Kinect Disneyland Adventure Review

Shown at E3 this last year, Disney excited the crowds with Kinect Disneyland Adventure. The title is exactly what it sounds like. You get to explore the famed theme park that Walt Disney built in amazing detail, riding rides (which become interactive mini games), meeting with characters, and even going on quests. It has just about everything for the kid and the kid at heart. And now that it’s come out, we finally get to see whether or not it lives up to its hype.


First of all, as a fan of the theme parks both in Florida and in California, I was stunned by how the smallest little details were presented even in this children’s game. There are things that people probably don’t even notice when they go to the parks, but those that have been multiple times know what I mean. They didn’t just throw in reasonable facsimiles of the buildings, but were very careful to reproduce the same experience you’d have if you were actually there, even down to the trashcans. And that’s a great thing because there is a lot of “walking” involved as you travel through the various lands in a very open environment. No on the rails play here. You can practically go anywhere you want using the Kinect to control your movements, something that Disney Interactive made very intuitive and comfortable. Much more comfortable than actually shoeing it through the real park, I assure you.

Even though there are some spectacular ride based mini-games, a majority of the game takes place outside, involving the characters. Not only can kids get a picture, an autograph, and maybe even a hug from these virtual representations of Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, Snow White, etc, but it’s these guys who actually send you on a quest, usually to find an object they lost. And that’s where the exploring really becomes fun. For instance, Alice lost her white ribbon, and you need to locate it, and so you are tasked with hunting through the theme park for the elusive object. On your way, your quest may even lead you to more characters such as the Mad Hatter.


The fact that this is targeted towards kids is shown most in the attraction mini-games. They are awesome from a graphic and gaming perspective, taking environments from the rides for which they are based. For instance, you get to fly with Peter Pan and fight Captain Hook, you pump a mine car to power it down the roller coaster like track of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, or ski, slalom and even snowball fight against Yeti’s on the Matterhorn. How cool is that? But there is a price for all this fun. The controls are not as intuitive or comfortable as the walking is. There are all manner of muscle using exercises that will feel like a workout, especially to the older folk that share the game with their kids. In fact, you will probably be looking for a chair and a heating pad if you are a bit out of shape playing these, but you’ll have a good time doing it.

We were kind of disappointed that the game uses its own avatars, portrayed as children. They can be customized to represent the person playing, but it kind of serves as a personal disconnect from the Xbox experience without the regular avatars. For instance, if you have pictures from other games saved or shared, and you include these, people may not know they are the same person because of the different representations in Kinect Disneyland Adventures than others. We know Disney likes to be different, but this was one place they could have really gone with the grain. It would have also opened up the possibility perhaps of seeing someone you knew walking around at the same time as you and allowed you to meet up. Maybe that will be in part 2.

Anyway, all in all, for fans of Disneyland, this is a must have for the kids. Expect other titles and parks to hit the shelves if Disney’s recent domain name purchases come to pass, but for now, this makes a great Christmas gift. We give it a 4.2/5, docking it only for a bit of confusing and strenuous movement and its difficulty with two player tracking.