An evil alien being is on the verge of taking over Earth, but a heroic extra-terrestrial gives you his power, Green Lantern style, to stop the invaders. Now with a super suit, you can outfit your Xbox 360 avatar and battle the bad guys with super punches, kicks, projectiles, and other powered up moves in this surprisingly good Kinect fighter!

PowerUp Heroes is a one-on-one 3-D fighter that uses your Xbox avatar as a super warrior. With your super suit, you’ll perform all sorts of powered up fighting moves to beat your opponent. Lean left and right to dodge attacks, then kick to get close to your opponent and pummel him or her with a flurry of punches. When the other guy starts punching you, imitate a series of moves to block and counterattack.

When you defeat an enemy, you can then use their super suit and its abilities, Mega Man style. When going into battle, you can take two suits with you and switch between them by holding up your left arm. Each super suit has three different special attacks that need to be charged up after using them. Hold out your arms to your sides to summon a temporary shield, hold up your arm and swing it down to lash an electric whip, jump to cause a small earthquake, or hold your hands to your side to charge up a fireball and thrust your arms out to unleash it just like how Goku or Ryu throws their trademark fireballs! But you’ll have to wait after performing these moves to charge up before using them again.

After each battle you’ll earn experience points. When you go up a level, you’ll earn extra power ups that you can equip for the next fight. You can battle opponents in the Campaign Mode and follow the story, or do a quick fight against the CPU or a friend. You can even battle online! PowerUp Heroes may take a couple of rounds to get used to, but the play control works very well and the game reads your moves and actions surprisingly well. Definitely one of the best Kinect games I’ve played so far!

Kid Factor:

PowerUp Heroes is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes. Even though you do punch, kick, and blast other fighters with projectiles, the violence is no worse than a comic book hero movie. Actually the game even comes with a comic book. I’d be OK with any kid playing this, but supervision might be recommended for younger players so they don’t get carried away and accidentally hit things (or people). Reading skill is helpful for navigating the menus, but there are picture cues to show you how to do moves. Plus the game is good exercise, too!

Tags: Game Reviews