Yo! You like pets? (YES!) You like fantastic...s? (YES!) THEN YOU WILL QUITE LIKE FANTASTIC PETS.
Now I don't want to be a hater, but while Kinectimals isn't too shabby it features some truly dreadful motion tracking (especially the throwing) and repeats the minigames so often it's like someone's forcing Groundhog Day into your brain with a mallet. It's charming, sure, and my kids (8, 6 and 3, yes I am more fertile than you, deal with it) really like it. You can of course supplement it with bears, but it's more of the same, but with bears.
(I once had to run away from a bear in Canada. It was terrifying. I was supposed to do something with a whistle and stand still, but when the moment came I just pegged it, whimpering like a baby. Since then I've not been a fan of bears. Teddy bears, chocolate bears or David Braben bears)
Fantastic Pets, or Les Z'Animo Fantastic as my French copy proudly calls itself, is actually one of the better Kinect kids games out there, and in my mind it shades Kinectimals to be the premier pet fondling game on the 360 for the under 10s.
Firstly, it's more creative. You can design stupid creatures with horns and wings - they look a bit crap, but at least they can have horns and wings. You can have lizards too. Lizards!
Secondly it actually seems to track your own arm movements, rather than feeling like it's tracking the arm movements of a slalom skiier in Switzerland somewhere.
Thirdly, you remember that vaguely Irish woman who nattered on in Viva Pinata who sounded quite hot? Well she natters all the way through this too (not sure if it's the same woman, it might be) and it's rather nice to be told exactly what to do by a woman while you wave your arms vaguely in the direction of a screen. Well, it's not nice exactly, but when you've been married as long as I have, watching a screen while a woman talks incessantly and you occasionally make a movement to show you're listening is pretty much par for the course.
There's also limited co-op which you don't get in Kinectimals. It doesn't really add something, but when you're as fertile as me, with as many children as I have because of my exceptionally effective reproductive organs, then co-op does save on having to organise "turns".
Granted the whole thing is a bit shallow, and there isn't a huge amount of variety to any of the game, but it's pleasant enough and it's quite good at patting you on the head and telling you've been good in a Popcap'y sort of way. You know the thing, wave your arm and a fireworks display goes off and you're given a gold rosette. Works for me, as I have all sorts of Freudian issues about my childhood where I wasn't congratulated for anything. I now give myself a round of applause every time I go to the toilet. I have issues.
But I digress.
Why am I telling this to a forum which used to pride itself on being a niche import forum for hardcore gamers who spent hours agonising over the condition of their spine card collection?
I have no idea.
But if you see it cheap and have kids, it has the cavalcade seal of approval.
Note: this seal is not a real seal.
Now I don't want to be a hater, but while Kinectimals isn't too shabby it features some truly dreadful motion tracking (especially the throwing) and repeats the minigames so often it's like someone's forcing Groundhog Day into your brain with a mallet. It's charming, sure, and my kids (8, 6 and 3, yes I am more fertile than you, deal with it) really like it. You can of course supplement it with bears, but it's more of the same, but with bears.
(I once had to run away from a bear in Canada. It was terrifying. I was supposed to do something with a whistle and stand still, but when the moment came I just pegged it, whimpering like a baby. Since then I've not been a fan of bears. Teddy bears, chocolate bears or David Braben bears)
Fantastic Pets, or Les Z'Animo Fantastic as my French copy proudly calls itself, is actually one of the better Kinect kids games out there, and in my mind it shades Kinectimals to be the premier pet fondling game on the 360 for the under 10s.
Firstly, it's more creative. You can design stupid creatures with horns and wings - they look a bit crap, but at least they can have horns and wings. You can have lizards too. Lizards!
Secondly it actually seems to track your own arm movements, rather than feeling like it's tracking the arm movements of a slalom skiier in Switzerland somewhere.
Thirdly, you remember that vaguely Irish woman who nattered on in Viva Pinata who sounded quite hot? Well she natters all the way through this too (not sure if it's the same woman, it might be) and it's rather nice to be told exactly what to do by a woman while you wave your arms vaguely in the direction of a screen. Well, it's not nice exactly, but when you've been married as long as I have, watching a screen while a woman talks incessantly and you occasionally make a movement to show you're listening is pretty much par for the course.
There's also limited co-op which you don't get in Kinectimals. It doesn't really add something, but when you're as fertile as me, with as many children as I have because of my exceptionally effective reproductive organs, then co-op does save on having to organise "turns".
Granted the whole thing is a bit shallow, and there isn't a huge amount of variety to any of the game, but it's pleasant enough and it's quite good at patting you on the head and telling you've been good in a Popcap'y sort of way. You know the thing, wave your arm and a fireworks display goes off and you're given a gold rosette. Works for me, as I have all sorts of Freudian issues about my childhood where I wasn't congratulated for anything. I now give myself a round of applause every time I go to the toilet. I have issues.
But I digress.
Why am I telling this to a forum which used to pride itself on being a niche import forum for hardcore gamers who spent hours agonising over the condition of their spine card collection?
I have no idea.
But if you see it cheap and have kids, it has the cavalcade seal of approval.
Note: this seal is not a real seal.
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