Gamescom: Kung Fu High Impact Preview

Kung Fu High Impact is one of those games that hasn’t received much media attention but still sounds like a very interesting title. That’s also why we were pretty surprised to see it playable at Gamescom, because it hasn’t been that long ago since we even learned about the existence of the title! Microsoft had one tiny setup for Kung Fu High Impact at their Xbox Booth (with unfortunately featured a very small screen) and so of course we had to try it. The game’s demo didn’t feature multiplayer and thus I went in alone and gave it a go, here are my thoughts on it.

Kung Fu High Impact

Kung Fu High Impact is like a side-scrolling brawler, but instead of playing some sort of character the game puts you in the middle of the action! While playing the game Kinect is continually scanning your body and movements and puts that exact image in the game. This way you can punch, kick, jump, duck and perform special moves which translate 1:1 into the game. It sounds like a great concept and now that I played it I know it is a great concept because it works perfectly and it is a hell lot of fun!

The most immersive brawler

The Demo that I played at Gamescom featured a very basic level where there are endless waves of enemies coming to kick your ass. Although this was just a simple level it was enough for me to show that this is by far the most immersive brawler out there! You really feel like you are in the game and the fact that your actual moves translate into game moves makes for a massively enjoyable playing experience. The only thing that is a bit weird is that you of course have to keep looking at the screen to see what is happening, so often you’ll be punching and kicking to the left and right, and not forward. Still, the fighting works very well and especially the special moves are totally awesome. The special moves are all pretty extravagant and with relatively simple “gestures” you can make your in-game character do some insane stuff. Think about massive jumps, flips, electrical attacks and all kind of stuff like that. There is one move where you jump up and then punch your hand on the ground to make your character do some earthquake attack. When I performed this the first time I got a little bit too enthusiastic and I actually punched the ground with full force. This of course hurt like hell but it just shows how immersive this game is! Also, the better you are in physical shape, the better you’ll perform in this game (which is awesome I think), and if you are not in such good physical shape…this game will definitely make you!

Conclusion

I didn’t play this game for so long because of time restrictions, but judging from how good the tracking is and how fun the game is to play I can see this becoming a very good game. I hope there will be a bit more interesting content than just waves of enemies and I really hope there will be a co-op multiplayer mode, but otherwise I see a bright future for Kung Fu High Impact!