The best Kinect games so far have been ones that require simple gestures. With this in mind, adding Kinect controls to Steel Battalion: Heavy Armour sounds like a strange move right from the start. It has to be played with both the Kinect and the controller at the same time, while sitting down. Reviewers claim that more often than not it’ll mistake resting your arm on your leg as a gesture and something random will happen, like activating the self-destruct button. Even the simplest of tasks, such as changing weapons, often results in the wrong button being pushed.
The Verge gave it 1/10, stating that they simply couldn’t finish it. IGN followed suit with a 3/10 review, calling it one of the system’s worst games. The Official US Xbox 360 Magazine however thought that it was full of ambition and handed out 7.5.
The Metacritic score currently stands at a shambolic 41%.
Faring better is LEGO Batman 2: Marvel Superheroes. There hasn’t been a bad LEGO game yet, ignoring perhaps LEGO Indiana Jones 2, and if reviews are anything to go by then LEGO Batman 2 is the best of the bunch. EGM gave it a resounding 9.5, The Guardian a 4/5 and Games Radar an 8/10.
Games Radar pointed out that the AI gets in the way and controlling Superman in flight is a pain, but the sense of humour and quality of puzzles shines through.
A handful of casual games finish the week off – Just Dance: Greatest Hits on Xbox 360 and Fantasy Petz 3D and Murder on the Titanic on 3DS.
Next week: Spec Ops: The Line (PS3, 360, PC), The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy (PS3), The Amazing Spider-Man (PS3, 360, Wii, 3DS, DS), Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PS Vita), London 2012 (PS3, 360, PC), Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns (DS, 3DS), Inversion (PS3, 360), Project Zero 2: Wii Edition (Wii), Ice Age: Continental Drift – Arctic Games (PS3, 360, Wii, DS, 3DS), Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir (3DS), Myst (3DS) and Tour De France 2012 (360). Whew!