Earlier this evening Microsoft held it’s huge reveal event for the formerly titled motion controller Project Natal. With the world famous Cirque Du Soleil imagining the new device into a full fledge show of lights, acrobatics and amazing stunts. While the Cirque crew put on an amazing production the show was about giving us all a better look at Kinect, and to see what we have in store for us this holiday.
This event was part amazing entertainment and part promotion of the new device. While we got our first official glimpse at a handful of new games, we also learned through the Cirque interpretation of Kinect that the device is targeted towards the family but will have some fun for everyone. Some things we now know about Kinect:
- It’s name is now Kinect
- Joyride is now a key game of the device
- Disney is developing something, what we don’t know, but they are
- There is an amazing Star Wars game in development, which allows gamers to wield a lightsaber and also use force powers all controller free
- There was an interesting dance game previewed, DDR without a junky plastic pad!
- New video chat system with photo sharing
- The device will bring a new dashboard layout allowing remote free selection of everything from music to Netflix and Facebook
- This is really about the family, lots of avatar based games
- There will be a sports titled, with activities like bowling, track and field, and volleyball
- Mom can even enjoy Kinect with Yoga
While I’m still on the fence about the device itself, the previews we saw were fairly intriguing. Star Wars got the biggest applause and should be a big focus of the Kinect team, if the Star Wars game we saw doesn’t pan out Kinect could be short lived. Kinect’s main competition is going to be Nintendo. Microsoft is really pulling out the stops to try to win over the family and younger gaming audience. But until we get our time with the device it’s still hard to say if it will be a hit or not. There are many technical issues which should cripple the device. Will the controls be as intuitive as they make the out to be? Will the controls be precise enough for users, or will they get annoyed with them? Are other developers going to make big named titles, or will this be a device for small niche games? There are still many questions to be asked, but one things for sure Cirque Du Solieil and Microsoft puts on an amazing show.
The World Premiere Project Natal Kinect for Xbox 360 experience, as imagined by Cirque du Soleil airs commercial-free on MTV, Tuesday, June 15 at 3:30 P.M. ET, and on Nick at Nite, mtvU, MTV Hits, and Logo, Tuesday, June 15, at 9 P.M. ET
- key specs
- reviews • 45
- prices
- TypeOther
- ConnectionWired (Proprietary)
- Console compatibilityMicrosoft (Xbox 360)
- ReleasedNovember 4, 2010
Microsoft Xbox 360
