What I Played Today: November 4

Rock Band Unplugged, Kinect Adventures, Dance Central, Picross 3D

Guess what day it was everybody! It is Kinect release day, and I had my preorder at the Best Buy, so after a doctor’s appointment that required me to fast all day, I went down and picked it up, convinced by the doctor’s appointment that I really need this, because it means more exercise.

So I got a friend and together we started our Kinect adventure with Kinect Adventures. It’s the minigame fest that comes with the system, and it does a good job of showing off the hardware. We played all the minigames, and they all show off a different obstacle, easy to figure out but intriguing. I think the minecart one is my favorite, with 20,000 Leaks in a close second, just because the premise is ridiculous. The raft one is exhausting, because you’re always jumping and it’s hard to steer with two people. But it’s fun for a try, even if the living statues are kinda beyond silly. (Side note: We’re in a shark!)

Then we moved onto the real meat of the system, Dance Central, which is every bit as great as I thought it would be. Fun songs, fun actions, fun intro, lots of objectives to complete, it just works. Probably my only complaint is that the responsiveness is not complete (but what do you expect) and every song has a freestyle mode, which I don’t get. I understand that one of the gimmicks of the system is “it can totally take your picture,” but I really don’t need to be shown a picture of myself every five minutes. I know what I look like while I’m in my living room. But I look forward to playing even more of this.

Played a little bit of Rock Band Unplugged on the train, because I hadn’t yet, and it was like a time machine. The graphics were all Rock Band 1, and the songs were all old classics. The Frequency style gameplay is fine, although I was weirded out by the vocal track, because it looked like all the rest, but I think it’s pretty competent. It’s way too hard on hard difficulty for me yet, though.

Also finally got to play Picross 3D, and I could not put it down. Picrosses are probably my favorite puzzles, and this twist on it counts for a lot. It’s really clever, the fact that you don’t know the numbers for some columns, the requirement to think in three dimensions, the implementation of how you handle the interiors. It’s a bit wonky to get used to, but once you do, it’s pretty awesome. Hopefully I can unlock the mediums soon; that appears to be where the action really heats up.