I've been on a bit of a Kinect binge lately, being sure to sample everything that the casual centric device has been able to throw at me. PowerUp Heroes has, from the start, always been a concept that appealed to me (despite me being presumably way over the age of the target audience). There's just something that seems to be so cool about being able to summon fireballs, lightning bolts, storms and other kinds of cool super powers that I only dreamed I could have as a child, and I was sincerely hoping that PowerUp Heroes could be the game that would let me fulfil those dreams (although a good fifteen years later). Thankfully, for the most part, it's pretty competent but like with all Kinect games thus far there are some flaws.

The story of PowerUp Heroes is really nothing neither new nor exciting – an evil alien menace has threatened to destroy the planet, and a good alien hero has threatened to fight back. Upon his crashing on Earth, however, your own avatar inherits his powers and thus your own personal adventure begins. It's really a very shallow and poorly framed story to give kids an excuse to trot the globe and defeat the impending alien menace that threatens to invade the planet. And really, story is not the main attraction here.

PowerUp Heroes is immaculately presented from the get-go, utilising comic-book style cutscenes and very high tech looking menus to make the player feel like they're actually a hero sitting in their pre-mission planning room, or something to that effect. The graphics themselves are as you'd expect – not amazing but not offensively bad either. Considering this is a fighting game through and through, most of the environments are rather static, but the effects that you can create and manipulate are quite a sight to behold. Sometimes, though, the action does crawl to a rather slow pace during some more intense attack animations, but otherwise PowerUp Heroes really doesn't offend the eyes with its somewhat colourful and varied environments.

What was rather surprising to me was that PowerUp Heroes was more of a fighting game than an adventure one, placing the player in an arena with a selected opponent. From here the player can select from one of three powers and conduct a gesture in order to use the power. Some of these feel really cool, like raising your arms to the sky and bringing them crashing down to create a huge lightning bolt, or holding a fireball behind you to charge it up and then unleashing it by throwing it towards your screen.

Essentially, PowerUp Heroes uses gestures that are very similar to the on screen animations that make the player really feel like they're controlling whatever power it is they're trying to harness. This is something that will be absolutely amazing to play with children as I am just sure they're imaginations are more wild than mine and this kind of game really let's them to get into the game and feel like they're doing what they're doing on-screen. It doesn't hurt that these gestures are detected very well too, with exception of the evade gesture which unfortunately doesn't always detect properly.

In addition to the powers, players can also use their fists and legs to physically attack enemies, which is useful to stop the charging of a powerful attack or simply do some damage. Most of these moments require the player to simply punch as fast as possible, which is also fun but can get quite tiring towards the end of your sessions. Should the enemy attempt to attack the player, a "counter" minigame initiates where the player must use their legs or forearms to defend against punches and kicks, which is brilliantly done but sometimes inaccurate at detecting your counters.

As you'd expect, the fighting system really isn't that in-depth as this is a game clearly designed for younger children primarily – though once the player unlocks more and more suits there is a little bit of potential to deal more and more damage. Attacking with certain moves will leave the opponent stunned, and switching to ANOTHER suit (you can have up to two equipped before each match) and pulling off another power allows the player to chain together attacks for increased damage. This is a cool incentive to mix things up quite a bit though I suspect younger children might have trouble switching quickly enough.

Finally, players can level up their own characters to unlock perks, which may increase damage done through melee attacks, decrease power recharge times and many other things. Equipping perks adds a very, very light element of strategy to the mix but nothing major.

The only real downfall with PowerUp Heroes (and quite a notable one at that) is the game's longevity. Despite being offered at a lower price point, PowerUp Heroes unfortunately feels quite insubstantial. The game itself won't take any longer than three hours to complete, after which more powerful (and very cheap) opponents are unlocked, which will take about another three to four hours. But it's very hard to keep pressing on past the first three hours because it does get quite repetitive fighting the same enemies over and over. There are some secret suits (including the Rabbids and Ezio, both from other Ubisoft brands) but nothing major to unlock. There is Xbox Live multiplayer but quite frankly this game is already dead online and much more fun to play in the two player splitscreen mode.

The voicework and music are also nothing too flashy, with the announcer being something you'd hear in a Scott Pilgrim videogame / movie, while the music itself is just your generic "heroic" sounding music. Despite this, nothing is too "moving" and instead comes off as rather blasé.

PowerUp Heroes is a great simple yet fun fighting game that a younger audience will enjoy, but don't be so quick to dismiss it – many older players may enjoy it too. Still, it's unfortunate that it feels so insubstantial in the big scheme of things – though some children may enjoy the repetition.