The Next Wave of Kinect Games Lands

A new wave of Kinect games has landed in stores, with titles that will let you exercise your acting chops, test your mental and physical reaction time, and join a bowling league without having to rent those obnoxious shoes.

Yoostar 2 In the Movies

Yoostar 2 In the Movies is easily the best party game this side of Dance Central, and is a very welcome addition to the Kinect lineup for those of us whose dancing skills are measured on the same scale as Elaine Benes from Seinfeld. Yoostar 2 lets you re-enact iconic scenes from popular films, with you taking one of the starring roles. Kinect films you as you read and act the lines of the scene being played onscreen, and then it digitally replaces the original actor with your recorded image as you watch the scene afterwards.

Yoostar 2 lets you re-enact classic movie scenes.

Scoring is based on a wide variety of factors, such as timing of the line delivery and how animated you are as you recreate the scene. The gameplay aspect is sort of like singing vocals in the Rock Band or Karaoke Revolution games, except you’re acting instead of singing, and you get to hear and watch your performance afterwards.

Look a little more excited, guy. After all, this is Sparta!

Yoostar 2 has all the elements for those who enjoy scoring and milestones, such as unlockable venues and lots of achievements, but the really smart thing about its design is that it doesn’t force you to play any certain way. If you and a family member want to ham it up while acting out a scene together just for the fun of it, you can. If you’re having a party and you want to jump around between scenes and just let people have fun recreating them, you can. You never get failed out early, you’re never forced along a certain path, and in fact you might find yourself earning points for some of your goofier acting moments.

Yoostar 2 has a wide variety of movie and TV clips to re-enact.

Of course, just as music games rely on having familiar tunes, Yoostar 2 is only as good as the movies in the game. And there’s great news here, with iconic clips from films ranging from classics like Casablanca and The Godfather to more receent hits like The Hangover and 300. There are also a few TV shows thrown in for good measure, such as CSI and Mad Men. Parents take note: Warning messages pop-up before the clips play when there’s adult language in the scenes, so you can comfortably play this with the kids.

Body and Brain Connection

The renowned Dr. Kawashima has brought his brain age-testing expertise to Kinect with Body and Brain Connection, which takes the classic brain challenge formula and brings your whole body into the game.

Make your selections with bodily movements, in this case, kicking the correct ball.

Body and Brain Connection consists of a series of mini-games that get you to perform relatively simple tasks, such as converting digital times for an analog clock, duplicating patterns, routing traffic based on color, or whacking mice while avoiding hitting their prickly cousins. The difference here is that, instead of using a controller to enter your answers, you use your arms and legs. For example, on the clock challenge, you use your hands to set the clock hands. The goal here is to challenge not only your mental reaction time, but your physical reactions as well. You can play solo, or compete against a friend.

Remembering my decision-making choices when I was 20, seems like people should strive for 25.

The game’s achievements encourage you to play regularly so that you can learn to decrease reaction times. Each day you log in, an initial test will give you your “brain age” for the day. I’ve since been informed that my first-day score, which was 13 years higher than my actual age, did not mean I was wise beyond my years.

Brunswick Pro Bowling

If you’ve played the awesome bowling mini-games that are included in Kinect Sports, you already know how much fun bowling can be using Kinect. If you’re a real-world bowler, though, you might have had your appetite whetted for more serious virtual bowling. Brunswick Pro Bowling delivers that. While you can simply choose to bowl 10 frames for the pure fun of it, Brunswick Pro Bowling also includes a tournament mode that lets you create a team and participate in a virtual league, winning virtual money and using it to buy virtual bowling shoes, balls, and other fun items.

Are you ready for the big (bowling) leagues?

In addition to just making a smooth bowling throw, there’s deeper planning here, including changing between different ball models (some hook more than others) and manually setting your aim before you start your throw. Ball and pin physics are excellent. Your team can have up to three additional human players on it, so you can invite your whole bowling team over. We wish it was a little easier to skip watching the A.I. bowlers, but hey, that more or less recreates the annoying delay while you wait for the guy in the next lane to throw his ball already.

—Denny Atkin (Editer)