Fall, a season best known for the leaves changing colors, families gathered around the dining room table to enjoy a nice turkey dinner and let’s not forget...slipping on a Speedo? Well, at least that’s what Publisher’s 505 Games and Developers Blitz Games want you to do with the release of Michael Phelps: Push the Limit for the Xbox Kinect.

Some of you might remember that I had a chance to play Push the Limit with the Developers at this year’s E3. If you remember that, then you’ll also remember that I took a “dive” in more ways than one.

This incident aside, I really was anxious to see what kind of improvements would be made by its release. I’d love to say this is a title that can be enjoyed by a multitude of gamers with a wide variety of abilities, but honestly, it has its fair share of short comings.

The game mechanics are what you’d expect from a controller-free swimming game. The player, using their arms must stroke in a controlled pattern in order to move their character forward. With the help of an onscreen “rhythm meter”, the player is able to see if they are swimming too fast, too slow or just right. If they’re able to maintain the perfect pace, they will acquire a speed boost which is triggered by voice prompt. This boost allows the player to get an extra jolt of stamina which could make or break the race. It’s important not exert all your energy at once because if you do, your character won’t have the stamina to “Push the Limit” and finish strongly.

The controls take a bit of time to get used to, with practice, I’ve actually gotten pretty good at getting an “Optimal Dive” off the starting block...but that’s the easy part. While sitting in my wheelchair, I use my arms to get the crowd pumped up. The more motivated I get the crowd before taking my dive, the more stamina I will have to use during the race. One thing that I will say has improved since I first played at E3 is that I don’t have to swing my arms as far back from a seated position in order to make my character to dive from the starting block.

Once in the water, the game can actually become physically exhausting because you have to constantly be padding forward to keep up with the other swimmers. Be it that this game is intended to have the player standing and not in a seated position, the Kinect camera did have a bit of trouble picking up my arm movements. I found that if I over exaggerated these movements, the camera was able to pick up my actions and keep a steady pace.

In Single Player Mode, players have the option of either Quickplay or Career. In Quickplay, you can compete in races starting at 50 metres and going up to 200 metres. You can also choose from 4 types of races: Front Stroke, Butterfly, Breast Stroke and Back Stroke. If you find that the Gold difficulty setting is too easy, you can bump it up to Platinum or even Elite if you so desire.

In Career Mode, players compete in a series of tournaments around the globe. As you progress through the swimming ranks, you’ll improve your stroke and unlock different venues. From Outdoor Arenas to serene Mountain Ranges, you won’t believe the places you’ll end up. Michael Phelps guides you with audio prompts throughout this process but unfortunately, there is no way to turn on subtitles, so this will affect the end game experience for deaf gamers. With that said, the loading screens have a ton of game hints and during gameplay there are visual indicators that do not require sound, so this should allow for the game to be quite playable for these individuals.
For those of you in the mood for a group swim the game supports 2 player local gameplay and up to 4 players through Xbox LIVE. If you’re curious of your World Rank in any one of the swimming styles, Leaderboards are available and reflect who has the overall best times.

Additional options such as: Music, Sound Effects, and Voice levels can be adjusted, but other than that, the options are pretty bare.


Accessibility Issues/Concerns:

As you can imagine, a game that requires players to use both arms in a timed fashion is not exactly ideal for a gamer with the use of only one arm. I found that even with the use of both of my arms, having any kind of precision issues or motor impairments makes this game extremely difficult to play.
Deaf Gamers will miss out on the Audio cues provided by Mr. Phelps, but this shouldn’t affect the overall progression through the game.
Color Blind gamers should find this game to be fairly accessibly as most text is white against a dark background.
At a Glance

Mobility: As mentioned above, gamers with the use of one arm or severe motor impairments may want to leave this game on the shelf. Recommended score: 3/10

Hearing: There are audio cues in the game for certain actions, BUT, these cues also have onscreen overlays with text and visual prompts, it’s a shame they just didn’t include subtitles. Recommended score: 7/10

Vision: The onscreen prompts are legible and most are accompanied with an audio cue. Gamers who are color-blind or have a visual impairment should be able to play without much difficulty. Recommended score: 8/10

Overall: If you’re a big fan of Michael Phelps then you might want to add this to your collection, if you’re a fan of swimming in general, I’d say wait until summer and actually go outside. With a cost of $49.99, this game has its moments, but none of them really outweigh the accessibility issues.