Xbox & Kinect Review

A few weeks ago a package arrived at my door that had an XBox & Kinect nicely packaged inside, to try out for a few days. I have been lusting over an Xbox for the last couple of weeks(months), and was really excited to get one to try out. So, I opened the boxes, and literally in 5 minutes, I had the whole system up & running in my lounge. Within in a few more minutes I was jumping around like a mad thing, trying to make my imaganry raft float down an imaginary river in my lounge. Soon after I had the wife next to me trying to get the damned raft to the end of the river, while collecting our imaginary coins. As you can see, so much of fun !

But. That’s where my Kinect fun ended :(

Well actually, my fun ended and my kids fun started. Over the course of the next couple of days, I was relegated to “game disc changer” & supervisor. I was banished to the couch to watch, and given the dirty evil eye, that only a 6 year old knows how to master, whenever I attempted to play.

In all seriousness, the Kinect got rave reviews and a sturdy “Thumbs up” from the kids (and the wife). The guys at XBox sent me 3 games to try out.

Kinect Adventures,which is the standard game that comes with all Kinect devices. This is the fun one which allows you to play a whack of games, including the river raft one which got us all excited at the beginning. The other game was Dance Central which my daughter loved and had all the moves down to Lady Gaga down to a T after the 2 weeks. The last game we got was called Kinectimals, which is a really cool adventure game for the kids, where you get to take your pet tiger across an island. Another sure hit with the kids.

I also managed to get the XBox live portion of the console working, which works really well (and simple to setup), and allows you to connect to friends and play against them. I am also keen to try out some of the sport & fitness games which will help with the weight loss mission I am on at the moment.

All in all the Kinect & XBox was a sure win in our house, and made things tough to explain when the daughters Birthday came around last week. I know for definet that the Kinect will be high on the “must have gadget list” for the year, even if it is just for the kids.

Thanks to the guys at Microsoft & XBox for the chance to give it a run, you have potentially made me a bit poorer :)