The best sports collection yet
Single Player:
The thing that Kinect Sports seems to lack compared to Wii Sports Resort is the single player game. Wii Sports Resort had plenty of secrets and included 12 sports. These sports often had much more then one way to play them. You start out playing weaker opponents, but as you rank up you play stronger ones, until you face the ultimate champion, who is incredibly good. Kinect sports unfournately is a notch down. There is achievements which will be nice for some player, but the single player is mostly you just facing a computer. You choose from 4 different difficulties, which can go from incredibly easy Beginner, to the challenging Champion difficulty. Kinect sports does have a ranking system, but it doesn't see you progress along like Wii sports resort. Also Kinect Sports only includes 5 sports, one of them being track and field which includes many different events. Luckily there are mini games for each one of these games and records you can try to beat. Kinect Sports single player is unfournately a little shallow.
Multiplayer:
Kinect's multiplayer luckily makes up for it's shallow single player. Unlike Sports Champion and Wii Sports Resort, Kinect Sports includes both offline and online multiplayer which is a great addition. The offline multiplayer lets you play with or against your friends, which can be incredibly fun. The best feature about the multiplayer for Kinect is the online. This features lets you play against either a mystery player or a friend online. You also can invite and online friend to play with you or even have a local guest to play with you against a mystery opponent. This also supports a ranking system, but unfournately this ranking system is merged with the single player ranking system, so the higher your rank online may mean that you just played single player a lot against beginner difficulty. It's weird that the developers wouldn't separate the online and single player ranking system, but this doesn't take away from any of the fun and the multiplayer is a great addition to the game.
Gameplay:
Kinect sports is really incredible. The incredible amount of detail when playing is incredible. In volleyball it is amazing and probably volleyball is my favorite sport in the collection. Volleyball includes tons of detail, like when spiking, you can cut the ball left or right, when bumping you can even kick the ball. It is very in depth and well made and senses your body incredibly well. Boxing is also much better made then Wii sports boxing. It senses hooks, upper cuts, and jabs very well. The only problem I had with it is that they made this block system, where if you block your next punch will be much more powerful then the next, but I guess it prevents people from just going crazy. Soccer was surprisingly fun considering I hate the actual sport. It is a lot different from the actual sport. For defense you just switch to the person closest to the ball and the offense tries to pass it until they get close enough to get a shot, while the defense tries to block the pass pathways. If it gets close enough for the offense to shoot, the defense will change to the goalie and the goalie has to block the shot. Being goalie was probably the best part of Soccer. Ping Pong was good, but it was nothing special compared to the Wii sports resort ping pong or the Sports Champion Ping Pong. It does sense your slices well and top spins, but a controller less ping pong doesn't benefit because you use a paddle in ping pong anyways. Track and Field has 4 different event, 100 meter sprint, Javelin, Long Jump and Hurdles. It did recognize your motions well, but I don't think running in place or pretending to throw something with interest many people for too long, but never the less, it may keep some people entertained for a while. All these games have different individual mini games with most of the mini games actually really fun. The gameplay of kinect is something incredible and is going to be a real treat for many people.
Graphics:
The graphics are done well, it isn't going to get any awards for it, but it has a nice simplistic design like Wii sports and actually looks nicer. 3D live crowds, colorful avatars and backgrounds, and good animation. Kinect sports is a pretty great improvement upon the Wii sports graphics style.
Sound:
The sound of this game is decent. The crowds will cheer whenever you get a nice play, and the quality is good. The only problem is the commentators will sometimes get the play by play wrong. Sometimes you will miss and the commentators will say that was an incredible save. Also they seem incredibly positive and over flattering, like if you do a normal serve in volleyball, they may say, what a powerful serve! It is decent though and shouldn't get in the way of the game.
Conclusion:
Kinect Sports is certainly the best sports collection I have played. Although both Wii sports resort and Sports Champion are fun, kinect brings realism without a controller, and brings precision that has never before seen. Although the single player lacks compared to it's competitors, and the amount of content should is lacking, the online should certainly make up for it.
Single Player: 6/10
Multi player: 8/10
Gameplay:9/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Sound: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10