Gamers, who are more accustomed to games punishing them repeatedly instead of smothering them with love and adorableness will certainly be off-put at first, but this is not only a game I could see myself playing, but slipping in front of my niece or any child who might find themselves in front of my Xbox 360 for some reason or another. Next to be shown was Kinect Sports, a game that seems easily capable of putting Wii Sports to shame. Admittedly, it does appear to share many similar qualities, but the lack of a controller and higher end, crisper graphics do serve to set the bar just a bit higher. Additionally, both Kinect Joy Ride and Forza showed off the motion capabilities of Kinect with a vehicle walk around, driving and using boost all sans-controller. Impressive still was EA Sports Active 2, which offers the relatively same premise as Wii Fit, except you’re not confined merely to the uncomfortably hard-surfaced Wii balance board for your experience. Even cooler still was the body scanning performed by the Kinect camera to give the game and you as the player an accurate body graphic so you know just how overweight you might be. Without a doubt impressive as the visuals borderline on something I would’ve expected from Minority Report. Unlike MR though, the various activities and exercises are sure to please as they create an entire digital experience capable of giving you a full and complete workout.
Finally, Dance Central not only lets you look like a complete fool while dancing to what you think will make you look awesome – it also has the capability to teach you how to dance so you don’t look too terrible at your cousin’s wedding reception. Lacking the shirtless capriciousness of Patrick Swayze a la Dirty Dancing, Dance Central will allow Xbox 360 owners who’ve just been dying to get their hands on Just Dance on the Wii an opportunity to shake their groove thing, show off their hollaback girl or do whatever they want in the hopes of catching some rhythm. Ultimately, it has to be recognized that Microsoft has been able to capture a fair portion of the “hardcore” gaming community since launching the original Xbox almost ten years ago into a skeptical market, thus it would seem timely that they begin to look at alternate prospects to expand their overall place in the industry so that they can maintain a strong position in the next year, five years or even decade to come. Regardless of the people in the industry who feel that the Kinect is superfluous at the very least and a blunder at most should be mindful that many said the Wii wouldn’t be successful when it premiered. Nevertheless, there is no denying that when the Kinect releases on November 4th of this year for an unknown price, it’ll not only set a new precedence for gaming, but for allowing people everywhere to use their Xbox 360s with ease they never dreamed possible.
