Reviewed by Brandy Shaul
The Minute to Win It TV game show was short-lived, but that hasn’t stopped Zoo Games from adopting the license and creating a game for Xbox 360’s Kinect. Unfortunately, instead of a fun party game with interesting mini-games, we’re left with a sloppy mess of technical issues in a game that’s more frustrating than fun.
For those unfamiliar with the setup of the game show, you’ll be able to play through a variety of challenges, using normal household or everyday items in new ways. These mini-games are called “Blueprints”, and are timed in 60-second intervals. Each Blueprint represents a level of the game, ranging in dollar value from $1,000 all of the way up to $1 million. Just as in games like Who Wants to be a Millionaire, you’ll reach certain stepping stones along the way, where you’ll be guaranteed a portion of your winnings, should you happen to fail three times across all levels.
As for the Blueprints themselves, they range from simplistic to outlandish, but all suffer from the worst motion recognition I’ve seen in any Kinect game to date. Whether you’re heavy or skinny, tall or short, close to the TV or far away, the game simply won’t recognize your movements more than half of the time.
Some games, like Nervous Nelly, offer a workout factor, as you’ll be required to randomly move your limbs (both legs and both arms, all independently of one another) to earn points as your Xbox 360 avatar’s limbs are highlighted in green. If you move the wrong limb, you’ll lose points, but, again, with such bad movement recognition, you’re better off contorting your entire body as though you’re having a seizure and hoping for the best.
Other games might see you moving your arms like a steering wheel to control the angle at which a ping-pong ball slides down a ruler (trying to make the ball drop into a cup), or have you catching and tossing ping-pong balls at a wall, only to make them bounce off and land in a cup on top of your head. This game specifically is almost entirely broken, as the in-game trajectories for where the balls will land are inaccurate, or your avatar simply won’t respond as you move left and right (both physically moving your body, or just leaning over). All of these issues are present across both of the game’s difficulty levels, so even playing on Easy won’t make this a fun experience.
To make each show feel more like you’re watching it on TV, you’ll see “commercials” every few levels. As an example, you might be asked to take part in an infomercial that has you advertising a weight-lifting routine by simply squatting as though you’re lifting weights. These mini-games have no purpose other than to break up the monotony (and save you from Guy Fieri’s draining voice for a few minutes), which is made all the more apparent by the fact that a massive skip button shows up in the corner of the screen when one starts. Even the game doesn’t want you to complete them!
On top of all of these issues, the addition of some truly vulgar motion requirements (thrusting your hips in a forward motion to move the banana tied to a string around your waist) is the death-nail in the coffin on this one. Minute to Win It discriminates against all players equally, so even if you’ve had positive experiences as a shorter Kinect gamer, or if you simply have a larger space in which to play, you’re still not guaranteed to see the game work as it should. This isn’t a case where you shouldn’t purchase the game, and simply rent instead; this is a case where you should avoid the game entirely. Please, don’t tarnish your Xbox 360 profile with this one.