So I finally got to throughly test the infamous Xbox 360 Kinect that so many people have been praising about. It is indeed a fairly Interesting device, similar to SIRI, you being able to control your xbox without the need of a remote (especially that I’m always looking for them), using either your voice or hand gesture however, It still left me wanting more and I’m still leaning towards the PS Move. Similar to the Apple Vs BlackBerry war, Playstation gets bashed for their PS move and xbox gets raves reviews for a product that feels a bit unfinished.

It is indeed ‘easier’ to set up comparing to their competition at a certain extend but the main downfall of the Kinect is the amount of space required, I was fortunate enough to have a basement large enough but I don’t believe Microsoft thought of the amount of people with a small (cluttered?) living room or basement. The constant readjusting was annoying too, when you get too close,too far, too one sided and such, killed the moment when we first played, some of us are intense gamers but we adjusted quickly with time. It does require a bit of learning curve or simply getting used to. Those with short attention span, or love to have a out of the box experience, may get discourage with the Kinect.

I definitely like the fact that it remembers you, so you don’t have to always go through the initial set up, every time you run the game, PS Move had that issue. While on the other hand, It could be an issue, as both me and my son were playing, we required more space but when we were solo playing, Kinect remembered the bigger space that we had set up, I wish we had the options to save a multiple set ups, that way no readjusting needed.

The other advantage It has over the others, is you really do need to move most parts of your body to play, whether you need hit the ball on the floor or dancing to Kevin Lyttle’s Turn Me on, your feet movement, need to be acurate, to score the most points, it does register most of your movements. The recording and picture of your performance inspires you to push to “look” and do better.

Second downfall, I don’t understand how it has voice recognition but simple task such as, turning off Xbox, exiting certain games, go back, are not an option. Xbox should have included these but I’m sure they have a valid reason and perhaps in the upcoming updates maybe It will be added or perhaps to reduce the couch potatoe problem, force you to move a few limbs to turn off.

Overall, the Kinect is a fun device at first, it’s something new to play around with, new technology, with today, everyone wanting ‘touch’, It is the closest we have (aside from touch keyboards and such), definitely, a great work out, If they release more intense games towards fitness, It would score major points but I still prefer the PS Move, the precision I felt having the remote in my hand versus hands gesture towards a big screen that wasn’t aligned as I wished, is the main reason, the Kinect did not do it for me. If Playstation and WII comes out with tiny sensors for the legs, similar to the fitness game on the WII, where you had to strap the remote to your leg, Kinect may then, get a solid competition. On the other hand, my son loves it, it helps him spend energy and the both of us definitely are having a blast!



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