Customer Reviews

Kinectimals

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Kinectimals is structured and directed more to a younger audience. My 5 year old daughter is addicted! The game is however quite inviting to the older generation, especially when I see how much my kid was enjoying her new pet!

Kinectimals isn't too advance in the form of a Sims game, but you do get to teach your pet several tricks (i believe there is like 10). You teach your pet to do tricks by performing them yourself, and after he/she has learned the trick you can either perform the trick so your kinectimals will mimic you or you can just give voice commands. Also, you have to show your pet love--to do this you will take care of it by petting it, congratulating it, brushing it, playing fetch or with other toys, buying accessories for it, and more! All these actions help build up a type of discovery meter, the more you do with your pet the more the discovery meter builds up and in turn the more of the map/island you discover. The more you discover, the more you unlock!

There isn't much of an actual storyline, except for the introduction you get on how everything came about and how the previous pet owner (some pirate/captain) left many years ago. Overall, your main objective is to eventually discover the whole island and defeat mini games on the way. You can also, use a magnifying glass to scope out your surroundings in the meantime to look for buried hidden treasures.

The mini games are creative and fun but a little bit repetitive. They utilize the same games but dress them up differently so they appear different. "Bumble" the guide of the game, a half bee/half mouse looking animal, flies around talking and sometimes I found to be quite annoying. There is a marketplace within furr town which you can purchase items from all the discovery points you receive. The items sold there can be used to decorate the interior of your home, accessorize your pet, etc etc etc.

My daughter and I are still discovering the island and the game for now, but I will post more as more comes. I believe this is a great game and great buy if you have a child in the age range of 5 - 15. But, if you are just an adult looking for a Kinect game for yourself, you will find yourself bored with the title quicker then a child would be. I only played a few times, and don't care to play to much more except for letting my daughter play.

*For people who are wondering if you can buy the plush animals and use them over multiple gamertags--well you can! The scan card on the plush animal isn't unique in any way and can be scanned multiple times to any gamertag.

**For people who have pre-order bonus codes for exclusive animals (i.e. the gamestop exclusive red-n-black tiger), after redeeming the code and downloading the content, the game will not let you choose the red-n-black tiger from the start. You must pick any animal, and after you leave the bonding circle to head towards your home...a pop up message will show up in the top left corner of your screen alerting you of a new friend in furr town. That will be your red-n-black tiger.

***For achievement hunters, the achievements on this game are extremely easy to get because this game wasn't made very challenging at all.

I was astounded when Gametrailers gave this game an 8.5 rating and immediately had to pick it up for myself and my son. He is in love with this game and cannot stop talking about his pet Bengal tiger cub in which he affectionately named Patrick. Yes, he watches too much Spongebob.

The visuals are breath-taking; I didn't expect the game to look this polished as a launch title. The gameplay is fun; you go around learning and teaching your pet new tricks while playing mini-games and unlocking new sections of your island. It has some mystery involved, but nothing too advanced that my son can't handle.

I highly recommend this game to ANYONE with children, it's a must have.

Most video games seem to be made for older kids, but not Kinectimals. My daughter and her friends absolutely love playing this game. In fact I have to ration their playing time because they could play for hours if I let them. The interaction is great and the interface is easy to learn, even for little kids. Definitely glad I decided to purchase this game - what surprised me is that I also found it fun to play with my daughter.

I've read the reviews here, and yes, I find the talking floating guy annoying. But my kids don't seem to mind. I have a 7YO girl (almost 8 - who's got a huge imagination) and a 5YO boy (with PDD-NOS). They LOVE this game. It took them a little while to get used to throwing things, but they've pretty well got it now. They each have several cubs they play with and they all have names. If your kids see the commercial and fall in love with the idea, I say get it. Those cubs are too darned cute!

Okay- I am a 29 year old male, and I have no children- yet I still played through this game. Why?- because out of the many Kinect games I had the opportunity to try (I work in the game industry, and have the chance to play a lot of games), this stood out as something creative and appealing in a new way. Sure, virtual pet games are nothing new, but in the case of Kinectimals, the body motion driven interaction really adds something to the concept. Also, the execution and presentation of this game are very nice. I was honestly just refreshed to see a game that was clearly designed for kids, but wasn't rushed or lazy feeling. Oftentimes, games for children tend to be pretty... meh... like, the reasoning is that kids won't know any better; they won't realize that the graphics are mediocre or that the design is bad. But here, you have something that was approached with far more care, and even adults will enjoy it.
The game structure is very simple, and quite forgiving if you only want to 'finish' the story; the only real challenge lies in obtaining a few of the gold medals in the various contests.
Overall, this is a great game for families and kids. It is engaging, entertaining, appealing to look at and listen to, and manages to be fun yet non-violent/aggressive (which is pretty hard to do in game design).
If the idea of this looks good to you already, don't worry- go ahead and pick it up, it is very well done.

