Rise of Nightmares

Rise of Nightmares is not your usual family-friendly Kinect game.

But don’t just take our word for it. Its gameplay trailer makes the same claim right after a zombie’s head is chopped clean off, while others are impaled on spikes or mashed up by giant spinning blades.

In a market packed full of sports, fitness and dancing titles, Rise of Nightmares is a welcome addition for Xbox 360 Kinect owners who want more of gamers’ game, a mature first-person adventure with plenty of blood, gore and action.

Using the motion controls of Kinect, gamers can thrust their arms to swing in-game knives, chainsaws and more in order to rip apart zombies. This definitely isn’t Kinectimals. It’s House of the Dead for the new generation, with Kinect instead of light guns.

Rise of the hardcore

Players must navigate through a castle in Rise of Nightmares and discover the location of protagonist Josh’s kidnapped wife. So, like House of the Dead, it has an unnecessary story. But unlike Sega’s arcade classic, it’s not fully on-rails, meaning players can explore the environment freely. They can place one leg in front of the other to walk forward, twist their body left or right to turn or move their hand forward to open doors.

If gamers find it difficult, there’s the option for the computer to take control of movement, leaving just the hacking and slashing down to the user.

As well as mountains of monsters to take down, gamers must also solve puzzles and avoid traps such as swinging scythes. It’s true that these may be reasonably generic video game elements, but by replacing a controller for the user’s body, Rise of Nightmares offers something fresh, fun and unlike anything else available on the market right now.

History of the Dead

Sega has plenty of experience with the horror genre. The House of the Dead first arrived in arcades in 1997 and went down a treat with gamers, before spawning several sequels, while survival horror title Condemned was one of the first ever Xbox 360 games. The company also publishes several Aliens titles.

Kinect for core

Child of Eden aside, there’s been very little for core Kinect games to play on the motion device, giving Rise of Nightmares a unique selling point. Other hardcore Kinect titles on the horizon include Fable: The Journey, Forza 4, Codename D and Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor.