Kinect (and Kinect Games) Review
We purchased a Kinect for our Xbox 360 (at 50% off!) and got it about 2 weeks ago. Here are my thoughts on it thus far.
- Currently there are only about 3 worthwhile games on it, from what we can tell. Those three games are quite good though, and if we get a few more of that quality out of the dozens promised in the next year, it will turn into a better and better investment.
- It's quite a powerful little thing. I trained it to recognize me and automatically sign me in whenever I stand in front of it, and so far it's only gotten confused when my hair was in braids instead of down as per usual. And even then, it still figured out who I was; it just took longer. It recognizes basic voice commands too, regardless of who is saying them, which is pretty cool.
- The quality of experience you get from it mainly depends on two things: 1. how well the game was programmed (this is why there are only three good ones), and 2. whether you have enough space. We rearranged our entire living room to make it work, but now if it gets picky about us not being the proper distance away from the Kinect, we just shove the couch further back. If you don't have that option, you'll probably get a little frusterated with it constantly telling you to scoot back.
- Every game is secretly an exercise game in disguise.
- I love the fact that it doesn't require a controller, or additional stuff to buy to make it work. You just turn on the Xbox and wave.
- The main reason why I don't regret buying it is because of Dance Central, made by Harmonix. Yep, the same guys who made Rock Band. And it is just as well put together, having my favorite menu system by far and disguising exercise as fun the best of any of them. It has a pretty short selection of songs compared to Rock Band, but they do have DLC and so far, I haven't really felt shorted as far as number of songs - there's enough to keep you busy for quite a while playing/learning them all on easy, medium, and hard. While it is a little annoying that you have to unlock the higher difficulties by playing the lower difficulties first, it's probably for the best because then I end up doing better overall. This game makes all the other dancing games coming out look like crap. Harmonix has once again monopolized a cash cow. :P And let's be honest - if I just played Dance Central, it is still cheaper overall (cost of Kinect+game) than Rock Band, and Rock Band was well worth the investment.
- Kinect Sports is most fun when you have people visiting; it is most definitely a party game. It's pretty similar to Wii Sports in concept, but it seems like it's a little more versatile since it tracks your whole body, not just the wiimote. (I'm not an expert in Wii Sports though; I've only played it about twice.) Same sort of stuff though: track and field, table tennis, bowling, soccer, beach volleyball, boxing. The mini-games are my favorite, and having achievements makes me extra competitive against myself to try to reach a specific goal, which is always a bonus in my opinion. I'm not much for being competitive against others, though it's nice when I win, so having something I can aim for that doesn't depend on how other people do makes it more fun for me. Because let's face it. rhb almost always wins everything. (Except I beat him in table tennis.) Kinect Sports is made by another of my favorite video game companies, Rare. Though I am disappointed they didn't make Viva Pinata: Oceanic Paradise as their next big hit, they still know how to make a good game, regardless of what they are given to work with. (Microsoft is basically using them now to make a bunch of Kinect games; hopefully they all turn out this polished.)
- Your Shape Fitness Evolved is the third game we got. It is, as the name implies, a fitness game. Like any fitness game, it's only as useful as you make it... meaning, if I get lazy and stop using it, then it's not worth it. But I've done it 3-4 times so far and am hoping to make a habit of using it at least 3 times a week, even if it's only for 15 min. at a time. It starts you off doing a fitness test, and then selects various exercise routines to do based on your results and what you are trying to accomplish by exercising. Some of them are better than others (I just did one the other day that had me do 9 repetitions of lunges before switching; I was not a fan of that), but you get to choose which one you do, so once you get familiar with the different recommendations, you can customize it pretty well. They have some decent minigames too. The game does a great job tracking you, and it will give you tips on what you need to alter to do better. It works best if you are not wearing baggy clothes though - that throws it off and will make it occasionally claim you are out of rhythm when you aren't. It tracks how many calories you burn each session and how many you have burned total, and it has a nice variety of exercises you can do without any extra equipment as well as ones you can do with weights. My only complaint is that it seems to think that I burn fewer calories just because I don't weigh very much, which makes it difficult to compete with rhb for the calorie-burning contest. XD Apparently that extra 15 lbs he has on me makes a big difference...
- Kinect Adventures ships with the Kinect and is basically a "here's what our system can do, look how cool it is" demo. It was a big hit with our nieces and nephews, but it got old pretty fast when it was just us playing it. It's not bad, it just... feels like a demo. It has a river raft game, a "plug the leaks in the fishtank" game, a brickbreaker game, and a few others along similar lines. It's probably worth the $5 you can find it for in used game stores, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a scenario when you would have a Kinect without this game, since they ship together (even ours did, and it was refurbished).
- Kinectamals is worth considering if you are in the 8-14 age range. There's a free demo, so check that out first. I played the demo and while it's fun, it's probably most appealing to a younger audience. Essentially, you have a virtual pet tiger and take care of it and play with it. There are exercises in disguise as "playing with your pet", and minigames where you hold an imaginary wheel and pretend to drive a little car, and other things along those lines. It is very well programmed and can pick up your movements pretty accurately, so it's not at all frustrating to play. Plus the guide that helps you figure out what's going on is voiced by Invader Zim's voice actor, which is a little entertaining. But honestly, I probably won't buy it because I'd rather pet a real cat... not wave my hands in front of me doing scritchy fingers.
So sorry if that bored you to tears. To summarize, I am quite pleased with it overall, and I have high hopes for the future of Kinect games. And... hopefully this exercise streak persists.