Boom Ball for Kinect Comes to Xbox One on Nov 28th
Indie Motion Game Just in Time for Holiday Fun!
- Developer: Virtual Air Guitar Company
- Price tier: $9.99/£7.99
- Regions: North America (Nov 28th, 2014)
- Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, South Africa, India, Singapore, Hong Kong (Dec 5th, 2014)
Indie studio Virtual Air Guitar Company is self-publishing their new motion game Boom Ball for Kinect via Microsoft's ID@Xbox program for Xbox One. "This is a great opportunity for indie studios like us to reach the global gaming community directly. The distribution channel is now open for innovative experiences to appear next to big-budget mainstream games,” says lead designer and company founder Aki Kanerva.
Boom Ball for Kinect is a lighthearted full-body ball game targeted at the family audience. It combines classic arcade ball-bouncing and brick-smashing action with intuitive Kinect control. “We’re continuing our tradition of fun, physically active games that work for people of all ages and heights. It's wonderful to see kids play the game jumping around in pure glee!" says Kanerva.
What makes Boom Ball for Kinect an ideal family game is that it’s easy enough to get into and just play ball. Or you can hone your aim, timing and puzzle-solving skills to reach record times in each of the game’s 55 levels.
The technical improvements in Kinect for Xbox One improve gameplay experiences. With Kinect for Xbox One’s wider field of view you don’t need as much space to play. Its accuracy has made it possible to create a motion game with deep, skill-based gameplay.
Review
This game if fun with a capital F !!!
The aim of the game is to use your hands to hit the ball towards the blocks and destroy them...Simple right ?
After an hour of playing I had a light sheen of sweat and my arms felt REALLY heavy, but to balance that out I had a massive grin on my face.
There are 55 levels to the game and after completing those I believe there's a bonus level (I haven't got the energy to go through the first 55 all in one go).
The levels start out easy enough but as you progress you have to try and be more accurate with your aiming. The Kinect Sensor tracks your movement VERY well and I had no problems at all with missing balls due to tracking issues (lots of problems with bad aiming though :P) A cool feature that could have been added would have been the ability to see your heartrate during play ( I believe this is a feature that the Kinect is capable of).
In the time I played I came across blocks that , when hit, contained special balls and power-ups. You know how frantic multiball is when you're playing pinball ?? Well you can imagine how it is when instead of just the 1 ball to focus on hitting.....you have 6 of them streaming towards you. Unless you are a Hindu Deity then you'll struggle a little and will tend to look like you're trying to shoo away a big swarm of flies. I'm sure as I progress more power-ups and specials will be revealed to help me on my merry way to level 70.
The menu system is straightforward and very easy to use, bright vibrant colours and easy to follow instructions.
My 8 year old son is going to absolutely LOVE this and I can see there been a competition between us for fastest times, I may even get the wife to have a go. It really is a game that the whole family will enjoy.
I streamed a little of this whilst playing and debated whether to include it in the review (due to me looking a bit daft) but here it is in all it's glory.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtCuYDHFvMY]
So in conclusion..... I have no hesitation in recommending this fun game to everyone. Buy it people, it's a really good price (£7.99) and the replayability factor is high.
Many thanks to Aki Kanerva for providing us with a review copy.
[yasr_overall_rating]
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