Demo Impressions: Kinect Sports Season 2

Starting today, the Kinect Sports Season 2 demo is available in the Xbox Live Marketplace. While it doesn’t feature all of the modes included in the final package, it does include Golf and Tennis. Here are my impressions of both of the sports.

Golf:

As soon as you start the game, you are prompted to use voice commands. You can choose between tennis and golf just by speaking and that trend continues once you get into the game. Once you get up to the tee, you can speak to choose between clubs or take a practice swing. I found this to really streamline the experience and it immersed me in the game fully.

With the actual gameplay, it is extremely simple to master. You either step back or forth to switch the alignment of your shot and then you swing the golf club just like a real one. I found that the actual swinging of the club was more accurate than that of the Wii version of Golf. The amount of power I wanted was measured perfectly and I never had an issue with my swing not registering.

While the demo was very short, this version of Golf is the best I have ever played using motion controls and I can’t wait to play it further in the retail copy when it launches on Tuesday.

Tennis:

As good as Golf was, Tennis takes all of that and throws it out the window. If you were looking for a perfect version of Tennis, stick with your Wii.

It plays just like the Wii versions where the character walks on their own and you just swing the racquet with your arm. What ends up happening is that you will lob a whole bunch of shots in when you meant to do a power shot. Similarly, when it comes to serving, it is completely hit or miss. I sometimes did a fast shot or a slow shot when I kept the same animation and swung at the same time.

Basically, Tennis is a bit of a mess in terms of control. Since I started off with Golf, I had high expectation for Tennis but I was severely disappointed. Hopefully the remaining sports games in the retail copy make up for Tennis.

So, if you haven’t downloaded the demo yet, I highly recommend it if just for the Golf. Steer clear of the Tennis mode as much as possible.