Motion Sports Review for Xbox 360

System: X360 (KINECT)	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Ubisoft	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Ubisoft	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Nov. 4, 2010	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1-2	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Everyone	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

Unfortunately, I'm leaning towards the latter because of the other ridiculously exuberant means the game uses in order to make you feel like a sports star. These attempts fail across the board, but that doesn't mean you won't be forced to sit through them after every single mini-game. For instance, after every mini-game you'll have to look at a stat screen showing your progression and how many "fans" you earned while the background is populated with people cheering your image on a jumbotron. After that, you have to wait for the camera to take a picture of you to put on the front of a fake newspaper. After every single mini-game. When you add in all of the loading screens between each of these segments, it can take several minutes just to retry an event. It will frustrate the hell out of you just by refusing to let you play until it has finished the several screens you must navigate just so you can retry the event.

Motion Sports screenshot

There's also the issue of how Motion Sports utilizes the Kinect camera. Move just a step to the side at the wrong time and the system will freak out and lose any memory of who you are. You'll then have to re-sign-in. The process seemed innocent enough the first few times, but had me ripping my hair out by the fiftieth time. This leads to a recalibration and an attempt to recognize you via facial features alone. It's a cool piece of tech, but here's the catch: it worked only once out of dozens of attempts during my time with the game. What it amounted to was a complete waste of my time. There desperately needed to be some option to turn this feature off.

There's not a whole lot that Motion Sports could have done to overcome its many failures. Some of the sports games are really fun, but they're just not worth going through all the red tape just to try. During the course of an hour of play time, you'll probably spend 30-40 minutes (if not more) navigating menus, waiting for loading screens, letting the system take unwanted pictures of you, etc. It might not have been so bad if the games lasted a bit longer, but as it stands, they last mere minutes.

Motion Sports doesn't have a prayer of stacking up against Kinect Sports or any other sports game for that matter. It's clear from the advertising that they were hoping to attract a more serious sports gamer than would be interested in Kinect Sports. Where that game has avatars and goofiness out the ears, Motion Sports tried to offer a more realistic experience and ended up failing.

For some reason, sports mini-game collections hold a lot of allure to me, but Motion Sports just doesn't stack up against others in the genre. You'll have to be a very forgiving person to overlook its major faults, and you'll need a lot of patience to get through all of the waiting. In the end, Motion Sports isn't really a game that many people will enjoy.

By Andrew Groen
CCC Freelance Writer

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

2.5

Graphics
Neither good nor bad. Everything looks decent enough that it won't hurt your eyes, but you wont be impressed either.

3.5

Control
It depends on the sport. Some sports maps your motions very well while others leave much to be desired.

3.0

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The announcer is ridiculously over-the-top, but it's hard to tell if it's tongue-in-cheek or just obnoxious.

3.0

Play Value
There are plenty of unique games on offer here, but there's so many impediments to actually enjoying the game that the entire experience is dragged down. The far-too-frequent load time, and constant signing-in and picture-taking ensure that you're only actually playing about a quarter of the time.

2.6

Overall Rating - Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

Race down the slopes of a Super G slalom, score a mind-blowing penalty shot, duck-and-run your way to a game-winning touchdown, or throw punches at the champ.

Using precision motion-control technology to track your every movement you are in total control of the on-screen action. No controllers, no pads, no limits.

Your performances are broadcast on the in-game TV channel, with live commentators welcoming players to the game and commenting with a humorous tone on every challenge, including your hits and misses.