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Nearly a year and a half since its original announcement, and after much PR talk and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on advertising, the Xbox 360's much anticipated hands-free motion controller Kinect has finally launched in the United States, giving gamers in the US the first taste of Microsoft's new peripheral for casual gamers.
While local gamers will still have to wait a couple of days until our Kinect launch, the US launch does offer up something useful, and that's plenty of reviews, which we've rounded-up for you below:
For all the talk of revolutionizing the Xbox 360 experience and making gaming more natural/ accessible, it's bordering on absurd how broken Kinect is when it comes to something as simple as working in your home. I find the technology itself fascinating, but the fact that I know a lot of people who simply won't get Kinect to work in their rooms beyond troubling. Given that Microsoft conducted a beta program with actual consumers, this issue is doubly surprising, but it could just be that Kinect just works that way (or doesn't, given your room) and there's no way short of redesigning the sensor to fix it.
If Kinect does work for you, congratulations: you have what amounts -- for now -- to a novelty peripheral that is in no way geared towards the day-one buyer or "core" gamer. Microsoft conceived a potential game-changer with Project Natal, it just seems like Kinect was born prematurely.
Score: N/A
Kinect is an impressive piece of technology that has a high ceiling for growth. Even though the controller-free experience takes getting used to, it’s a bold step into the future worth taking a closer look at before brushing it off as just another gimmick.
Score: 8/10
It was ironic that in searching for an electric socket in which to plug my Kinect a week ago, I had to unplug my Wii. I now need to find a second socket. Kinect doesn't replace the Wii any more than it does an Xbox controller. It's not even a sure thing as a games platform, not until it has its first great game. But it doesn't have to be. If Kinect becomes nothing more than a replacement for the TV remote, it'll prove to be a winner. For its launch price, though, it needs to be more. If Microsoft keeps supporting it, and if its flaws can be patched and improved through software, Kinect can be revolutionary.
Score: N/A
Price is another key factor. The sensor, which includes a copy of Kinect Adventures, sells for $150. Consumers new to the Xbox 360 can purchase a Kinect bundle that includes the console for $299 (4 GB hard drive) or $399 (250 GB). By comparison, the Wii sells for $199, while the Move by itself is available as a $100 package (Sony also sells a $399 console bundle).
However, it's difficult not to be impressed by Kinect. It will be interesting to see how game developers make use of this technology. Still, for those players afraid to take the plunge into video games, this might be the chance to connect.
Score: 3.5/4
The comparison everyone wants to make -- including Microsoft and Sony themselves -- is how Kinect stacks up against the Move. By the numbers, picking up Move starter bundle and an extra controller is the same price, and in that setup you also get a two-player experience. Move's Sports Champions is arguably a stronger bundled title compared to Kinect Adventures. But really, we feel like both systems -- along with Nintendo and the Wii -- are just taking a different approach to the same issue. Where does interaction go next? How do you bring it to the living room? Back to the Kinect, though: we think there's some fighting spirit inside that glossy shell, but it's definitely got a lot of growing up to do first.
Score: 6/10
What it all boils down to is value to the consumer, and that is where we think Kinect's biggest challenge lies. At $149.99, a motion-tracking camera add-on for the Xbox 360 is a tough sell, especially considering that the entry level variation of the Xbox 360 itself is only $199.99. It may sell very well to families and casual players, but for more traditional players, the cost of admission may be too steep.
Score: 7.5/10
As we can see from the reviews above, the response so far has been fairly mixed. Interestingly, one of the more common complaints isn't so much to do with the hardware's performance, but more to do with the space requirements, which at 8 feet (or 2.5m) is a lot of empty space.
Of course, hardware such as Kinect is only as good as the games that come out for it. We'll be rounding up all those reviews soon, so keep an eye out for them on the site. In the meantime, be sure to read the reviews above in depth, as you'll soon realise whether Kinect is for you or not. We hope to finally get our hands on a retail version soon to give our final verdict.
Kinect is set to launch in South Africa on 10 November for a recommended retail price of R1999, with Kinect game titles retailing at around R399.
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