E3 2012: NBA Baller Beats Is a Crazy, Cool Kinect Experiment

I can never play NBA Baller Beats. My apartment, with its carpeted floor, just barely has the space necessary to play Kinect games. I also have downstairs neighbors. That’s a trifecta of bad news, never mind all the expensive and/or breakable junk I have in the living room.

To my surprise, I quite like NBA Baller Beats, for which I had very low expectations, and it sucks that I can’t play it. Add one more reason I wish I had the apartment in this Baller Beats E3 trailer.

I mean, it’s a Kinect rhythm game that requires a basketball to jam to Skrillex, Run DMC, and Busta Rhymes. What an absurd concept. It doesn’t even have anything to do with basketball, but it bothers to include every NBA team anyway.

Even as someone with a terrible sense of rhythm and coordination, I really dig bouncing a ball to a Rock Band-esque note track. Rather than bass drum cues or guitar chords, Baller Beats assigns slick moves to club songs. Throwing the ball between your legs, faking a pass or shot, and switching dribbling hands is demanding if you’re uncoordinated and incredibly impressive if you’re skilled.

There’s a hypnotic groove to dribbling on the spot, but losing control of the ball in the middle of the action is like having your guitar thrown into the crowd. The tool is just gone. You need to center your position, find your rhythm, and get back into the involving movement as fast as possible to recover from a minor error.

It’s a challenging and interesting interpretation of both the sport and a waning genre, this NBA Baller Beats thing, and it’s satisfying in a bizarre and unique way. Really, there’s nothing quite like it, and the fact that someone greenlit this makes me glad someone has the cajones to go bonkers with out-there Kinect ideas.

At its worst, NBA Baller Beats is a clever, crazy idea that comes with a free basketball. You could do a lot worse, and it’s doing a lot better. For those with baller apartments, this experiment might be worth your while regardless of your interest in the sport.



Source : ign[dot]com