Xbox 360 Critic Reviews

Simple and exhilarating, Kung Fu High Impact is going to be the king for some Kung-Funny nights.

In terms of addressing and incorporating the new standards established by Kinect, Kung Fu High Impact has done well. It's fun played alone or with a group, and is even a great workout.

Using Kinect to play a 2D beat 'em up is a great idea, but the novelty fades off after a couple of hours. Not that it takes much longer to finish the story mode, which is not quite enough for a retail game that costs 40 euros. [Dec 2011]

Kung Fu Impact, despite some engine problems, is really funny. The experience, thanks to a lot of funny moves and a comic-like storytelling, can truly involve the player.

If only Kung-Fu High Impact offered a more balanced and complex challenge, and a more relevant longevity, we'd be probably talking about one of the more interesting and funny action games ever released for Kinect.

Kung Fu High Impact is a great Kinect title, provided you aren't expecting a deep brawler experience. It's accessible, since you don't have to mimic specific gestures to succeed, and the tracking implementation is in the top tier of Kinect games. Kids can play it easily by flailing around and mine loved being able to beat up the bad guys with minimal frustration. I had a lot of fun with the game's cheeseball story, and kept finding myself drawn back to it to progress in the story and challenge myself with more difficult custom fights. If you have a Kinect, this is worth checking out.

Kung-Fu High Impact is a fun title that feels overpriced. The basic concept is solid, and the game's execution is good. The freedom complements the goofy nature of the game rather well, and the controls perform much better than most Kinect attempts. However, the short length of the game and the lack of any X360-specific features make one wonder why this was released at retail with such a high price point. Should the price drop, this is easy to recommend for times when you want to play with the Kinect but don't feel like playing the typical dance and exercise games.

Kung Fu High Impact is an over the top humorous side scrolling brawler, one of the most entertaining titles to come to the Xbox 360 Kinect.

Value is also a question, as the game's campaign spans less than two hours; and even with survival stages and a quirky bonus where you can fight up to four friends who plug in controllers, this hardly feels like a $40 game. But if you're willing to shell out for it and deal with the control flubs and brevity, Kung Fu High Impact serves up some good, dumb fun.

Kung-Fu High Impact does well on what it promises: immersing the player - both phisically and visually - in a fighting game creating a funny and fresh gaming experience. But once the novelty effect wears off, what's left is a short, repetitive and artistically amateurish game, more suited as a title to show when you've got people at home rather than a real fully-fledged game. It would have been perfect as a Live Arcade game, rather than an overly priced retail Kinect game.