Kinect Disneyland Adventures Review – (xbox 360)

Experience the magic of Disneyland through the magic of Kinect, sounds like a match made in heaven?

Well, it kind of is, but then doesn’t quite get there. As a longtime fan of Frontier and their recent efforts, notably Kinectimals being one of the launch highlights for the Kinect, a title that offered interaction that went above and beyond the jump, crouch, dance controls we have seen so much of. When I first heard of the Disney game,I admit the child in me got a little excited especially since I have not ventured to America’s theme park wonderland for around twenty years. A “realistically” modeled Disneyland experience? Hell yes, that had to be worth the ticket.
Upon fronting up to the start of the game it all seems to start well, a standard familiarization tutorial takes you through the basics, navigation of the game being responsive and user friendly, which always helps. Then we delve into character interactions and moving around the park, here there can be a few hiccups, although not game breaking they can drag you back from Florida when Mickey is ignoring your request for a hug.

Getting around the park areas is novel, pointing the direction that you want to go, this can be a distracting way to control a third person character on screen, but you do get into it. The streets of Disneyland however are paved with gold, well at least collectable coins that you need to spend I the gift shops, they are fairly light on patrons, even Main Street seems quiet and while the variety of random visitors are well placed there is a distinct lack of the heavyweight theme park visitors.

The park areas are visualised well and flow quite naturally, and while there is a good mixture of rides and stores to visit, you always feel there is something missing. Each area hold a key attraction which is a hub for a selection of minigames, which while varied and dare I say it fun, do have a few black sheep games that can be somewhat irritating. Not forgetting that on the whole, the controls have not journeyed much further than Kinect Adventures.

Disneyland Adventures is a firm family title and could certainly impress the right audience, if you want to be picky you can find fault, or you can just crank a couple of hours on a wet Sunday afternoon and enjoy it. If I had one wish it would have been to experience more of a simulation of the parks than be forced to play minigames and collect coins.