LEEDMEES
Score: 85% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Konami Developer: Konami Media: Download/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Puzzle/ Health and Exercise/ Strategy
Graphics & Sound: The Kinect has been used in many different ways, but a large part of them seem to be geared towards exercise. I love to find things that aren't specifically meant to exercise you, but instead are just creative ways to make an old concept feel very new. LEEDMEES is very similar to the classic game Lemmings, but with a new twist. LEEDMEES is a very simple game in concept and appearance, which is perfect for the game. If the graphics were out of this world, it would really detract from the gameplay, since the game is a puzzle game, the aesthetics work. The characters are bright and easy to see on the screen. You can tell at a glance where everything is and where everything needs to go so that you can do your planning quickly and easily. The characters are white to start with and change to yellow when they've picked up a star, so that you won't be confused as to what character needs to go where. The stars to collect are bright and obvious, as are the barriers. There aren't any voices in the game, but you do get background noises and music. The music is pleasant without being distracting. The background sounds aren't necessarily important, but they do make it easier for you to hear when you have gotten things to the right places.
Gameplay: As I've said, the concept of LEEDMEES is quite simple. You have little people coming out of one portal and they will exit into another. On the way, you need to get these people to pick up as many stars as they can. Each person can only carry one star and when they've picked up one, they will turn yellow. Once they are yellow, you need to get them into the red portal to leave the board. These little people will only walk straight ahead. When they hit a wall, including one of your vertical body parts, they will turn around and walk the opposite direction. Obviously their default paths aren't going to lead them to where they need to go. This is where you come in. You are essentially a bridge on the screen. Your arms and legs can be used as bridges to carry the people from one place to another. You can use your body to flip the people around so that they can jump into places or simply reach high or low so that they can walk there in a straight line. However you can get them there is fair game. This does sound pretty easy and at first, it is, but the further you get into the story, the more people you will have to control at once, which gets very confusing! Single player has three worlds: A New Morning, High Noon, and A Sleepless Night. You have to complete one world to get to the next. Multiplayer has House Party, Midnight Party, and Saturday Night Party, and once again you have to unlock the second and third worlds. I like having a whole new set of challenges for two players and it is entertaining trying to pass your people back and forth to get them all where you want them to go!
Difficulty: After playing the first couple of levels, you're going to think that LEEDMEES is easy because all you have to do to get the people around is tilt your arms and maybe flip your hands. On the third level though, you learn that you now have to squat down to let them jump onto your hands so that you can pick them up. When I say squat, I mean squat. If you try to be lazy and just lean over by bending your back at the waist, the Kinect will not read the actions correctly and the game tells you this in advance. You have to squat straight down and not lean over, which very quickly starts exercising you without you even noticing as you are focused on trying to solve the puzzle. Even when you manage to pass all the levels, you're still not done. Based on how well you perform in the level, you will get a score at the end. To earn a lot of the achievements, you'll need to earn an S on every level, which isn't easy as the people don't always do what you want them to. It takes a lot of practice and work to get perfect! There are 12 achievements total.
Game Mechanics: As LEEDMEES is a Kinect game, you are the controller. Wherever you move, you change the landscape that your little star hunters have to walk on. For me, I didn't even have to tune the Kinect and I had no problems with it reading the way that I wanted it to. As I mentioned before, it did read incorrectly if I bent at the waist instead of squatting, but that was by design and not a bug in the software. I am also quite sure that my back thanks the game designers for making sure that I didn't abuse it. I think that you'll find the controls in LEEDMEES quite easy to use. There are places that you won't be allowed to move like you want. Some boards have restrictions on things like how far you can move your feet, so watch out for those in your planning. At first, I wasn't sure what to think of LEEDMEES as it seemed a bit too easy, but very quickly I found that it was wonderfully challenging and entertaining at the same time, not to mention it is a great workout. If you're looking for a fun puzzle game that will get you moving, check out LEEDMEES today!
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
Hard Reset Resistance 3