Hands On With Video: Kinect

It’s one thing to see Microsoft demonstrate new technology on stage during a press conference. It’s another to try it out for yourself. I tend to be a bit skeptical when it comes to technology presentations, knowing full well smoke and mirrors are often used. (Shocking, I know.) But after seeing “Project Natal” demoed on stage twice in two years, I finally got to try it out for myself. Yes, a real hands-on with Kinetc, and I have to say…I kinda liked it.

Microsoft invited me behind closed doors to try out the new camera based gaming peripheral. I was given 40 minutes to try out 6 different games. Everything from Kinect Sports to Kinectimals. If you thought Wii Fit Plus was embarrasing, wait until you try Kinect. Embarassing videos below…

Kinect Adventures

I was able to try three separate games from Kinetc Adventures. The first game I tried was the rafting adventure. Myself along with another journalist jumped in a raft together. The idea is to collect ‘A’ symbols along a water course. You can move by leaning left or right in your raft. A small lean moves you slowly across the screen. A sharper lean will move you quickly across the screen. Jumping up and down will send your raft into the air. The camera did a good job picking up my moves. While playing with someone else, you definitely have to coordinate your moves to get the raft going in the direction you want it to. But I guess that’s part of the fun.

Obstacle course is a game that has you riding on a moving platform. You not only have to avoid padded obstacles as the platform moves along the tracks, you also have to collect the ‘A’ symbols. I, once again, played against another journalist which made for good fun since we both raced towards the finish line. I won. Just saying. Sorry Pascal.

Finally, we played the demo we all saw at E3 last year. A version of breakout where you have to hit ricocheting balls against a wall and break it down. Here you really see how sensitive the Kinect camera is. It really picks up your movements quite accurately. Another fun mini-game!

Kinectimals

This is the cute game that has a lot of people talking. Kinectimals lets you interact with a Lion, Tiger or Jaguar cub on screen. There are actually about 40 animals to choose from, but most have to be unlocked or scanned into the game through unique cards.

During the first few minutes, your cub will sniff you out. It will cautiously approach you, sniff you and sneeze. You can then wipe away the moisture on the screen by moving your hands. Once this is done, you can start playing with the cub. A pair of virtual hands appear on screen that mimic the movement of your hands. Once again, movement is quite percise. I tried doing a 360 and the cub followed my movements. I dropped to the ground to play dead, so did my cat. Jumping up into the air sent my cub sailing towards the sky. After interacting with your pet for a few minutes you can start doing other things like skip rope with your cub. The animal grabbed a skipping rope and when I swung my hand in a loop, the rope turned and the cat jumped. Cute.

After a while of activity, your cat will do a move that goes into slow motion with a Matrix-like bullet cam move. That means you’re cat has gained a level.

I have to say, it’s much more fun than I thought it was going to be. I can easily see how young kids will fall in love with Kinectimals. Just the reaction on the cub’s face when you’re petting him is enough to make your heart smile.

Kinect Sports

I suck at bowling, so when I saw the game we were about to play was bowling, I feared the worse. I tend to twist my wrist when I bowl which often sends my ball into the gutter. Yup, just like real bowling… I sucked. The camera is able to detect wrist twisting, so I quite often ended up with a gutter ball. The camera also picks up how you decide to toss the ball. For example, you can throw the ball overhand and it will show up that way on screen. Kinda funny. Good times.

Kinetic JoyRide

Here’s where I had the chance to grab my virtual steering wheel and drive! Turning the imaginary wheel right, you turn right, turn left… your car goes left. If you want a sharp turn you, must lean your entire body into it. While there was no acceleration or braking, you could pull off a thrust by pulling back on your steering wheel and thrusting it forward. If you are lucky to catch air, you can lean forward to pull off a few flips, or backwards for a crazy back flip.

Your Shape

It’s true, it does sort of look like a Wii Fit knockoff, but this one appears to be a bit better. The camera scans your body and puts your image on screen next to a yoga instructor. You then simply follow the movements on the screen.  While all the demos we’ve seen of this game shows you on screen as an orange image, we discovered you can change your colour. Purple, orange, red, or you can get the camera to show your true life colour on screen.

One thing I will say is there was a bit of lag between you and your image on screen. Not a big lag, but noticable.

Dance Central

I don’t dance… at all. So Dance Central, quite frankly, scared me. Thank goodness Microsoft brought in professional dancers to help us out! The moves scroll down on the right hand side of the screen and you are supposed to mimic the on-screen dancer. It was much easier than I thought! No, I still can’t dance, but at least I had fun trying.

Overall, I gotta say I liked what I saw. Kinect really did work as promised with very few noticable problems. I do have to point out that all the the Kinect games I played were in beta build, but, if the end product is as fun as these demos, Microsoft will have a winner on its hands.