GAMING: Xbox 360 Kinect Hands On Review

Kinect is here, and I’m quite shocked. Not by the device itself - it does what you expect it to do - but by the fact that New Zealand already has it. Guess I’ve gotten far too used to hardware delays in our tiny corner of the world.

Not that I’m complaining, of course. With the arrival of this Wonder Camera, the motion control trinity of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft is now complete, and we can get down to the serious business of figuring out whether all these new arm-waving video games are any good. We’ll be posting reviews of the launch titles throughout the next week or so, but in the meantime, why don’t you join us for a quick tour of the hardware itself...

What's in the box - the sensor unit itself (along with the cables it needs) and Kinect Adventures so you can try it out.

The Setup

Preparing the Kinect camera for use was a simple process, and Microsoft has obviously invested a lot of effort into making the onscreen prompts friendly and helpful, so I won’t dwell on this much. After plugging the camera in, you run through a calibration routine that helps Kinect get to know you from different angles.

One thing it did highlight was our lounge size. We’ve (luckily) got a fairly large lounge, but even so I had to press myself right up against a couch to reach some of the areas the camera wanted me to step into. It was an appropriate reminder to anyone with a small living space: you may not be able to use this thing!

The New Interface

Once the setup was complete and it recognised me (“Hi, Tristan!” “Yes, hello Skynet”), I dove right in to the new Kinect-ified dashboard. This did not take very long.

Right now, there’s not much to do there. Heck, there’s even less to do on our gimped Kiwi Xboxes than on those in the US. We can’t watch Netflix or ESPN, and we can’t scroll around with the power of our voices (at launch, only a handful of countries, such as the US, UK, Mexico, and Japan, are supported for voice commands). A number of other languages/accents are being added in the first half of 2011, but I’ve no idea if we’re going to be included in that. If we are, we’ll no doubt be piggybacked onto Australian accents. Start practicing!

The new Xbox 360 interface, redesigned to be easier to use via the Kinect controller.

So what can you do? Right now, you can launch a game, watch some trailers, customise your avatar, and calibrate your Kinect. You can’t browse the Marketplace or launch Live Arcade games, making this dashboard somewhat underpowered. But is that really a problem? It’s easy enough to switch between the two, and many families wanting to play Kinect won’t need many features in order to get going. But it would be nice to see a more universal spread of Kinect’s powers in a software update.

The Feel

Yes, this thing really works. Before I calibrated, it had a hard time steadily detecting my hands, but that soon went away. For 90% of the time, the interface did exactly what I wanted it to, making it easy to scroll around and select items.

I have to say, though, that while it’s an oddly immersive way of controlling things, the current interface is too slow. You have to hold your hand up over an item for about three seconds in order to select it, which is obviously a lot more sluggish than simply pressing a button. The interface on Dance Central is hands down a better way of interacting sans buttons, but I’ll get into that more in my review for the game.

Beyond the interface, though, I really have no complaints about Kinect and its tracking capabilities. It doesn’t look like anything special when you’re watching someone else control it, but when you step up yourself, it just feels good.

The Lag

I can sum this one up in a couple of sentences: yes, there is lag, and it can be very visually obvious in some titles. But in terms of getting in the way of your enjoyment, it’s basically non-existent. Again, it’s noticeable when you’re watching, but you won’t be thinking about it at all when you’re actually playing.

The Potential

There are an impressive number of Kinect games available at launch, but they do all fall within a small number of genres. We’re already inundated with dance/fitness/sports games, and like the Wii, it looks like that situation will only get worse. Right now, I’m having a hard time trying to discern where else the Kinect can take us - I want new experiences, not simply a Wii Sports knock-off that just removes the controller from my hand. Here’s hoping there are a lot of interesting projects in the pipeline from developers around the world.

From a technological standpoint at least, Kinect’s future looks bright. With the Wii, I clearly remember a feeling of disappointment as I realised I could just flick my wrist and my Mii would bowl just as well as when I went through the proper motions. With all the gizmos packed into this new camera, however, the software and hardware is advanced enough to both reward and punish you on a much greater level. That can only be a good thing for casual and hardcore users alike. Let’s just hope the games come out that will actually allow the Kinect to fulfill its potential...

Review by Tristan Clark for NZGamer.co.nz.