Review: Child of Eden

Welcome to one of the most beautiful and brightest games ever played on the Kinect. Child of Eden will take you on a very magical and unexpected journey, an adventure filled with heightened emotions. With the Kinect, you will find yourself tapping your feet with the rhythm, scoring those perfect beats with a wave of your hands. This is absolutely a feel-good game.

When you start the game, the introduction offers you a story that vaguely explains what’s going on but you quickly forget about it as soon as the game begins as it mesmerizes your eyes into a brilliance of colors. As I started this game, it made me think a similar style of artwork and feel compared to DJ Max Portable or Lumines. They’re both filled with rainbows and head-nodding music.

The story revolves around discovering “Eden”. Each level has a specific theme that is told through Eden. Such as, “Matrix”, “Beauty”, or “Journey”. In Beauty, you get to shoot enemies that represent nature like flowers and butterflies, flying through a series of lakes and tree roots.

The game is comprised of only five levels in the story. However, the gameplay is so uniquely satisfying that every time you complete a level, I’m sure you’ll come back for more. Each level begins with a quieter rhythm and later becomes a masterpiece after you’ve defeated more and more “infections”. At the end of the level, the screen is filled with images that feels like a cool breeze after a long struggle of rhythmic mashing.

Within the levels, there are numerous enemies you will encounter. Because you will be playing with an on-rail style shooter in this game, there will bound to be enemies you will miss… at least for the first time you play the game. The enemies can be creatures, blocks, weird purple bullets, and much more. You are equipped with three weapons. The X button or your left hand is the “Tracker”, it can destroy purple targets. For everything else, there is the A button or your right hand with is your basic shooter. Lastly, there is your “Euphoria” attack which will be your screen-clearing lifesaver. Euphoria can be collected throughout levels and can really help out at those tight moments but they are also worth 100,000 points at the end if you can manage to not use and collect all three.

Honestly, I’m not very good at this game but I still love it because of the entrancing music and rainbow colors. The scoring system for the game might be hard to grasp for beginners as the first time I went through the game, I had nothing higher than a 3-star rating for any level. In order to get a gold 5-star rating, you must complete the levels with 800,000 points (which is a lot) and 100% purification (all enemies defeated).

The only gripe I have about this game is how short it is and having no option for cursor speed while playing with a controller. This game provides so much potential for so many themes, I felt that it could have been much longer. I was able to complete the storyline within four hours easily but luckily, it unlocked “hard mode” for those that want to achieve more replay value with this game.

Overall, the game is a glittery, dazzling set of geometry and colors that I guarantee anyone can easily be absorbed into once they hold the controller in their hands. The game is satisfying for a simple, casual gamer as well as an advanced shooter looking for a challenge. There’s a ton of things to unlock for Lumi’s Garden for the collectors and it’s also fun to watch with friends around.

Score Card: 8/10