Happy Action Theater is currently 50% off on Xbox which means it costs five dollars or 400 Microsoft points. We liked it and for the reduced price it is even better, you can read the review here. Plus with Double Fine working on a sequel now is a great time to pick up the first game. We are not sure how long the game is on sale as it isn’t listed as part of the Deal of the Week promotion although this is a gold member exclusive price. You can pick the game up HERE.
The biggest gaming event of the year is almost upon us, with all of the industry’s heavy hitters preparing to bring out the big guns to impress both fan and investor alike at E3 2012. Every year, gamers tune in to the their televisions, internet streams and Twitter feeds to see what the year’s biggest announcements are. Here at Xbox Kinect Fans, we put our heads together to compile a list of what we want to see from Microsoft and the Xbox brand at this year’s show. So read on, get excited, and start counting down the days until Microsoft’s press briefing on June 4th!
Happy Action Theater was developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released February 1, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.
Double Fine Productions is a household name when it comes to Xbox Live Arcade games. Stacking, Trenched/Iron Brigade and Costume Quest are all titles that everyone should have on their machine. They’re all original properties; they were risks for both Double Fine and their publishers to put out, but each has succeeded. Now Double Fine wants to go out on a limb with their new Kinect title, Happy Action Theater.
The game itself is a collection of 18 minigames. Most involve players viewing themselves on screen with other digitized elements added such as snow, lava, or water. Players interact with objects in the environment such as balloons or fish to have them in turn react. There is no winning the game. It’s just you and the environment and acting like a fool. To some that sounds like fun. To others, well…
Tim Schafer has been coming up in the news a lot the past 24 hours, mostly due to the ridiculously popular Kickstarter that Double Fine is running right now. If you’re interested in knowing a little bit more about Double Fine and the last bunch of games that they made, we stumbled across this great interview that Gamasutra did with Tim. The first half is mostly about the development process of Happy Action Theater, and delves into some pretty interesting technical details of the Kinect. The second half of the interview discusses the rest of the “Amnesia Fortnight” games, including Costume Quest, Stacking, Iron Brigade, and the Kinect title Once Upon A Monster. It’s definitely worth a read if you’re interested in Kinect technology, Double Fine, or any of the games we just mentioned.
If you’ve just upgraded your internet and are dying to use it, today’s Kinect releases have you covered. For the first time ever, there are two Kinect releases on XBLA in one day. First up, we have Double Fine Happy Action Theater, a minigames collection from the mind of Tim Schafer that promises to be fun for “kids ages 2 – 102″. We also have Konami’s intriguing addition to the dance genre, Rhythm Party. If that’s not enough to sate your desire for motion-controlled goodness, the Kinectimals Now With Bears demo has also released today, even though the game released last fall. Check out the links above for their respective marketplace links, and remember to check our site for upcoming reviews of the XBLA games!
Major Nelson took some time at CES to do a couple of interviews and sneak peeks with some of the upcoming games on the Xbox, including Kinect titles Kinect Star Wars, Happy Action Theater, and Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure. The Kinect Star Wars portion kicks off by announcing that the game will be able to be played completely in 3D for those with the capability. It also shows off some of the pod racing, talks about a tie-in with the upcoming Star Wars 3D re-release, and briefly discusses some of the sweet Jedi moves you’ll be able to do.
Happy Action Theater is up next, featuring a quick look at some of the 18 different minigames. The best part of this segment is the guy talking – while talking about how the game supports up to 6 people he announces “You can even get the dog in there and play if you want!” We’re still not completely sure what the deal is with this game, but it looks pretty interesting.
Rounding out the Kinect portion of the video is a look at the upcoming Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure. The game is made up of minigames in which you’ll interact with characters from The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Toy Story 3, and Cars 2. Supposedly they worked closely with the Pixar folks during the development of this game, so it should be at least worth a look.
This is a pretty good look at the Kinect games that Microsoft is going to be pushing over the next few months, and they definitely seem to be aiming towards a more casual crowd. It will be interesting to see what else they have up their sleeves for some of the upcoming conferences like PAX East and E3. Take a look after the break for some great footage of these games.
Released with much fanfare on November 4th, 2010, Kinect sold 8 million units over the next 60 days, snatching up the Guiness World Record for fastest selling consumer electronics device of all time in the process. Of course, in the entertainment world, with great success often comes great angst among the fanbase. In the Kinect’s case, much of the grizzled hardcore gamer crowd immediately rejected the idea of a motion controller for the Xbox, claiming that the new technology was a gimmicky draw for casual gamers and that Microsoft was going to force Kinect down gamers’ throats by slapping it into everything possible. The Next Web snapped a pretty hilarious screenshot of the games subreddit after Microsoft’s E3 keynote last year, and you can see the overwhelmingly negative response from a group made up of what most people probably think of as typical gamers.
Are the hardcore gamers right? Has Microsoft abandoned its core in order to gain a spot in the living rooms of the coveted Wii-playing elderly and Farmville mom crowd? Well, not exactly. 2011 saw the release of the fantastic Gears of War 3, the latest iterations of Modern Warfare, Battlefield, and Saint’s Row, and a number of other great, “hardcore” titles on both retail and XBLA (you probably won’t find any casual gamers playing Dark Souls). Basically, Microsoft is still pumping out all of the content that made it beloved in the hearts and minds of gamers, but it’s also adding to the overall entertainment experience on the Xbox by integrating Kinect with games and other software in interesting new ways. How so? Well, let’s get on to the main feature – the State of Kinect 2012. Read each category for some in depth analysis or feel free to skip down to the bottom for a quick roundup of this year in Kinect.
Double Fine’s Tim Schafer has taken to the Twitterverse to announce that their upcoming minigame-fest Happy Action Theater will be releasing on February 1st. While no one seems 100% sure what to expect out of this XBLA game, the anticipation level is still pretty high due to the fact that it’s being made by Double Fine. Microsoft was showing off a number of its games at CES, including Happy Action Theater, so we’ll try to round up some impressions and get them posted later today.
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