I've wanted a Kinect since I saw the first trailers for "Project Natal." The potential for this thing blew me away. And I'm not just talking about waving your arms around to knock back dodgeballs, either. Having facial and voice recognition hardware in everyone's living room is staggering. Using TV's for video chat, voice commanding the console, it's all so amazing.
However, let's get back to what's happening in my living room now. (Caveat: this is all first impressions after a day of playing with it. I may be downright wrong about some features of the games that I haven't run into yet.)
I saw that Walmart was having a special deal on the 4GB Xbox 360 with a Kinect that started at 6am on Saturday. I have a 360, but it's a first gen and I've been thinking about upgrading anyway. I didn't really want to get up that early so I browsed around and found that most places were already sold out, so I had almost set my mind to getting up and fighting crowds at Walmart when I found that while Bestbuy.com didn't have any of the bundles for direct sale, they did have them available (at Walmart's price, no less) for pickup at my local store. So I quickly bought one, got a reasonable amount of sleep, and walked right in and picked it up the next day. I also picked up an extra controller, a cable to transfer my old hard drive to the new one, and two extra games.
I set up the new system in short order and got down to business with the Kinect. First up was the game that comes with the bundle, Kinect Adventures. It's basically a set of minigames using the Kinect with a weak metagame wrapper. You collect badges and trophies by doing a series of minigames. This unlocks other badges and trophies. You can also do "Free Play" of the minigames.
Overall, the minigames are pretty fun. You bat balls around a room, you ride a raft down rapids trying to slalom between poles, you plug leaks in a glass box you're standing in, you float around popping bubbles. They're quick and fun and have you jumping, leaning, ducking, and waving all over the place. It reminds me of Wii Play, really. It's just fun stuff there to show off the basic capabilities of the Kinect.
The second game I tried was Kinectimals. It's kind of like Nintendogs but on a much bigger scale. You get a pet feline (tiger, panther, cheetah, leopard, or lion) and then you play with it. Playing with it gives you points which unlocks new ways to play with it, new toys, new minigames, etc.. There's also an exploration mechanic for the island you're on which can unlock new pets for you, etc. The game is beautiful! Really amazing. All the pics and videos you see don't really do it justice. They've captured some really nice stuff in there mechanically as well. The pet comes up and breathes on the TV screen, making it fog up. It bounces around looking at stuff. If you want the world's biggest virtual pet game, look no further.
The Kinect part is nice, but the controls are a little wonky. It's great for petting the cat or brushing it, but throwing a ball takes a bit of getting used to and aiming your throws is difficult. Steering a toy car also takes a bit of practice. Luckily, everything's pretty easy to do.
The last game is Dance Central. Of the three, it's easily my favorite by a large margin. It's sort of the Rock Band or Guitar Hero of the Kinect. Basically, you're given a choice of songs to dance to, and each one has a set of moves associated with it. You must perform those moves as the song plays. The closer you are to matching the computer, the higher your score. Each song has three difficulty levels and a practice mode that goes over the moves you need to learn one at a time.
This game is a lot of fun. You may feel ridiculous, and there might be some laughing, especially when the screen shows photos of you doing the dance, but it's pure fun. The Kinect controls are really good, too. It's not just about putting your hand in the right place, it reads your body outline and matches it with a "perfect" computer. It outlines the parts of your body that are incorrect in red so you can improve them. Genius! I also like the control scheme for UI functions which involves moving icons on the screen with your hands.
I have to say I'm very impressed with my Kinect so far. It does a good job of reading your position and actions. The only problems I've really had were things like stepping on the correct spot on the floor in a Kinect Adventure minigame or it not reading a jump correctly on occasion. Those are really minor compared to how much fun I'm having, though. I also feel like I'm getting a pretty good workout at some games that I find to be quite fun. It really beats watching a Dancersize video or playing Wii Fit.
I'm sure I'll have much more to say on the subject as I continue to play with it. I especially want to get the fighting game I saw.
