I am an out-of-shape Jedi...

I have some quick initial thoughts about the Kinect.  It's pretty cool actually.

But damn, I am tired!  I played Kinect Adventures for about an hour, and I'm pooped.  Totally out of shape.  But it is a lot of fun.  My apartment is just barely big enough to play.  I'm pretty much up against my couch, but it works just fine.

It's weird to hold out your hand and have it track and select menu items.  It feels like I am using the force.  Kinda cool actually.  I just wave my hand around and my xbox does stuff.

The first time the Kinect moved to adjust its viewing angle of me was a little freaky.  It moved to look right at me.  Like it was alive or something.

I played the rallyball, river rafting, and stop the leaks games.  They were all really fun and responded really well.  The rally-ball (think 3-D breakout) was interesting, but hard to concentrate and keep multiple balls in play.  Also hard to direct the balls to the exact corners I wanted.  But maybe I could get better with practice.

River rafting is awesome!  You "strafe" left and right to guide the raft and jump to jump the raft and collect "pins".  I think this is the game that wore me out.  I was really getting into it.

The stop the leaks game was fun too.  You are just in a clear box under water, and fish apparently want to eat you, so they keep poking holes in your box.  You play twister basically and plug the leaks.  It's so weird to have to worry about the placement of my feet during a videogame.

The game also takes pictures of you while you play, especially while you are doing goofy shit.  Like at the finish line of the rafting there are "pins" to collect and there's a billion of them and you have to jump, flailing your arms, looking like an idiot, and of course it took a picture of that.  You can upload them to a Kinect website too.

I also tried a demo of the Joyride racing game.  It is extremely weird to race a car using an imaginary steering wheel, but it works ridiculously well for what it is.  There are items to use like in Mario Kart, and you don't control the acceleration or braking, but it was still really fun.  I don't think I'll buy the full game, but I'll keep the demo around for fun.

The voice commands are pretty cool.  I haven't used them a ton yet, but it has gotten it right every time so far.

I also bought the Your Shape: Fitness Evolved "game".  I got this mostly to try the yoga and tai chi.  I did one of the 5 minute tai chi workouts, and it was really cool.  And I was sore afterwards. It also has some fun minigames.  There is one where you hold a board and blocks come down and you have to balance the blocks on the board and then throw the blocks into bins on the left or right when the bins open.  It was really really fun. 

Overall.........damn, I am so out of shape........but so far, I think it is pretty cool.  Definitely different than anything I've ever played before.  I'm hoping I can make a habit out of the fitness game, but we'll see.  I think I'm at least way more likely to use my Kinect than I ever was to use my Wii.  I just need a cool bowling game for it now.

"Go for the High Score!"