Review: Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect

Posted by K.L. on November 3, 2010 in Gadgets, Gaming, Reviews 2 comments

The Kinect Has Arrived

Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo’s dominated market of motion gaming is here with the Xbox 360 Kinect. The release of the Kinect is coming on the heels of a new 360 dashboard update — an update that definitely gives off a Wii-esque, yes Wii-esque, vibe. With the Kinect, Microsoft gets rid of the middle-man-device (the controller), utilizing the motion of your body and voice commands to execute actions on screen.

The Kinect hits shelves tomorrow and will be bundled with the Xbox 360 Slim. Those interested in keeping your old Xbox 360 and purchasing the Kinect separately will have to shell out $149.99 plus tax to walk away with a Kinect. If you want to know if it’s worth the price, check out my full review below:

The Video Review

Setup and How It Works

The Kinect uses motion and skeletal tracking, facial recognition and voice operated commands to provide the best possible motion gaming experience out there. When setting up the Kinect make sure the sensor has some type of resting platform that is elevated two to six feet off of the ground. Based on my playing experience, the higher it is placed the better job the skeletal tracking performs.

Let’s set the record straight right now, the Kinect is not for someone with a small room. If you plan on purchasing this item you will need plenty of room to play. Microsoft recommends that players stand six feet away when playing by yourself and eight feet when with another player. If you are playing with the sensor at a lower height, you will definitely need to back up more than six feet. As a taller lad, my head and feet were cut off several times at the “recommended” distances. I fiddled around with it for awhile before everything tracked my movements.

Connect the power supply to the Kinect

Navigation

The dashboard navigation is relatively easy to use, but not as intuitive as I initially envisioned. When you fire up your Xbox 360 with the Kinect plugged up, you can activate it by either waving your hand at the screen or through voice activation. Users can be automatically signed into their profile via facial recognition with Kinect ID. There are also various gestures and voice commands at your disposal once you become acclimated to the Kinect.

Playing With the Kinect

Despite my initial negative disposition, I must say I did enjoy playing the demo games that were at my disposal. The Mixed Sport game was a comedic experience — pumping and flailing my arms and running in place to play various events was an adventure itself. The icing on the cake was that after each game, the Kinect records my gameplay and runs a playback feed of me in action.

The interface and tracking seemed much more accurate than anything I have used thus far. There were a few hiccups in the soccer game, but nothing that ruined my overall experience. Those “hiccups” were mostly due to the Kinect not being able to recognize the lower portion of my body. As I stated in the video review, I had to adjust the height placement of my Kinect to be able to visually track my entire body, meaning the same issues occurred without a tripod in front of me.

I also played a few 100 meter track event games with my girlfriend to check out the two player experience. I was exceptionally pleased with how well it tracked both of our movements on screen. The playing experience with someone else significantly increases the value of the Kinect. Watching her and me during the playback made for a lot of gaming fun and quality bonding time.

Kinect ID

The Kinect ID is essentially the Kinect’s facial recognition system. Once set up and activated, it will automatically sign a player into their designated profile. I had quite a bit of trouble with this set up process. The Kinect seems to be overly sensitive to direct lighting. My living room has several windows which are all covered with dark curtains, however there still appeared to be something interfering with my ID process. This whole process took the longest to set up and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Fun experience
Better Motion tracking than the Wii
No controllers needed
Voice/Facial Recognition (when it was finally set up) are awesome
Suitable for exercise

Cons

Won’t have many supported games out of the box
Seems overly sensitive to light
Need at minimum 32″ Television for better experience
Too much space to utilize for one or two peopole
Setup process was long and not-so fun

End of the Day

The Xbox 360 Kinect offers an experience that will eventually, offer an experience that will topple the current motion technology consoles on the market. Parents buying this for their kids, which I know is going to happen, probably will not like the set up process. The big factor of success for the Kinect will ultimately be how many great games are made for the Kinect. If developers step up to the plate and make some outstanding games, the Kinect will see success, otherwise the games will get old, stale and repetitive. I know dozens upon dozens of gamers that bought a Nintendo Wii and it sits on their shelves collecting dust. Microsoft is going to really need to push the envelope with the Kinect in order to get over the motion gaming fad.

I proposed the idea of an Avatar MMO or some type of Simulated World utilizing the potential for the Kinect (think Fable for the Kinect). That’s the day I’ll buy into the device. Voice recognition is cool, improved video chat is cool, but at the end of the day it comes down to the games and we won’t know what to expect in that area for quite awhile. Expect a follow up video showing off Kinect Adventures and more of the dashboard experience.

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Contact K.L. at kendall@reflectzyn.com

Guest

Thanks for the info, good to hear a simple description of the device and how you handled it. I guess I may have to push back my couch.

http://www.reflectzyn.com arctyc

glad you enjoyed it.

Reflectzyn