Review: Kinectimals: Now With Bears!

Words by: Jennifer Allen | Posted on: Wednesday 2nd November, 2011 | Filed under: Game Reviews, Retail Games.

No matter how cold hearted or cynical you may be, it’s hard not to descend into a tirade of ‘aww look at the cute little thing. He’s soooo adorable’ when confronted with a baby animal of some description. You might not openly say it but I know you’re thinking it. This is precisely why Kinectimals: Now with Bears! (the exclamation mark is important) is guaranteed to be so popular. It captures that spirit wonderfully. While aimed at children, there’s still a lot to like here for the unsuspecting adult who gets roped into playing it too.

To backtrack a little, Kinectimals without the bears is still fantastic. A loose storyline is connected to proceedings with players first taking a moment to choose which cat based cub. It’s a huge decision, quite worryingly so. Rejecting even virtual animals feels cruel when they feel this full of life, leaping up at the screen all too eager for your attention. Ultraviolent games are great for the psychopath in you but there’s still that moment in anyone’s life where they look at a ball of fluff and are reduced to exclaiming ‘aww look at the cute, ickle, wickle cuddly wuddly tiggercat’.

Placed upon an island in search of the mysterious Captain that used to live there, Kinectimals knows how to draw players in. Only one area of the island is available at first but as you progress through the various mini games and level up, more content is unlocked. Basic commands are the first order of the day with your first task being to teach the animal to sit, fetch, roll over, all the regular things you’d teach a dog. As a Kinect title, this means actually sitting, rolling over and even spinning around on the spot. You may feel like an idiot doing this with other adults watching but kids will love it. A trickle effect of new abilities and toys pop up with the likes of frisbees, footballs and even a radio control car featuring. It’s all simplistic but nothing outstays its welcome. While at first, you might find yourself just throwing a frisbee towards the cub, it’s only a few seconds until you find targets to throw at to gain more experience and complete objectives. The pacing is exceptional with each of these tasks quite brief. Because of this, it’s always enjoyable regardless of your age. There’s even a certain amount of exercise gained from it which can never be a bad thing.

That’s the original Kinectimals, available on this disc. Alongside that however is the new DLC, Bear Island available through a menu meaning that players can always return to their cats instead. Bear Island offers a near identical experience. While the areas to explore are different and the animal charges are now of the bear variety, it’s still generally the same game. There are new games to play though. Bears can climb trees which invokes a game that involves waving your arms wildly up in the air to climb quickly. Fishing is another pleasant delight being intuitive to learn but compelling to master. New tricks and loveable bears keep things consistently cute.

Crucially, motion controls are ever reliable, just like with the original Kinectimals. While a fair amount of room would be ideal, as is the case with any Kinect game, it feels much more forgiving than other titles. Navigating menus is easy, never feeling like a chore. It’s easy to pet the animal by brushing a hand towards it. It’ll no doubt cause a few happy squeals of glee from children. Even complex movements like playing volleyball with the bear is pretty responsive. Not once did I find myself let down by the motion tracking. Controls have clearly been carefully considered with the likes of fishing simple to pick up without any need for tutorial screens. It just works exactly how you’d imagine. Little things like how the animal reacts to you saying its name or a hand placed near it make all the difference to making it somehow feel real despite your better judgement. Even my cat got overly excited whenever a bear appeared on screen, frequently trying to reach the bear.

Simply put, Kinectimals is adorable. Children will adore it and you’ll find yourself similarly endeared to the fluffballs. Offering around 15hrs of fun with the main story, plus all the incidental time of playing with the offspring, there’s plenty here to keep them hooked. Most importantly, it’s a game that’s been made with children in mind. Everything is geared towards their needs with it being just the kind of game you could leave them play without the need for constant supervision. Frontier Developments have obviously taken their responsibilities seriously and are determined to create the best kids’ game possible and it shows. Kinectimals: Now With Bears! is genuinely one of the best children’s games I’ve ever played. If ever there was a game that made Kinect essential for families this Christmas, this is it. It’s like a warm cuddle of happiness in game form. Your kids will love you for it.

About Jennifer Allen

Jen's been playing games for longer than she can remember (20 odd years) and has been writing about them for 4 years. In her spare time she likes to pretend she can train her guinea pigs to do tricks. She should stick to chocobos.

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