Motion control gaming - Nintendo created it, Sony copied it, and Microsoft is expanding it. Kinect is here, Microsoft’s motion and voice control camera that is set to revolutionize the way we play games, or at least, free us from the waggle wand. Microsoft have set out on a bold campaign to bring in many of the same non-gamers that the Wii did. You don’t hear about the Wii much anymore from your soccer moms, your senior citizens, or the mailman - most of grown tired or bored and moved on. But the Kinect, with appearances on Ellen, Oprah, and the Home Shopping network - that’s gotten them all riled up again.
It’s long, it’s thick, and black....
The first thing I think most folks will be surprised with is the size of Kinect, at about 8 inches long and weighing a pound or so, it's a truly beefy camera. It sits above or below your TV and uses a built in motor to determine its playing area and track your body. The first time you fire up the Kinect you’ll need to run a few tests to calibrate the microphone and such. You may also want to run the Kinect ID application which allows the console to recognize you when you step into the field of view. We had a few issues with getting it to work under different conditions, but 9 times out of 10 the Kinect easily recognized each players when they walked on camera.
Navigating the dashboard with Kinect is accomplished in two ways. The first is using your hands as control objects - ala Minority Report. The reality of it is, it doesn’t behave this way at all. Navigation becomes a slow and cumbersome experience as confirming selections and sliding panels take time - 2-3 seconds of hovering over an item. Why 3-dimensional space wasn’t used for confirmation is beyond me - I should be able to just reach out and “grab” the button to press it instead of holding my hand still in the air for 3 seconds. The sliding between tabs also must be done “just right” and is error prone.
Because of the oversized nature of a lot of the Kinect interfaces, you can only fit so much data on the screen - this means long friends lists and achievement lists require a lot of the painful process of scrolling between panels. Another oddity here are the panels are a 4:3 resolution instead of 16:9.
Ok, so navigating with your hands is a novelty - thankfully the voice commands work pretty well. You can easily start a game, launch your friends list (the Kinect one) and dozens of other commands just by speaking with your natural voice. Saying “Xbox Launch Disc” saved me numerous times while I was hunting for controller before playing.
Whatever you do, don’t open your eyes...
One other minor gripe I have about the Kinect is the IR sensor on it. This little eye is always on, even if you aren’t playing a Kinect game, so depending on where you sit relative to the sensor it’s shining in your eyes. It’s quite the distraction, so much so, I keep the Kinect turned off to the side of my TV stand. One thing to remember - when setting up the Kinect you have the option to use it as a microphone for gaming - if you do that it takes the place of your XBL headset so people will hear you chat.
You also are going to need a pretty big playing space for Kinect - my living room is exactly 8 feet from the front of the TV stand to the front of the couch and it’s just barely enough room to play distance wise. In numerous games my hands would go out of frame if I needed to raise them above my head. Add in a second person for co-op play and you get an almost claustrophobic feeling trying to squeeze both players into view.
My living room is small by no means, but we were still "crowded" while playing Kinect.
Lets Talk about Games...Baby...
It’s painfully obvious the Kinect launch isn’t for the core gamer. You won’t find a Gears of War where you can use your couch for cover, or you won’t find a Call of Duty where online multiplayer has you running around your living room. What you will find are games that appeal to a softer crowd. Kinect Adventures is a game with various mini games like Rafting, the infamous Rally Ball, and Space Pop where you’ll pop balls in 3D space. Kinect Sports is the answer to Wii sports with a soccer mini game, bowling, ping pong, or volley ball. Finally there’s Joy Ride, a cart racer style game where you earn points for tricks completed. All three of these games utilize your Avatar to bring you into the experience and all three have their moments - but in the end - they are just a collection of mini-games with no real depth to them.
Coop decided to give Joy Ride on Kinect a try the night before he got married. He quickly learned the game had a lot in common with his wedding night
The good news about these games are they are co-op friendly - at least in the sense that a lot of them can be played by two people at the same time. Players can team up for volleyball or soccer to take on the computer and in Kinect Adventures there are several mini games that require coordination to accomplish.
Sonic Free Riders
There’s a few other retail titles that have co-op as well - Sonic Free Riders is one such game that offers two co-op modes. The first mode, called Tag Mode, has players fused together on a board where you must lean, jump, and gather goodies in unison. The more synchronized you are the faster you can go. In Relay mode both players aren’t racing at the same time, instead after each lap the other player must jump in. The game is pretty fun, but steering takes a bit of getting used to - it almost seems to sensitive and I tended to “over lean” - I’m sure grandpa would throw his back out playing this one.
All the Sonic characters are on display here, there’s a single player story to work through, and many different game modes to enjoy. Once you get the hang of the controls the gameplay is actually a bit addictive, my daughter was watching me play and laughing as I jumped around the living room. I even picked her up at one point and the game had no trouble recognizing my motions.
Dance Central
Dance Central doesn’t necessarily have a co-op mode, but it does allow other players do be your background dancers. They won’t be scored on their performance, but they can join in on the fun and get plenty of laughs at the pictures the game takes. Really Dance Central is the pinnacle of what the Kinect is capable of - it tracks your entire body, it knows the position of all your limbs, and it gives immediate feedback when what you do isn’t matching the on screen avatar.
Dance Central is hands down the most fun I had with Kinect. I can’t wait to break it out at future parties and get the whole room going. There’s a wide variety of dance moves to do, it promises to offer more to download, and there’s even “dance training” to guide you through it, slowly if needed.
Seriously, I’m going to have a Bel Biv Devoe dance off during my next party.
I still like my couch and controller...
It’s easy to see the technology behind Kinect is revolutionary. Full body tracking, voice control, facial recognition all wrapped up into a nice looking piece of hardware is impressive, if not a bit expensive at $150. The implementation though of the software leaves a lot to be desired. While games like Dance Central did a great job of making you feel in control, some others like Joy Ride simply made me feel disconnected from the experience. The lack of something physical to interact with does become apparent when you are trying to steer a virtual car or grab at objects that simply don’t exist. Swinging an invisible racket just doesn’t feel right without something tactile in your hands like what is provided with the Wii or Move.
As a cynical core gamer I can’t help but wonder if some of that 500 million dollar marketing budget for Kinect and all those R&D dollars could have been used for saving some of the studios Microsoft have cut like Ensemble and FASA.
Right now I just can’t see any sort of game play experiences that are worthwhile for Kinect outside the type that map your body to a body on the screen. Ubisoft’s Yourshape Fitness Evolved comes to mind as another example of a perfect game for the system - but we’ve yet to see any kind of core games on the platform. Microsoft promises those are coming and we got a glimpse of them at TGS, so we’ll continue to keep our fingers crossed.
The Kinect is going to do just fine though - it’s going to sell well, kids and families are going to enjoy it, and there’s going to be plenty of games to support it
- currently there’s over 40 announced titles. While the current lineup of games aren’t perfect, and mostly fall under the categories of exercise, dance, or mini games - they are all fun in small doses. People paid $250 for the same type of experience with the Wii and now they can have it for $150 on their Xbox 360.
Score: 2.5 out of 5
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