However, let's get back to what's happening in my living room now. (Caveat: this is all first impressions after a day of playing with it. I may be downright wrong about some features of the games that I haven't run into yet.)
I saw that Walmart was having a special deal on the 4GB Xbox 360 with a Kinect that started at 6am on Saturday. I have a 360, but it's a first gen and I've been thinking about upgrading anyway. I didn't really want to get up that early so I browsed around and found that most places were already sold out, so I had almost set my mind to getting up and fighting crowds at Walmart when I found that while Bestbuy.com didn't have any of the bundles for direct sale, they did have them available (at Walmart's price, no less) for pickup at my local store. So I quickly bought one, got a reasonable amount of sleep, and walked right in and picked it up the next day. I also picked up an extra controller, a cable to transfer my old hard drive to the new one, and two extra games.
I set up the new system in short order and got down to business with the Kinect. First up was the game that comes with the bundle, Kinect Adventures. It's basically a set of minigames using the Kinect with a weak metagame wrapper. You collect badges and trophies by doing a series of minigames. This unlocks other badges and trophies. You can also do "Free Play" of the minigames.
Overall, the minigames are pretty fun. You bat balls around a room, you ride a raft down rapids trying to slalom between poles, you plug leaks in a glass box you're standing in, you float around popping bubbles. They're quick and fun and have you jumping, leaning, ducking, and waving all over the place. It reminds me of Wii Play, really. It's just fun stuff there to show off the basic capabilities of the Kinect.
The second game I tried was Kinectimals. It's kind of like Nintendogs but on a much bigger scale. You get a pet feline (tiger, panther, cheetah, leopard, or lion) and then you play with it. Playing with it gives you points which unlocks new ways to play with it, new toys, new minigames, etc.. There's also an exploration mechanic for the island you're on which can unlock new pets for you, etc. The game is beautiful! Really amazing. All the pics and videos you see don't really do it justice. They've captured some really nice stuff in there mechanically as well. The pet comes up and breathes on the TV screen, making it fog up. It bounces around looking at stuff. If you want the world's biggest virtual pet game, look no further.
The Kinect part is nice, but the controls are a little wonky. It's great for petting the cat or brushing it, but throwing a ball takes a bit of getting used to and aiming your throws is difficult. Steering a toy car also takes a bit of practice. Luckily, everything's pretty easy to do.
The last game is Dance Central. Of the three, it's easily my favorite by a large margin. It's sort of the Rock Band or Guitar Hero of the Kinect. Basically, you're given a choice of songs to dance to, and each one has a set of moves associated with it. You must perform those moves as the song plays. The closer you are to matching the computer, the higher your score. Each song has three difficulty levels and a practice mode that goes over the moves you need to learn one at a time.
This game is a lot of fun. You may feel ridiculous, and there might be some laughing, especially when the screen shows photos of you doing the dance, but it's pure fun. The Kinect controls are really good, too. It's not just about putting your hand in the right place, it reads your body outline and matches it with a "perfect" computer. It outlines the parts of your body that are incorrect in red so you can improve them. Genius! I also like the control scheme for UI functions which involves moving icons on the screen with your hands.
I have to say I'm very impressed with my Kinect so far. It does a good job of reading your position and actions. The only problems I've really had were things like stepping on the correct spot on the floor in a Kinect Adventure minigame or it not reading a jump correctly on occasion. Those are really minor compared to how much fun I'm having, though. I also feel like I'm getting a pretty good workout at some games that I find to be quite fun. It really beats watching a Dancersize video or playing Wii Fit.
I'm sure I'll have much more to say on the subject as I continue to play with it. I especially want to get the fighting game I saw.
You forgot to mention the epic fail of trying to play with a toddler running around 'stealing' player control! (The Kinect would be scanning the wee one, instead of the player, since she kept getting in front!)
But I still got 3 stars on the dance game while swinging the toddler around, and the playback video in high speed was worth losing those 2 extra stars!