Seeing full-fledged Kinect games on Xbox One isn’t a common occurrence. It’s something that’s so rare, we’re lucky if we see one every three months. However, none of these have been truly immersive games you could play for hours and hours. While Slice Zombies for Kinect is definitely a gem, it’s yet another game that you should only play in short burst sessions.
Developed by MADE, Slice Zombies for Kinect is similar to Fruit Ninja Kinect. You basically slice all the zombies, collect the coins and avoid bombs by simply moving both of your arms. Sounds familiar, right? Once you reach the main menu, there’s one huge ‘play’ button which allows you to start slicing zombies immediately and you have one minute and ten seconds to survive. The introduction is straight-forward with there being no bombs and everything being easy to hit. However, the game features a progression system which increases the game’s difficulty as you level up introducing bombs and enemies you must hit. If you miss them, you lose a life. If you hit a bomb, you lose a life. You have three lives by default and you can unlock others from the in-game store.
Every round you play in Slice Zombies gives you additional coins. You can use these items to purchase extra in-game items and perks from the store. These include new slicers such as fire, rain, rocket as well as extra perks such as multiplier hand, extra life and bomb hand. These perks try to make the game easier for you as difficulty increases with progression. I do find however that gaining coins is a grinding task with items in the store being expensive with too few coins awarded while playing. Now while the multiplier perk would speed things up, it’s still a grind.
Onto the actual gameplay, I must say they’ve actually made it nice and straightforward to use. There’s no annoying ‘move back’ notification blocking my screen (I’ve been playing in a small room, standing around 1 metre from my Kinect) and the controls are easy, it’s just moving/swiping your arms to hit the relevant items on-screen. Your shadow is reflected on screen (like in Fruit Ninja) and hitting items is very accurate. I haven’t experience a single tracking issue in this game and that’s extremely important. It’s extremely easy to get used to it and slicing zombies in half is quite the decent experience. The main mechanics work almost flawlessly, even in the smallest of environments. Below, I’ve included gameplay by our friends FromTheHipMen so you can get a better idea of the overall experience.
There is only the one main level however and while new things such as special zombies are thrown in as you progress, it quickly becomes the same thing over and over again. Therefore, I’ve found myself playing this game here and there for a couple of minutes. It’s not something I could play for an hour straight. Achievements do make you want to keep playing and they’re all easy enough but take time. Many you’ll earn very quickly and it’s a scale of progression for slicing as many zombies, limbs and heads as you can. Another is for finishing your first level and finishing the game (I presume this means unlocking all difficulty additions in the game).
The game also features leaderboards which allows you to see how your Total XP scores stack up towards your friends. The problem here is that they don’t work and all they show is “No internet connection available.” I presume this will be fixed in a future update however.
That’s about it for Slice Zombies for Kinect. You may be thinking to yourself there isn’t a huge amount of content but you’ll soon realise it’s a lot when you look at how many people make up MADE. Two. Yes, only two developers worked on Slice Zombies for Kinect. Every image, model, sound effect, all of the coding and even the music was created by just two people in just twelve months. That’s insane and what’s more is the small asking price of just $9.99/€9.99/£7.99. That’s pretty good when you consider the Achievements, perfect Kinect controls and the-game store and progression systems.
The developers at MADE are both from Germany and due to age-certification issues, they can’t certify Slice Zombies to be sold in their home country. They have said however if they sell enough copies in other territories, they will do the USK certification, so I would ask our readers if you have a Kinect and you want something new, give this game a try. Seriously, it would be awesome to allow these developers who have created an innovative experience to sell their game in their own country. (Update: Since this review was published, the developers have worked with Microsoft Germany and Slice Zombies is now available in Germany. Yay!)
Slice Zombies for Kinect is a game that delivers on its small asking price. They’ve perfected the Kinect tracking experience and have made it easy for players to get involved. Achievements hunters will get a nice boost to their Gamerscore and if you’ve a few friends over, it can make a pretty nice party game as well. The unlockables from the shop add a fresh coat of paint to the game and all-in-all, it’s a pure fun experience, even if is one you’ll play in short burst sessions. I’m honoured to give Slice Zombies for Kinect a well-deserved 7/10!
^Alan (@BeetleComet)
Alan is a games journalist, head writer at AR12Gaming. They contributed 2 articles to ICXM in 2015, focused on game reviews, and Xbox news: now lead writer at AR12Gaming.