X’10 – Microsoft Kinect

Neither Richard nor I have tried PlayStation Move or WiiPlus, so we can’t compare them, but what I can tell you is this: Kinect is pretty accurate. It took Richard a few tries to move the slider that started Kinect Adventures, but once the game started, it tracked our bodies and limbs quite accurately. I tried giving it a thumbs up but it didn’t track my digits, but that’s probably more than can be expected from current consumer technology (or maybe our avatars just couldn’t move their digits).

There was also a strange problem when we started the second game that it lost Richard completely. I guess I should’ve also turned sideways to see if it would lose me (as I am basically two dimensional when viewed from the side), but I didn’t think about it. After a little bit of moving and jumping around, Richard mysteriously re-appeared though and we went on our second adventure.

There is a little bit of delay between our motion and the action appearing on screen, which messed up some of our dodging. It appeared to me that jumping had the most lag, and is especially noticeable with some warping when going from crouch position to jumping. It could’ve been the setup in the room we were in, but I don’t have any conclusive data either way.

It was kind of fun to jump around, though it didn’t feel any more exciting than when I first played Wii Tennis. Having been very impressed with the original Kinect unveiling (when it was still called Natal), I probably expected more from the experience than I received. But then again, it’s still in its infancy, and there could still be some very cool things to come in the future.

Kinect releases for $150 CAD on November 4th, 2010 for the Xbox 360.