Kinect, formally known as Natal has finally arrived. I'm going to spare all the common information you can find on 50 other sites and get right to my opinions on this product. Kinect is amazing. That is the only way to describe it. Before launch I had almost the exact same primary concern that I had before Rock Band was launched. Lag time. I figured that it would take too long for my movements to have a reaction on screen. Just like with the music game genre, Kinect has almost imperceptible lag in 90% of the games. A few games seem to have a bit of lag in them. Fighters Uncaged comes to mind. But in many cases it has to do with how the activity is laid out and that lag is there for the purposes to control timing and for them to manage gameplay. Kinect reaction itself is near instantaneous.

Kinect Technology In Action

Over the past three days I've played a variety of Kinect games and put it through the paces. My body is so sore I can hardly move. One thing Kinect is going to do is offer games that get people off the couch and their heart pumping. In fact it appears that Kinect doesn't really work for couch type games except for perhaps voice recognition.

From the very beginning Kinect was impressive. The control you have moving your hand or finger is far more precise and smooth than the first generation Wii controller. It is very cool just to be able to point at the screen with your finger and have it respond so accurately. Kinect is also very forgiving of other distractions in the room. My dogs could walk into the space and never was there a problem. I could pretty much move anywhere in the approximately 5' x 5' area and get good results.

Many of the various games involve throwing. Kinect does an amazing job of picking up on velocity and your trajectory. In a lot of ways better than Wii motion control type devices because Kinect knows the angle of your body and your position in 3d space. One of the best displays of the technology is the fix the leaks mini-game that comes in Kinect Adventures. In this game you move about an underwater 3D room that begins springing leaks.  The player then must rush to stop the leaks with their hands and feet within the 3D space. The game itself and is only really a novelty experience you would get bored with soon enough. Still I can't help but appreciate how fast, accurate and engaging the experience is.

Voice Recognition

The voice recognition in Kinect is very good, but because the pointing interface is so quick and accurate I don't find myself using it much. The other factor here is that the voice recognition is not implemented completely throughout the interface. Many things you must use Kinect gestures. Still, the technology is quite impressive. Even when the room had a lot of background noise and other people were talking it would recognize me and respond. If the pointing interface was weak and clunky I'm sure I would find myself using the voice recognition much more. In the future I think voice recognition will play a larger factor in the experience.

Kinect Adventures

The mini-game set that comes with Kinect is more like a tutorial that real games you would want to play over and over again. They are fun, engaging and show off the technology well. The problem is they are not really the kind of games you are going to be playing four weeks after you have Kinect. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. Microsoft almost needed something like this where they could show people the basics. One example is how you hold your right hand to your side and your left hand at 45 degrees to pull up the guide. You can use this in any game and is often the only way to break out of gameplay.

One of my favorites is the obstacle course. It's fairly simple itself but is shows the potential of a game series based on those shows like Wipeout or Hole in the Wall.  In fact I could imagine a Wipeout game in which the weekly winners from Xbox Live would get a chance to audition for the real thing. It also made me expect that soon we will see stronger liability wavers as gamers are going to be doing more physically demanding tasks in games. The rafting game shines partly because of the graphics. You get a real sense of speed and immersion at times. Both these games can give you a real work out as you jump and move your body in all sorts of positions to make it through the games.

Dance Central

One of the games I got with Kinect really stands out. Dance Central I believe is one of those games that goes a bit past the typical 'casual' game genre. This game is really one of the first of its kind to actually require you dance the moves, not just where your feet land. From the very beginning the game proves it is not just something that is going to let you cheat and do fake moves. Every body movement is tracked. On easy you can be pretty sloppy. When you get on hard you have to be darn close and I would often find myself wondering if Kinect was not getting it right only to find out that my elbow wasn't high enough on the move or my timing was slightly off.

As you move through the songs you quickly realize that this is not a game really for people who just wants some rhythm game in which you pretend to dance. Moves become more complex and it wasn't too long before I was actually having to break down moves and practice to get them right. While some moves you may learn in just a few tries others will certainly trip you up and make you practice. Often over and over again if you want to nail it on hard. Hours went by and while I made progress it became clear Dance Central stands out as a game that even hardcore gamers can respect. You won't finish this one in 10 hours or even 20 hours unless you have experience in dance instruction.

Back to the Games!

I'm going to finish off this initial review now. Even though I'm sore as a P90X workout, I'm dying to get back on and start playing again. Seeing if I can't nail down a few more dance moves and push my way past a few of the songs I'm finding a bit lame. My wife is also looking forward to beating me in Kinect Sports bowling again. I plan to write up more thoughts on Kinect after I've had more time with it. After all, after a few more days I'll be able to tell if this Dance Central game is strong enough to keep my attention for weeks and weeks or if I'll just give up in shame.