Who doesn’t want to be a super hero? Growing up running around in the backyard pretending to be a Jedi, one of the X-Men, or a Power Ranger may sound like a normal day in the life of a kid, but with technology like the Kinect you are able to bring this type of play to the next level. Get ready to power up and combine your imagination with the power of the Kinect as you are the controller with PowerUp Heroes from Ubisoft.
When Kinect released with the tag line of, “You are the controller,” it evoked plenty of different images of players doing things that haven’t been done before, and one of those things that people thought of is actually jumping into a game and battling it out in over the top battles. Other fighting titles have attempted to do this to date, but the results have been more arm flailing and random kicks rather than something a bit more structured.
Along comes PowerUp Heroes, where you your avatar dons some virtual suits that give you powers. To do this you only need to preform some basic moves in front of the Xbox Kinect. These moves are made up of some very basic motions that are displayed on screen. Moves like punching from a distance will launch projectiles at your opponent and raising your knee in the air will launch your avatar into a sliding kick attack that will put you in nice and close to perform some melee attacks. Want to get up close and personal? Well you can as you kick and punch, or use some of your power moves, to get in some devastating attacks against your opponent. Performing these power moves is done by mimicking on screen animations, and surprisingly the Kinect responded much better than I anticipated. The response was so good that it got to the point where my five-year-old son could easily jump into the game and participate as well. When an enemy attacks it initiates a mini-game where you have to use your hands and legs to defend against attacks; unfortunately, compared to the offensive moves, it is not as easy to do.
Before battling you select one of two suits, with each suit having its own specific powers. This comes in handy because you can use a stunning move while wearing one suit and then in mid-battle switch to another suit to perform an attack that leads you into a combo where you can really lay a beat down on your opponent. This adds a bit of variety to the combat, but in the heat of the battle, as I witnessed with my son, you tend to forget there is another suit to use when setting up a combo. Along the way you do get to unlock a few things to modify your character including increasing damage, decreasing charge times, and even adding elemental attacks into the mix as well. Overall, the combat system is quite simple which is great for the younger audience the title is intended for, but it would have been nice to have a harder difficulty to challenge adult gamers who may want to put on some virtual superhero duds of their own.
The story is not remarkable, but it sets up the playing field for our budding heroes. An evil alien has come to earth to destroy the planet and you power up to take on evil and save the world from impending doom. Once you get through the story you are left with some local multiplayer with up to three other players via split screen. You can also play some online 1-on-1 battles against other gamers via Xbox LIVE. Essentially both multiplayer options work exactly the same as the campaign battles, but this time you’re going up against another human being rather than against a computer.
Like most Kinect games, you are represented in game by your Xbox LIVE avatar, which takes on the same shape and look of your virtual likeness. Throughout the game you select suits for your avatar, which in turn gives your avatar some pretty cool powers. I noticed that the avatar’s heads seem a bit larger, but this makes it a tad easier to see facial expressions throughout the battles.
The overall visual look of the game is a cross between a comic book and a cartoon show in the vein of Ben 10 or Dragon Ball Z. Like the cartoons, the game looks slick and everything is exactly where it is supposed to be to enhance the world the heroes battle in, ultimately creating the perfect atmosphere. The animations throughout the game are exactly what I expected would be in a hero fighting game too. I found that that there are some great special aerial moves and the lightning based attacks are quite electrifying (pun intended).
Overall, the graphics are cartoonish in nature and not the best that modern day consoles can produce; however, the comic book and animation style that was intended comes strikingly through and really does set up the right visual tone for the game.
Maybe it is because I am becoming older, but the sound and music in games that I play don’t seem matter as much to me as it used to as long as there is something there that doesn’t sound horrible. In the case of PowerUp Heroes the total sound package is just adequate. There is a barely noticeable soundtrack, which is quite limited, and the sound effects can best be described as purposeful. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong in the sound department for the game as it does its job, but aside from the well known “Fight” at the beginning of the match, and a few appropriate sound effects for power moves and battle actions, you are not left with a whole lot to wow you.
PowerUp Heroes makes a great Kinect title for young gamers, but falls short from being a robust title that will entertain for hours upon hours. That being said, with the great motion controls and comic book style visuals, gamers will be able to become their childhood heroes recreate the good old days of backyard shenanigans.
