Kinect, the early opinion

Arriving home yesterday and seeing the nice big box on the doorstep was a massive relief after the annoying day I had. The large box, and the small package next to it were tucked tightly against the door leaving a fine line between the dry stoop and the wet sidewalk, but all was well.  

 

The Kinect box was smaller than I had expected, but the sensor was a bit bigger than I though it would have been. It was easy to hook up despite the difficulty in finding an outlet on any of the power strips that run our massive entertainment setup. The sensor's base was heavy enough to perch on top of the DLP TV securely (though I did use a little double sided tape to make sure this $150 piece of tech didn’t accidentally plummet to the floor below.  After a system power up, system update, tutorial, calibration, and another tutorial, we were ready to go. 

Pushing the couches apart a bit we managed to find the required amount or space to get rolling.  The new Kinect guide (operating off of hand gestures is interesting, but I don’t see us using it unless we are already standing up for playing a game with Kinect, the voice commands are neat, and somewhat useful, but again, if I have a controller in my hand already I see that as being my main means of control.

 

Overall, the system alone is very cool, and as a gadget freak I am VERY glad we picked it up……but the games are where the system really shines.

 

 

I primarily got this game for my wife, but I found myself fighting her for time with it. the tutorials feel a bit brief to memorize the moves but honestly if they were any longer I would have probably complained about them. The option to break the moves down to learn them is an absolute necessity unless you know the hip hop name for every major dance step, you will be using this feature a lot. I took over the first song, it went well, on easy 4.5 stars, 200,000 points (no achievements, damn….) then it was my wife’s turn….being more of a city girl who knew the music and a bit more about the dances she pulled off a 5 star performance at 450,000 points (earning me an achievement which she won't let me forget…grrrr) it went like this for a while, but after about an hour we were exhausted, feeling out of shape and a bit sweaty. We looked over the rest of the songs, excited to work our way up to the high level ones.  I must say if you have ever considered getting a DDR game, go, buy this, you will like it.

 

A few tips for Kinect. 

 

Don’t wear baggy clothing.

 

Make sure you have PLENTY of room to use this.   I’m afraid most apartments and smaller houses will not have enough room to get the full use of Kinect.

 

Stretch first. In the first few minutes of navigating the menu I felt my arms cramping up from holding them out.

 

Don’t get Kinect if you are paranoid. The desktop has an IR camera image in the bottom corner that is always on, it makes one a bit suspicious as to who else may be watching.

 

________________________________

 

Overall, I say go get it. With the detail the are giving these games, this system will be around for a long time (provided the space requirement doesn’t kill off its customer base).

 

Auto out-