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Xbox One gets cozy with Threes and Limbo this week
Xbox One welcomes all moods on December 5 with Limbo and Threes, the next two ID@Xbox entries. Microsoft gifted early Xbox One adopters with Playdead's monochrome misadventure last month, but everyone can purchase the platformer starting Friday. As for numeric puzzler Threes, you can flirt with its figures on the big screen for $7, also on Friday. Limbo is dark, disturbing and more than a bit hostile, but it still earned the full five stars in our 2010 review. If you're after something perkier, Threes combines an esoteric brand of tile-matching with the jazzy, bubbly atmosphere of a lounge party. That may sound like a bizarre mixture, so it's worth reading our Portabliss column to see just why it intoxicated us.
Kung-Fu Live comes to Kinect as 'Kung Fu High Impact'
It always seemed kind of weird that Virtual Air Guitar Company's Kung-Fu Live, a game about performing real punches and kicks in front of a camera to control an on-screen representation of yourself, wasn't a Kinect game, going instead to PSN with PlayStation Eye support. Now, the game is coming to Kinect, with a new name: Kung-Fu High Impact, and two new publishers: Ignition Entertainment in America, and Black Bean Games in PAL territories. Watch for it to be released worldwide in November, at which point it'll begin watching you.%Gallery-129190%
Show Kung-Fu Live devs your moves for prizes
Virtual Air Guitar Company is taking a page out of Captain Falcon's book for a Kung-Fu Live contest. In exchange for prizes, the developer is asking players, "Show us your moves." it couldn't be easier to win the first bunch of prizes: the first 20 people to email YouTube links to their wackiest Kung-Fu Live moves will win prize packs "including a rare bandana and signed photographs of international video game celebrity 'Sensei Oskari' himself." Of the videos already posted, it's hard to beat the guy using a Kinect ... as a melee weapon. After that, prizes will be given to the videos who receive the most votes each week, for an unspecified number of weeks. If you're playing Kung-Fu Live, you're already making a damn fool of yourself in front of a camera, so why not try to profit from it?
Kung-Fu Live review: Kinect-like on the cheap
With a motto like "Serious fun for people who don't take themselves too seriously," it's no surprise Virtual Air Guitar Company's debut title is the brimming-with-dumb-fun Kung-Fu Live. Utilizing the PlayStation Eye camera to inject players into an arcadey, comic book-inspired 2D beat-'em-up, the title should appeal to anyone who's mimicked the Karate Kid's crane kick or threatened a potential bully with a deadpanned, "I know Kung Fu." Actually getting yourself in the game, however, can feel like a kick to the swimsuit area, and could steer some Bruce Lee-wannabes from a weekend's worth of hilarious chop-socky hijinks. %Gallery-97839%
Kung-Fu Live punches into the US on December 7
Tired of kicking various random things (the trashcan, pieces of furniture, garden gnomes) around your house? Waiting for the day when all that kicking can finally be put to use winning a game? You don't have to wait much longer -- Sony has announced that Kung-Fu Live will available in the US on December 7, so, in a bit less than two weeks from now, you'll be able to drop your real-life limbs on some virtual baddies. There's also a new trailer, embedded after the break for your convenience. Sony recommends that you empty out about seven by nine feet of space to stand in front of the PlayStation Eye camera and do all your moving around, so it looks like you might be able to put those furniture-kickin' skills to use early after all. Hi-ya! Oh geez, sorry kitty, didn't see you there.
Kung-Fu Live preview: You are the controller
Kung-Fu Live made quite the impression when I saw it a few months ago, promising a full body-controlled gaming experience -- using Sony's PlayStation Eye instead of Microsoft's much-hyped Kinect. As with Kinect, you'll need a lot of space in order to play comfortably. The developer tells us that you should "ideally have about 7x9 feet of space." The camera needs to be able to see your entire body, from head to toe. You'll also need some bright lighting, and you'll have to watch what you wear. For example, wearing a white shirt against a white wall will confuse the game. (Hence the jacket in the picture above.)%Gallery-97839%
New Kung-Fu Live trailer fights for your attention
If you punch and kick the air while you watch this trailer for Kung-Fu Live (after the break) -- and if you happen to look exactly like the guy in the trailer -- it'll be just like playing it! The latest video of Virtual Air Guitar Company's PlayStation Eye-based brawler demonstrates the fighting abilities, otherworldly powers, and even storyline integration that you'll be able to experience by simply standing in front of your TV. In a lengthy PlayStation Blog post accompanying the trailer, Virtual Air Guitar Company's Teemu revealed a weird multiplayer feature, in which up to four players can use PlayStation controllers to fight against the player using the camera, presumably with the unstated goal of making him or her pass out from exhaustion.
Hands-on: PlayStation Eye's Kung-Fu Live
Kung-Fu Live sounds almost exactly like a Project Natal game. With the aid of a camera, your image is placed directly into the game, and real movements are translated into in-game actions. As the concept trailer above shows, you'll be able to kick and punch wildly into the air to take down virtual baddies. But Kung-Fu Live isn't destined for Project Natal. Instead, it's coming exclusively to the PlayStation Network. You won't need a fancy PlayStation Move controller, either. This is one of the few games designed exclusively for the PlayStation Eye camera. Powering the gameplay experience is Virtual Air Guitar Company's FreeMotion technology, which promises "real-time tracking of the entire human body as well as background removal using regular webcams." Certainly, the promise of Natal-esque gameplay using a standard camera has us intrigued, but is it better than your typical PS2 EyeToy game? It's clear that the technology powering Kung-Fu Live is far more powerful than what we've seen in the PS2 generation. The system is able to accurately remove the background in real-time -- and is intelligent enough to know when new players jump in or out. Another aspect that benefits Kung-Fu Live: personality. The game is story-driven, told through comic panels in which you can feature. At the start of each level the game will suggest a pose for you to attempt, after which the camera will take a picture and inject you into a comic book scene. Seeing myself roundhouse kick three goons in a generated comic book strip was definitely amusing. (Being able to share these photos online seems like an ideal way to use the game's built-in Facebook functionality, as well.)
