Michael Phelps: Push the Limit

Michael Phelps: Push the Limit is a Kinect-only swimming game. It includes the four major competitive swimming styles (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) which can either be played as single races or within a career. During the latter, the player receives experience points after successful races which can be used to improve the swimmer’s abilities.

A race consists of a four general phases: cheering the crowd (for a stat boost during the race), diving in, the race itself and the finish. During all phases, the player needs to perform different motion-control actions (which are more or less based on the movements on screen) in order to have a successful race. However, the athlete only has a limited amount of stamina available which is depleted faster with faster swimming movements. When the player performs with the right rhythm, a special energy bar fills up which is used during the finishing phase instead of stamina.