Review: Kinect for Xbox 360

Words by: Marco Fiori | Posted on: Thursday 4th November, 2010 | Filed under: Features, News.

Wave Your Hands in the Air

Before we get to Kinect itself, let’s backtrack to 2009’s E3. Ever since the Wii exploded in popularity, it’s was obvious that motion control was on the cards for the Xbox. With casual gaming such a lucrative market, Kinect’s reveal was hardly a big surprise. With casual audiences instantly convinced, it’s perhaps the reaction from ‘hardcore gamers’ that proves much more important.

Many are still skeptical of Kinect and its future, but I can safely say that after spending an afternoon in its company, any bad blood quickly disperses.  All it took was thirty minutes to be blown away. Microsoft has achieved the impossible and made waving your arms around (in front of total strangers) an enjoyable experience. And we’re not just talking a bit of light-hearted fun, but rather a hands-down (or should that be up) hilarity-fest.

Also, for context’s sake, you’re looking at someone who calls himself a seasoned, hardcore gamer.  I wasn’t alone – the majority of attendees, including the reps, all come from a typical gaming background.  It’s already expected that the casual gamer will lap up Kinect’s frivolities, but it’s us, the core Xbox 360 user base, who will be the more difficult to please.

Like You Just Don’t Care

At first, it’s all a bit surreal. Full-body motion control is a peculiar experience for gamers – thinking in a 3D space doesn’t come natural to a group that’s been cemented to their chairs for the past three decades.  Therefore, the biggest challenge is simply convincing the gamer that Kinect will work. It’s like anything – it just takes a little bit of readjustment to get used to its intricacies.

Let’s take Kinect Sports as a good lost-in-translation example. With the Table Tennis sub-game, I kept missing returns. This wasn’t down to Kinect failing to do its job, but rather a lack of general movement on my behalf. I may have been moving my arms, but I wasn’t moving my body. I was static, standing on the spot when I should have been shuffling about, reaching for the wide shots. Once I got it into my mind that I can move, everything started to click. Top spin smashes came a dime a dozen and it was all a bit easy.

Thinking myself a hotshot, I asked to turn up the difficulty. The opponent AI wiped the floor with me, whitewashing me 0-11. It was a humbling experience and one that was quickly forgotten as we moved onto the game’s multiplayer party mode.

Kinect is founded on the raw concept of getting up off your sofa and enjoying yourself. Sure, some of the games can be played sitting down, but if you’re doing that, you’ve misunderstood its intention. Kinect’s programming captures everything perfectly and the games get your blood pumping in the process. Who says gaming isn’t good for you?

Feeling That Kinection

Arms out, imaginative steering wheel grasped, I took to Joyride (think typical arcade-kart-racer) like a duck takes to water. With acceleration and braking removed from my thinking, it was left to me to drift my way around the tracks using my body. Want a boost? Pull your arms in, charge it up and then push them out. You spend half your time reaching to the side to do flips and spins while the other half, throwing things at your opponents with a smile on your face.

You can’t help but enjoy yourself. All the games have been engineered for fun. The football component to Kinect Sports is a Subuteo style pass-and-shoot kickabout rather than a more realistic representation. The developers tried dribbling and throw-ins, but it didn’t add anything to the game. Everyone I spoke to shares a common belief that Kinect is there to enhance your experience of gaming, not replace it and that means getting up and at ‘em.

Embarrassing video footage is taken as you flail around and it can be uploaded to share with your friends. This is social gaming as it should be – Kinect is an attempt to bring gaming back to the packed living room. The Xbox generation has been hiding behind its internet connection for too long, myself included. On the surface, Kinect is about bringing back those Saturday afternoon split-screen sessions before broadband took off, but with a distinctive 21^st Century spin to it. With gaming just beginning to become an acceptable social activity, Kinect looks to be the perfect tool to help it grow.

You only have to spend five minutes with the device and you understand what Microsoft are trying to do. This is the next generation. Voice control, facial recognition and hand gestures were previously a thing of Sci-Fi, but now they’re about to enter your living room.

It’s exciting to think of the many ways it’ll be implemented in the future (as long as developers get behind it). There were already peeks into the future with Ubisoft’s Fighters Uncaged where hypothetical punching has never proved so satisfying.  The wand implementation in the latest Harry Potter game also demonstrated the Kinect’s scope for future FPS titles.

Getting Down and Techy

Any inhibitions you have are thrown out the window and it’s helped by the near-flawlessness of the technology (which when you consider the power and flexibility of the device, the price is extremely reasonable).The biggest thing about Kinect is that it just plain outright works. Sure, controlling the cursors can take a little getting used to, but the learning curve in the game is shallow. If it’s not picking up your movement, it’s because you’re not putting your heart into it.

Everyone knows how to move in some form or another (Kinect’s accessibility for disabled gamers is still being worked on) and that makes controlling games an extremely intuitive affair. All the launch titles seem to be free of finicky movement and hopefully in the future, developers will continue to keep up such a standard.

Whether you consider it to be the perfect party piece or a peek into gaming’s future, Kinect is unavoidable. Whether it’s in game, or controlling the Kinect-specific dashboard / Xbox Live Applications (like Sky and LastFM), it all just works perfectly. Those with limited income will wait for the kinks to be worked out and for more developer support to come through, but if you have an empty slot on your Christmas list, it’s the perfect choice. Seeing is definitely believing and playing if for the first time is just astonishing.

Get out there and buy one.

About Marco Fiori

Marco’s been playing games since 1996 and has been writing about them for four years. RPGs are his strong point and he has an unholy love obsession with the Calibri font. Follow him on Twitter @M_Fiori

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