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Doodle Jump for Kinect (XBLA) Review

 
Doodle Jump for Kinect (XBLA) Review
Doodle Jump for Kinect (XBLA) Review
Doodle Jump for Kinect (XBLA) Review

 
At a Glance...
 

Formats: Xbox 360 (Kinect Required)
 
Genre:
 
Year:
 
Publisher:
 
Developer: ,
 
Final Score
8.0
8/ 10


User Rating
no ratings yet

 

We liked?


  • Moving around = exercise
  • Simple controls
  • Cheap: Only $5!

Not so much?


  • Check points sometimes can be few and far-between
  • Requires Kinect (you cannot play using a standard controller.)


Final Fiendish Findings?

Doodle Jump, the platform jumper that you may have played on your mobile device, is now available with Kinect motion controls for the Xbox 360 — and it’s available at a fraction of the cost, compared to other Xbox Live Arcade games!

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Posted July 8, 2013 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings...
 
 

Doodle Jump for Kinect (XBLA) Review

Being the sometimes (see: “often”) jaded gaming enthusiasts, we like to speculate and complain about the insatiable greed from game publishers and their knack for charging a premium price for new games, especially new digital downloads.  “If one publisher can convince people to pay more than the normal cost for digital games, then that will eventually become the standard pricing for all games,” we say.  However, it’s genuinely refreshing to see a brand new Xbox Live Arcade game that isn’t priced at $10, $15, or even $20.   Doodle Jump for Kinect is priced at only $5 USD (or the soon-to-be-gone Microsoft currency of 500 MSP).  Even though $5 is still more than its iOS and Android counterparts of $1, it’s appropriately priced, and with Kinect integration, you get a little more bang for your buck.

One of the main reasons that Microsoft introduced the Kinect, besides trying to make the Xbox 360 a little more approachable to families and casual gamers, was to simplify controls.   The Kinect took away any complexity of the standard game controller and replaced it with the motion of your own body.  Because Doodle Jump was originally created for iOS and Android mobie devices, using simple touch and accelerometer controls, Doodle Jump for Kinect translates pretty well using the the Kinect sensor.

Rather than swiping your thumb across the screen or tilting your device, you’ll instead side-step to the left and right to control movement.   For certain power-ups, you’ll use your arms to aim the trajectory of your projectiles, or flap your wings like a bird to keep the boost going when you’re being skyrocketed into the air.

As expected, the first couple of times you’ll play Doodle Jump for Kinect, you’ll probably sacrifice a fair share of lives while adjusting to the motion controls.  Like all Kinect games, you’ll want to play with enough room to be able to take several side-steps to the left and right.

Doodle Jump for Kinect (XBLA) Review

It’s been ages since I last played a Doodle Jump game on my iPod Touch, but one of the first things I noticed with the Kinect version is that stages are broken up into a series of checkpoints.  (Perhaps this is the case with the mobile versions, so you’ll have to excuse me.)  Your overall progress is displayed on the right side of the screen as you work your way up a checkered flag pole.  If you run into a obstacle or miss a platform you’ll start from the bottom.  Your experience and adaptability using the Kinect’s motion controls will weigh heavily into the overall difficulty of the game.  I, personally, didn’t find it too difficult, but there were times where I felt that the checkpoints were a little too far apart.  (Because why blame myself for being too slow or awkward when I can blame cheap AI or impossibly narrow platforms.) 

Of course, what is an Xbox Live Arcade game without some Achievements?  Doodle Jump for Kinect features 12 achievements that add up to 400 points!  Achievement range from 10 points, like completing a level without dying, to 60 points, for three-starring every stage in the games different worlds.

I know that Doodle Jump for Kinect is for Kinect, but I think it would be nice if it was possible to play it by using the standard Xbox 360 controller.  Yes, this totally defeats the purpose of the whole “for Kinect” part of the game’s title, but I think it’d be fun as an unadvertised feature.

A majority of hardcore gamers and enthusiasts may turn their nose up to this game (after all it IS a Kinect game), but I think Doodle Jump for Kinect offers up a lot of fun for the low cost of $5.  If you’re on the fence about it, at the very least visit the Game Marketplace and give the free trial a spin.


Troy Benedict

 


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