Sports game collections and motion controls seem to go together like X-Factor contestants and auto-tune. Fans of motion controls will know of the staggering popularity of the two Wii Sports titles and most of you won’t have been able to miss the fact that Move’s stand out launch title at retail was Sports Champions. It’s a natural fit. So the only surprise with Kinect Sports is that it wasn’t chosen as the pack-in title.

The package is presented in exactly the colourful, round-edged world that you would imagine your Xbox Live Avatars to inhabit. It’s child-friendly and cartoon-styled but the inclusion of your own Avatar (you can select different ones) does go some way to making you feel like you’re a part of the world too.

There are few choices to make on the main menu but that suits the large navigational space requirements of the floating hand system. You will have the option of Party Play, Main Event and Mini Games. Each option is fairly self explanatory but it’s worth noting that while the Mini Games and Main Event options can be played for one to four players, the Party Play option requires at least two players because it is a team-based game.

Party Play asks that you divide the room up into a red team and a blue team. It then assigns you a mascot each and randomly throws events at you for the teams to compete in. The comical “foam suit” aesthetics of the mascots and the ever-present, booming voice of the X-Factor – Peter Dickson – are faintly reminiscent of the old family favourite TV show, It’s a Knockout. This mode will allow a large group to be engaged by the game and it allows easy access to the less serious side of things which is perfect if you’ve got a crowd round.

The Mini Games option presents you with a selection of thirteen novelty games based around the sports on offer (except Boxing, strangely). You will have little tasks to complete or targets to hit in order to win the game. This mode allows a short burst of fun if you don’t have the time to go through a full event or perhaps you’re looking for a bit of variation.

Finally, the Main Event mode allows you to select from the six sports on offer: Football (Soccer), Track and Field, Bowling, Boxing, Beach Volleyball and Table Tennis. The controls are necessarily simplified for each sport with the focus being more on making it fun and playable than precise and realistic.

Each sport tracks your body to allow for the movements required. For example, the Football game plays out like a series of mini set-pieces. When you have the ball a number of arrows are displayed showing you what directions you can pass in. Swing your leg as if you’re passing in that direction and the on screen action faithfully represents your movement. When your opponent is in possession they will stop in front of you and take a moment to adjust. A track appears showing where they are about to pass the ball and you have to step into that track to intercept the pass. It means there’s no running with the ball and no passing backwards but it keeps everything moving along at a fairly frenetic pace.

Track and Field requires a lot of running and jumping on the spot as well as swinging your arm to simulate throwing sports (Javelin and Discus are included). Bowling is predictably slower in pace with the game deciding when you let go of the ball, leaving you to concentrate on your speed and direction. Beach Volleyball gives you a target to get your hands to in order to lay up or spike the ball and Table Tennis is a fairly vague approximation of the game whereby you swing your hand at the ball to simulate the paddle. Everything is very well simplified but that could be considered both a good point or a bad point.

There is very little precision in the controls so, for example, Table Tennis loses almost all ability to spin the ball and most of the precision required to even successfully direct it. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it makes this collection extremely accessible to almost anyone but it is what it is and those of you looking for a realistic simulation should keep looking.

The stand out title on the disc for us was Boxing. Kinect tracks your hands so that you have access to jabs, crosses, uppercuts and blocks simply by performing those punches. You have to time and direct your strikes to break through or around your opponent’s defences and it is reasonably physical and very enjoyable. It could be compared to Wii Sports boxing but the removal of wires and controllers makes it feel much more natural, even if there is still not real ability to duck and weave or sidestep.

So Kinect Sports is a reasonable collection which works in much the way you would expect it to. A couple of the events fall down in their simplicity but on the whole there’s nothing here that doesn’t work as you would hope.

Pros:

• It’s accessible and light-hearted fun.
• Avatar integration draws you into the action.
• Would go down a storm at parties.

Cons:

• Perhaps it has been simplified too far.
• A couple of the sports are so basic that they lose most of their competitive appeal.
• Without a group of players it feels a little light.

This collection was a certainty from the moment Microsoft debuted Kinect as Project Natal over a year ago and it certainly does a good job of emulating it’s spiritual predecessors on the Wii. Where it could potentially fall down though, is in the over-simplification of sports which require some degree of precision to make them enjoyable. Table Tennis, in particular, was a disappointment and although it was imaginative in its controls, Football is just too staccato in its rhythm to be enjoyable in the long-term. Kinect Sports is good at what it was trying to do but a question remains as to whether that end goal was a worthy target in the first place.

Score: 7/10