Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth

Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth may be one of the most surprising Kinect titles of the year.

Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth is an awesome game for all the young Marvel-fans out there, with nearly perfect Kinect controls and voice commands.

While a property as strong as The Avengers warrants more than a Kinect game, Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth rises above the movie-tie in it would have likely received instead. A great opportunity for fans to step into the shoes of their favorite heroes, it's a fun fighting title that makes great use of the Kinect with multiple characters, modes and an impressive amount of polish. Unfortunately, it's not a deep game and the limited combat options will disappoint hardcore fighting fans and hurt replay value with casual ones.

Though the game mostly works as advertised, occasional missed moves and finicky menus disappoint. So do the bare-bones campaign and limited array of fighting venues. But with bonus challenge stages, split-screen and online multiplayer, and local co-op beatdowns, this lively Kinect romp packs unexpected (but appreciated) staying power.

As usual, the gimmicks quickly become evident and tiresome, especially for folks familiar with the comic arc this game's story is based off of. However, there is some surprising polish here and you might have more fun with it than you'd expect as it is one of the few Kinect games where the controls actually work.

Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth is a "Kinect addicted" game. The good use of the vocal commands is pretty interesting and could be really hilarious with few friends gathered into the same room. Pity for the short length and the too-easy difficulty level.

While the game's simplistic combat, overall look and satisfying power moves will certainly appeal to younger fans of the Marvel Universe and may even warrant a purchase for them, those who are not Marvel Fans may just want to pass this Kinect title by.

Avengers: Battle for Earth will tire you out, but it just can't quite trick us into believing the Black Widow could really kick Thor's butt, which is too bad because that smarmy Goldilocks usually has it coming.

Motion recognition works well, which cannot be said for the voice recognition. And even though you'll find more than enough challenges, some design decisions slow the super heroes down, most notably the restricted mode selection.