A little while back, the folks at Virtual Air Guitar Company thought it would be a novel idea to release a PlayStation Network game where players could use the Move camera to implement themselves in a martial arts film, beating up enemies simply by wildly swinging their fists and performing special moves. Unfortunately, the game, Kung Fu Live, was a dud, mainly due to the limitations of the Move camera itself. That said, Virtual Air Guitar decided to try again, this time working with Ignition on a newer version of the game, this time with a better device – the Kinect. The result is Kung Fu High Impact, which expands on the idea of the original and places you in a Steven Seagal-like production as you beat up baddies using special moves, which you perform in real time in front of your device. Unfortunately, this one fails as well, and not because of the limitations of the device. It’s the idea that’s held back here. The story is pretty much nonsense, though the idea of having you take pictures with pre-set motions and then putting you in a virtual comic book isn’t too shabby.
It actually has a laughable effect the first time around, just for the sake of seeing how corny you look being the action hero. Then the game starts, and you soon realize just how limited it is. Kung Fu High Impact has you perform a number of moves in the game, in real time, either by swinging your feet and fists left or right, depending which way the enemy is coming at you. You can also perform blocks and dodges, or flip out of the way using the somewhat awkward back flip technique, where you lean your arms back while jumping. Sometimes it works – sometimes as in almost never. You can also build up super moves, including the “power punch”, where you launch your fists in a fireball motion to send an opponent flying. Does any of this sound like fun? Sure, it does, and in a better game, it probably would be. Unfortunately, Kung Fu High Impact isn’t it. It has a number of problems pertaining to its gameplay, First off, the fact you have to keep an eye on your screen for your attacks has you bending your body in weird ways to attack them.
It’s almost a workout for your neck, with all the twisting and turning you’re doing. And what’s more, trying to perform a back flip – and failing – is an even bigger letdown. The fact that you can only move by punching or pulling off a super move doesn’t help either, especially when an enemy is all the way on the other side of the screen. Secondly, most of your moves simply aren’t successful, thanks to the lack of cohesive collision detection. An enemy with a spear can hit you easily, but just try to perform a jump kick and either you’ll be bounced back or go over him. You only hit tougher enemies by luck here, leaving you frustrated that you did something wrong. Relax, you didn’t, it’s shoddy programming that’s to blame here. What’s more, the multiple game modes fail to offer anything new, outside of one interesting feature. There’s a survival mode where you take on waves of enemies, a level layout builder where you can set up enemy count and strength (yawn) and a multiplayer mode. But rather than compete with someone in a fierce two-player karate competition, you instead have to contend with enemies that are controlled by your friends, using traditional Xbox 360 gamepads. It’s neat – for a few minutes or so – before you realize just how much it tortures the main player while the others laugh at his or her flailing. And by then, you’re probably ready to move on to a more rewarding multiplayer experience. One without physical strain, no doubt.
Kung Fu High Impact’s gameplay is bad enough, but its presentation is merely cookie cutter stuff, and for a full priced Kinect game, you might just feel like karate kicking the case. The graphics have their moments when it comes to the multi-scrolling environments and larger enemies in the game, but otherwise consist of lackluster goon design, poor video representation of your character (why am I so dark?) and lame looking special effects. The comic book sequences are all right, but lose their appeal after a few stages in. The sound effects aren’t that great either, between the somewhat iffy voiceovers from your narrator, the repetitive enemy noises and the same old punch noises, over and over. Could Virtual Air Guitar Company have made this work with some more development time? Sure. Had they made the controls not so demanding and perhaps worked out a way to include games where players were punching out someone while facing the camera, it wouldn’t have been so strenuous. But as it stands, Kung Fu High Impact is a cheap, lazy affair that just isn’t any fun. The comic book sequences and multiplayer have a few fleeting moments of entertainment, but not nearly enough to justify the $50 cost. Go rent a Bruce Lee flick instead and try to pretend you’re him, you’ll make a stronger Impact than you ever will here.