If you have a little boy or girl, you can't go wrong with this game. It's probably the best Kinect game next to Dance Central. The game is easy for anyone to jump into. My 7yo learned everything it had to offer in about an hours time. She has never been so addicted to a game before. It gets them off the couch, and is a very active game. Lots of kicking, rolling, running and jumping. Considering it's a launch game, I was very impressed how in depth and how much the player was able to do. Besides the kinect motions itself, what really impressed me was how great this game looks. It's obviously the best looking pet game in existence and kids will fall in love with these furry funny felines as soon as the game starts. It's a good mesh of taking care of your pet and setting off a big adventure with your pet on this tropical island. I myself find myself playing it a little bit and I was amazed how much I enjoyed it.

The only down side with the game is that the controls can be frustrating for little ones and patience is the key. The kicking of the ball and throwing balls and toys at targets can be challenging. But it takes some patience and adjusting to the controls to get it down. The game also has voice recognition for your pet and sometimes it doesn't seem to always respond to your orders or tricks when called out. But overall, it seemed pretty consistent.

This is a must have game if you have the Kinect, and if you have children, it's a no brainer. Just make sure your kids do their homework before they play this one, because they won't want to quit!

This game is one of the best I have ever seen for kids. My 5 year old daughter giggles, dances and gets a great workout while training baby animals and playing games in this adventure. She would play for hours if we let her!

The game is intuitive and down right fun to play. My husband and I have just as much fun playing it as our daughter does - and it is a fun family activity.

The graphics are spectacular and the sound effects down right adorable! I highly recommend it!

This game is fun...lots of fun. I started playing it so that I could show my kids how to do it, but it was so hard to stop! My 3yo loves watching the game, my 5yo loves playing it, and my 15yo has gotten in trouble for playing it instead of doing homework. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I love playing the game too. It's cute, there are tons of mini-games, and it gradually carries you through a story while you're playing with an on screen pet. I've done my fair share of hardcore gaming and completed Halo:Reach on Legendary, but this game satisfies a completely different need. It's rewarding, easy to navigate, and my only objection is that we have to give up our spot for the kids to play!

My petite 4 your old loves this game. She gets a little excited and moves around in the living room a little too much. We ended up bringing out a mat and told her to stay within the confines of that and it worked out great.

The mini games are great and doesn't require you to do well at them to move on saving a lot of frustration for kids. Some examples of the mini games are; throwing a ball to knock down "skittles", driving a remote control car through a track, guiding your Kinectamal through and obstacle course, hitting a beach ball back and forth as many times as possible, kicking a soccer ball to pop bubbles, etc. They are fun for kids but are juvinile and hold little value for adults.

Also our four year old can't read so while the helper talks to you while you're learing new things it doesn't when your in the middle of some of the challenges. At these times it relies on text and our daughter doesn't know what to do.

The Good:

Very enjoyable for little kids. I'm going to estimate age ranging from 4 - 13. Cute. Large variety of activities.

The bad:

There are several felines to choose from but there seems to be really very little difference other then aesthetics. It sometimes has difficulty reading her movments especially when throwing items but has no problem when I do it. May have to do with her short stature and short arms. Limited value for adults (but it's not really targeted to us is it?).

Also unlike some of the other Kinect offerings you will not be getting a workout from this game unless you are SEVERELY out of shape.

Overall the kids will love it and the adults will enjoy watching the kids play it.

When I saw this game, I thought it'd be so cute and fun! It was cute, and it's fun, but the introduction flying fairy/racoon/rat thing talks way too much! There's a 5 minute introduction before you can pick your cub. Then Bumble will tell you how to do tricks, how get out toys and food and care for your cub, but it doesn't end there! Bumble doesn't stop talking. He over-explains things. I just hope that you can get to a point where Bumble doesn't need to talk to you any more.
The game involves your cub finding pieces to the missing map. In the beginning Bumble tells you about a large gold sorce, but by the time that comes up, you just want to play, so you aren't listening. The cubs are cute, and playing with them is fun. There are a lot of different toys to play with. When you reach a new level, you can unlock a new contest. If you say "no" to going there right away, Bumble says "Remember, if you would like to go to the hidden valley, you can find your map in the toy box." "Just so you know if you wave your right had at the bottom of the screen, you can open your toy box."
I don't like the game as much as I thought I would because the stupid flying fairy/racoon/rat thing won't be quite and let you play!