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Just Dance Kids 2: Exercise-in-disguise for the purple dinosaur set
I received a free copy of Just Dance Kids 2 for Kinect through the Amazon Vine program, so the following is a copy of the review I wrote for the game.
Vine reviewers with kids between the ages of 3 and 8 were asked to review this game, and I think that’s a good age range for Just Dance Kids 2. My 7-year-old enjoys this game, while my 10-year-old prefers the “big” Just Dance 3 Kinect game.
This game is structured slightly differently from JD3. When players jump in front of the camera to play, it takes a picture of your face, and with gestures you can select a cartoon avatar that’s either boyish or girlish. (That’s an important distinction for young kids!) The videos show actual kids dancing against colorful backdrops, and the steps themselves are much simpler and more repetitive than the regular Just Dance dances. The songlist is more kid-oriented than JD (“Lollipop” here is the “lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly lolly lolly” song, NOT the “sucking too hard on your lollipop” song in JD3) although not as large, and so far there’s no downloadable songs. It’s very easy for players to jump in and out mid-song, but make sure there’s plenty of room for them to jump around – it can get pretty chaotic! The “create your own dance” feature is also included and a lot of fun.
This would probably have the most appeal to the Barney and Yo Gabba Gabba set. The controls are easy to use even for the youngest gamers, provided the camera can see them. If they’re older and already listen to a lot of pop songs, Just Dance 3 may be a better buy.
Here is the song list, from the description on Amazon:
Hot Pop Songs for Older Kids!
- Alright
- Burnin’ up
- Dumb Love
- Feeling Good
- On Our Way
- I’m Gonna Catch You
- Intuition
- Just The Way You Are
- Love Me
- Positivity
- Rocketeer
- Whip My Hair
- Song 2
- Start All Over
Songs from kids’ favorite movies and TV shows
- Accidentally in Love
- Despicable Me
- Hold Still – Yo Gabba Gabba
- I Am A Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)
- Jump Up!
- The Robot Song – Yo Gabba Gabba
- Follow The Leader – The Wiggles
- The Shimmie Shake! – The Wiggles
- The Lion Sleeps Tonight
- Something That I Want
Fun Songs for Younger Kids
- Party Goes Down
- Itsy Bitsy Spider
- Five Little Monkeys
- Mah Nà Mah Nà
- Girls Can Too
- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
- Summer School
- Hand in Hand
Classic Kid favorites!
- Barbara Ann
- Crocodile Rock
- Istanbul
- Jingle Bells
- Lollipop
- Shake Your Groove Thing
- Hand in Hand
Like this:
Zumba Fitness Rush for Kinect: behind-the-scenes video
The game I may be looking forward to the most in 2012 is Zumba Fitness Rush, the second in the Zumba series for Xbox 360 Kinect. Zumba Fitness 2 for Wii is getting raves for having improved graphics and gameplay, and Rush looks like it’s bringing the same improvements to Kinect – or at least will be better than its predecessor.
The above video, starring a Zumba instructor who won a contest to be in the game, is whipping up my excitement! It doesn’t show much of the game itself, but the mo-cap process that is shown, is neat to watch.
Walk It Out for $100?
Catch Walk It Out before it ambles into the sunset
Two years after its release, Walk It Out is still one of the best and most unique Wii exergames. It still has dedicated followings of fans at Facebook and Sparkpeople, and rave reviews continue rolling in at Amazon.
But sadly, the game has been discontinued by Konami, and now it’s looking like Amazon’s supply has finally dried up. If you want to buy it new from one of the third-party sellers, the price ranges from $100 all the way up to $999 – and the top price was nearly $4000 at one point! Even the used games start at around the same price as a brand-new Kinect game.
If you haven’t yet gotten this wonderful, addicting exergame, run don’t walk; supplies are limited. Right now the best place to check is Gamestop; many stores throughout the US have used copies in stock for under $20.
Turn kettlebells into a Kinect minigame with Your Shape 2012
I haven’t yet seen a console exergame that incorporates one of my fave workout tools, kettlebells, but one of the greatest things about Kinect is that you can hold onto whatever you want. Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 has several fun warmup minigames, and one of them, “Pump It Up”, has you inflating and exploding giant balls for 2 minutes.
You’re supposed to put your arms out and flap them like a bird during this game, but I discovered that it also works with kettlebell swings! Check it out:
The kettlebell (I’m using a 12k) doesn’t show up for some reason, and it’s hard to tell, but I am leaning back on my heels. Swings make a great warmup for my glutes and legs and lungs, and with this minigame, there’s no dread.
Like this:
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012: Results you can see
Jump rope minigame in Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012
Most of my favorite exergames emphasize the “-game” over the “exer-”, which is why I never really got into Wii Fit or other games that were built around workout programs. But as luck would have it, I received a free copy of the Xbox Kinect game Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 through Amazon’s Vine program, so I’m going to make it part of my exercise regimen, for as long as it takes to write a decent review.
YSFE reminds me a lot of Exerbeat for Wii, in that it has a mind-boggling collection of activities, many of which have to be unlocked as you go along. One group of activities is called “Activities”: these meta-activities are minigames that you can play by yourself or with up to 3 other people.
I tried an activity called Stomp It, which is like a cross between DDR and Simon. As rhythmic music plays, lights scroll towards you on the floor in one of four directions, and you have to stomp the lights to the beat of the music. Each time you stomp correctly, a brick is added to a huge circular wall around you, so when time is up, you can see gaps in the wall where you missed a stomp.
I found myself playing this game again and again, just to make a complete wall. Then it occurred to me what a brilliant idea this was. You could SEE the result of your work, and the visual, instant “reward” made me want to keep trying to improve it.
It’s like building a wall in real life, or completing a race, or moving an object from one place to another. You feel more of a sense of accomplishment than if you just did two sets of jumping jacks. And the results that most people want, like six-pack abs or bikini-ready buns, are so slow in coming (if they come at all, given the way most of us eat) that people often get discouraged and give up.
People like getting a pat on the back, and it looks like YSFE is full of visual pats. I’m on my second day of playing this game, and I’ll be blogging about it little by little. Hopefully I’ll get results I can see in the mirror, but that’s a long way off, and I’m having fun building virtual walls in the meantime.
