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Kung Fu Panda 2

• Official site: KungFuPanda2VideoGame.com
• Developer: Griptonite Games
• Publisher: THQ
• Genre: Action & Adventure
• Players: 1
• Xbox Live supported?: yes
• Uses avatars?: no
• Voice control?: yes
• Age group: All
• Mini-games?: yes
  

Kung Fu Panda 2 - The good

• The game is a good extension of the movies, it gives the impression of being in the shoes of the famous Panda
• The background music, the sounds and the voice of Po are pretty good
• A good variety of Kung Fu movements
  

Kung Fu Panda 2 - The not so good

• Single-player only
• Can’t play online
• Long delay between the fight scenes
• The fighting becomes repetitive
• No real fight
  

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Story
Finally a kinect game with a story mode (I think Sonic Free Riders has one too). The story is simple but is in the spirit of the movies. Basically you are incarnate Po and, with the help of the furious five (Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Crane, Viper), you have to restore peace in Gongmen City by defeating the new and mysterious enemy and his army of wolves, gorillas, and komodo dragons.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Kinect experience
The use of Kinect is fully and well integrated, an example is the menu navigation. You select an item with your right hand and by raising or lowering your arm, then just throw a punch on the gong with your left hand. It’s accurate, fast and very effective. It seems that in every new game they found a new way of using the kinect The kinect is working well in the fighting, the only problem I had is with the double punch, sometimes the kinect has only registered one of my punches. It’s not a big deal since you end up giving a (single) punch.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Graphics
Graphics are ok but not as beautiful as in the movies. Sometimes there are some glitch in Po’s fur, especially when the sun shine on it.

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Gameplay
At the main menu Po ask you to do a Japanese bowing or to give him a high five or to throw a kick, to start the game. I played only 3 times, so there may be more way to start.

Story Mode - Gameplay and Tutorials
You start with a small tutorial where Po teaches you the basic movements of Kung Fu. After there’s a small but cool cinematic that tells the story. There is too much loading/saving time, even after just 10 min of play!!! Then Po gives you an explication of the styles that you have to choose before a fight and to finish an enemy. And then you have your 1st fight. So the rest is similar: tutorials of new moves, cinematics and fight scenes. After you have completed some levels, you play one of the mini-games, which will be then unlock in the free play mode.

After you won a fight scene, the game asks you if you want to continue to the next level or if you want to leave. In both case your progression is saved.

Story Mode - The moves
You have the attack moves: punches, kicks, double punches which is used to defeat blocking of enemies, the double kick which is triggered by a jump and also used to defeat blocking of enemies. The defense moves: dodge attacks by leaning left or right, you can duck, do side block by holding you arm at your side with your forearm bent up at 90 degrees, do upward block by doing a side block with your both arms. Moves are pretty easy to execute. I’m doing almost all of these moves in YourShape and EA Active Sport 2, so it was natural for me.

Story Mode - The styles
Before each combat you will have to choose a style. Lightning style: quick moves and is better against fast enemies. Power style: slow but more powerful moves and as you may guess is good against strong enemies. Flowing style: a balanced of the two first styles. I didn’t played enough to see the difference between the three. The way to choose the style is cool, it shows you 3 pictures of possible pose: just do the same pose as on the pictures. The poses are: a double side block with both hands up; same as the previous one but with both hands down; same as others but with one with one hand up while the other is down.

Story Mode - The attack phase
When you start a fight scene you need to choose the style you want to use. The fights have 3 phases: the attack, the defense and the final attack. So you start with the attack where you are free to throw punches and kicks, I think you can do 4 or 5 moves of your choice and at some point (not sure if it’s random or not) a picture of the move that you MUST do appears on the screen. Sometimes I'm able to throw 2 consecutive moves, ex.: I do a double kick, which Po executes in slow motion, and while he’s in the air I throw a single kick, as soon as he lands on his feet he throw the single kick. I have to play more with this.
   

Story Mode - The defend phase
If your enemy blocked some of your attacks, it’s you turn to defend. A blue arrow appears on the left, on the right or at the top of the screen to tell you where your enemy will strike. The more you play, the more your enemies are fast and strong, so you have to move your arms pretty fast. The enemies have a special attack which allows them to strike with a sword, and you need to dodge it. You know when they use it because their body become red. They can hit you on your left or right side or horizontally from one side to the other. It’s not very clear to know when to lean (left or right) or to duck, I think a part of his body is dark red or orange to give you a hint about the movement he will do. I have to play more to discover more about that.
   

Story Mode - The finishing phase
If you manage to block or dodge most of his shots you return to the attack phase, but if you don’t then you lose and you must restart the level. If you blocked or dodged all of his moves, then you are rewarded with a special move, these moves are different and pretty cool. Eventually you will be asked to choose a finishing move, you do that by mimic one of the 3 poses that appears on the screen. Then Po do the moves automatically.

Sometimes you are prompted to use voice commands by calling out the name of the member of the Furious Five that appears on the screen. Your partner of Kung Fu will hit your enemy with one of his famous moves.

Free play (mini-games)
There are 4 mini-games but I only played the first two, while I was in the story mode.

Rickshaw: race on a rickshaw in a narrow path where you need to lean right or left to steer, jump or duck to dodge the obstacles along the way. You need to block objects that an enemy in a rickshaw ahead of you, throw in your direction, when an object is coming the action is in slow motion, so you have time to react. Furthermore, you must collect as many pieces of metal, that are on the way, as you can. So there’s is lot of action going on and the kinect is working well anyway. I have to say that is really fun.

Noodle Shop: With your hand select a bowl of the color that the customer want (via a colored card), move your arms up and down in front of you to prepare the meal and finally throw the bowl to the corresponding customer. I didn’t encounter any kinect problems that some reviewers have had. This is quite challenging and fun because things are getting faster with time and with the increasing number of customer.

Practice Sessions: This where you can practice your Kung Fu moves (didn’t tried yet).

Target Practice: Line up a target with one hand and throw with the other (didn’t tried yet).

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Multiplayer options
As I said before there is no multiplayer. It’s unfortunate because this is a good family game but you have to play alone. They could have done at least a turn-based mode.

Conclusion
Overall, they’ve done a great job with the kinect but it could be better with real 1:1 fight, a multiplayer mode and less waiting time. If you or your kids are a big fan of the Panda and loved his movies then you may consider this game, otherwise you may want to rent this game.

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[Corellianrogue]

Sounds disappointing, especially after the previews. I was hoping it was going to be like the first game but with Kinect controls. Then again it is by a different developer. (It's still published by THQ but developed by a different studio than the first game.) It's a movie tie-in game though and a lot of movie tie-in games are bad judging by their reviews so it's no great loss. Plus apparently it's a lot better than the PS3 and Wii versions so at least it's the best version, lol!