Kinect, First Impressions

Since E3 Microsoft has been teasing gamers with their Kinect peripheral. Me, being skeptical as always, I never really felt that Kinect could be a success and that the motion tracking might not be precise enough.

Over the past few days I had some time to sit down or rather stand up and give this Kinect thing a shot. This first game I played was Kinect Adventures, there isn't too much I can really say about this game other than it is the standard "shovelware" that is bundled with the peripheral. They are generally short mini games, the only mini game that I liked was the racing game. Although it was very odd to be driving with an imaginary steering wheel it was an entertaining game nevertheless.

I proceeded to play the Dance Central demo because I was curious to see what all the hype was about. It seems like I have seen quite a few game reviews raving about this game so my curiosity got the better of me. To put it simply, Dance Central is the best thing that Kinect has going for it, that in itself is a good thing as well as a bad thing. This means that it will sell a great number of units but some gamers may be be weary of investing in the Kinect for only one good game. Dance Central is genuinely fun, even for those who aren't experienced dancers. I think it is probably the best dance game ever created; as much as I love Dance Dance Revolution, Dance Central still takes the Cake. The thing that separates Dance Central from the rest is that it can actually teach the player how to dance, dances that can be used in real world applications.

Kinect met my expectations in terms of games and exceeded my expectations when it comes down to the motion tracking. Dance Central was great and all but I fear that not many games will be as great as it is thus possibly ruling out Kinect as a viable investment in the eyes of many gamers. Lets just hope the developers have a few tricks up their sleeves and create innovative software that will produce a completely new and enjoyable gaming experience.