The Kinect has come and gone. Microsoft is no longer encouraging players to get up off the couch, and in this new era, Kinect games are getting remastered to include controller supported controls. Disneyland Adventures went through this makeover, and it should have been left to rot alongside the Kinect.
At the beginning of my adventure, I found I was really enjoying myself. Sure, it doesn’t appear to be all that remastered. The sound isn’t perfect, some characters sound hollow and distant, and the graphics—while sharper than the original Xbox 360 release—are unable to rival this generation’s visuals, even in 4K. The animations are awkward, the children run as if they are wearing diapers, and characters occasionally speak without mouth movement—but hey, I was laughing up a storm playing alongside player two. We progressed through the game, doing mundane tasks like chatting up the Disney family and collecting autographs, but not too far into our magical journey the game crashed. Fine, I give games one free crash. Technology isn’t perfect. I restarted the game and continued to play, yet I noticed the longer we played, the glitchier it got. The frame rate dropped, our feet clipped through the ground and at one point player two lost the ability to control his character. The controls refused to respond, making the fun factor of the mini-game drop like the Tower of Terror. And to my sheer disappointment, before I knew it, BAM, we hit the ground floor with the game crashing again.
Disneyland Adventures crashed on average, once an hour, until I had to throw in the towel. Someone stole Tinkerbell’s fairy dust and I can no longer fly high playing Disneyland Adventures. The small variety of gameplay could have easily been forgiven if the game didn’t crash repetitively. The idea of introducing the controller is a brilliant one, but only if players don’t have to live in constant fear of the game crashing. Sadly, I have said goodbye to Disneyland and will be staying away from this not-so-magical adventure. I suggest you do the same.
