, pretend to grab something, and then bring your arms down to your chest. When done properly, your character should move up to the next available section of the mountain, but in most cases, the Kinect doesn't pick up the gesture, which just leads to further frustration.
Missing a trick on the Mountain Bike course.
