So any hype that MS might have killed for the Kinectimals last night, they seem to have rebulit. They showed off Kinectimals, which seems to be a super interactive version of Nintendogs. A little girl came on-stage and played with her “pet” Tiger named Skittles. She made him act dead, jump around, and fetch toys.
Then there was Kinect Sports, which, you guessed it, is Kinect’s Wii Sports. They showed off a foot race, which requires to run on the spot, and as the executive put it, ‘puts you truly in the game.’ The demo includes sports like foot races, boxing, javelin throw, table tennis and more.
Joyride was next. Using body movements as analogs for car movement, the game showed a three lap race that appeared fun yet exhausting overall. Seems to have five unique gameplay modes, including a stunt mode.
Now we have Kinect Adventures, which is a journey that ‘requires your entire body to play.’ The game is, quite literally, on rails, which requires you to bend, crouch etc to collect points while travelling through a variety of exotic locales, all the while dodging obstacles. Looks fun.
Oh, and now we have a Ubi title for the Kinect, which looks to be Wii Fit meets Wii Sports. Or something like that. It’s called Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. Sounds somewhat familiar. The game though, doesn’t look very interesting. Combat training is kickass, though.
Oh, looks like Nintendo raided the MS conference. A Wii Music- oh, sorry, a Harmonix title next- Dance Central…. the name says it all. Basically, it involves you jumping around, flailing your arms like crazy, trying to make you ‘dance to the music.’
All in all, the last two games certainly killed off the hype developed by the first four, which were pretty good. Kinect looks decent overall, although a bit tiring, especially for fat guys like me. Your thoughts? Tell us in the comments section below.
UPDATE: Kinect will launch on 14th November in North America, with fifteen launch titles. Still no word on its pricing.