Slice, Dice, and Eat Brains – Slice Zombies for Kinect Review

<p>If you one of the very few who owns an Xbox Kinect&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re probably wondering what the hell is out at this current time that makes good use of it&period; There’s not much around in the sense of good Kinect games&comma; or many that fully integrate mechanics for use of the camera&period; So&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re like me and you own one&comma; you must be scratching your head&comma; ready to bring it into your local Game shop for a trade in&period; But luck might have it&semi; there is something new on the horizon&period; <em>Slice Zombies<&sol;em> is an exclusive Kinect experience that might have you holding onto the Kinect for a little longer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 830px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;slicezombies&period;com&sol;Media&sol;0&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"830" height&equals;"483" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Slice Zombies &&num;8230&semi; Not Fruit<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>So what is it&quest; <em>Slice Zombies<&sol;em> is best described as a fun and energetic sensory game that has you hack at &lpar;you guessed it&rpar; zombies&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s like <em>Fruit Ninja&comma;<&sol;em> but replace the fruit with zombies and there you go&period; There is no narrative or a structured campaign as such that deliver a host of levels&comma; challenges and has escalating difficulty&period; <em>Slice Zombies<&sol;em> only offers a single mode where players can engage with various zombie types&comma; slicing them with the movements of their hands and gain a mass of XP and coins&comma; unlocking more content for the game&period; The main objective is to kill all the zombies on the screen and stopping them from reaching the edge of the screen&&num;8211&semi;if a zombie reaches the edge of the screen&comma; you lose a life&period; That’s pretty much it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There’s not really much to the game in form of structure&comma; narrative&comma; or a collection of various mission based tasks to complete&period; Just a single game mode that does what it says on the tin&period; This is both good and also a bit of a problem&colon; On the one hand&comma; <em>Slice Zombies<&sol;em> is a great exercise that allows for quick&comma; easy&comma; and enjoyable sensory fun&period; The game gives you plenty to do in a singular slot without the need of a narrative&comma; slow progression&comma; or mindless tutorials&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;123kinect&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;gallery&sol;slice-zombies-for-kinect&sol;SZFK&lowbar;07&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"821" height&equals;"460" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the other hand&comma; this can be a major problem too&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t any progressive manner to the game where you unlock content or progress naturally&period; Instead we’re given a game that just mindlessly throws in a barrage of NPCs and obstacles without any kind of formal structure&period;  Starting up for the first time will see players just thrown into the game without knowing too well what&&num;8217&semi;s going on&period; From the get-go&comma; the game is lively&comma; throwing all manner of things across the screen which in some cases seems like too much too for someone who&&num;8217&semi;s just started&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game is fun and energetic&comma; but at some times can feel like a bit of a burden&comma; as players are unable change the level of difficulty or how the hoards of zombies behave relative to player skill &period; To unlock new content&comma; players must earn XP and coins to buy new items&comma; including Zombie skins&comma; backgrounds&comma; and additional lives&period; This feels slow for progression&comma; rather than naturally unlocking more of the game as you play&period; This means you could be stuck with the same old aesthetics for a while&comma; decreasing the amount of fun to have&comma; as the game switches rapidly from being enjoyable to just plain annoying and difficult&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In my case&comma; the best example would be when I played a round and the timer had reached zero&semi; all of a sudden the game decided to shoot out a few more enemies and other objects&period; This was made more frustrating as I had one life left&comma; and six zombies flying across the screen at high speed&period; This – along with a handful of bombs that cause you to lose a life if you hit them – made it difficult to successfully eliminate all the zombies&period; This was completely unfair&comma; considering I had also reached the time limit and the game still continued without warning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" aligncenter" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;123kinect&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;gallery&sol;slice-zombies-for-kinect&sol;SZFK&lowbar;01&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"826" height&equals;"475" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls are easy to learn&comma; and for the most part&comma; the Kinect for the most part is fairly responsive&period; Only did it manage to fail when I raised my foot and it mistakenly registered it as a form of attack&comma; which made my hand movements unresponsive&period; Still&comma; for the most part&comma; it worked fairly well during my time with the game&period; There were some minor issues at the title screens&comma; and having the game register your hand movements for the first time can also take a while&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Slice Zombies<&sol;em> can be a great deal of fun&comma; as it’s easy to learn and tough to master&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a fun game&comma; but a game with a price tag that does not match it in the slightest&period; If it were cheaper&comma; I would highly recommend it&comma; but at its current asking price – I would wait&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;