E3 2010 First Impressions: Kinect-exclusive Titles

Microsoft today announced 6 titles that will work exclusively with their new Kinect control system (previously dubbed “Project Natal”), and launching for the coming holidays. They also announced 2 larger titles that will be coming some time in 2011.

For the holidays:

1. Kinectamals – The kludgily-named casual baby animal trainer for kids was actually pretty interesting. With face, voice, and name recognition, the baby animals are very reactive and interactive with the player. The demo was of course ridiculously cute, starring a little girl and her baby tiger named ‘Skittles’.
2. JoyRide – Cruisin’ USA with a little bit of MarioKart thrown in. Jumps and tricks for extra points all have their own special motion. Looks like fun, but difficult to tell how Kinect handles acceleration and braking. The boost power-up is activated by a move akin to Ryu launching a power ball in Street Fighter, though, which I found interesting.
3. Adventure – A little like ABC’s Wipeout, but I’m sure with far fewer injuries to participants. Travel along a moving track, dodge obstacles, and grab coins. Definitely a good party game, and a good game for getting you out of your chair and moving around.
4. Your Shape – I tried to stay away from the direct comparisons to other console offerings, but the similarities to Wii Fit are undeniable. However, Your Shape is light years ahead of Wii Fit. Full-body 3D scanning and tracking, and a very slick interface make it really quite interesting. It was noted that the 3D body model’s movements had a pretty significant delay when compared to the movement of the person actually doing the demo.
5. Kinect Sports – Again, the comparison to a Wii title must be made. And again, Sports is light years ahead of Wii Sports, or Wii Sports Resort. Some of the individual games seemed like they might be difficult to get a handle on. The track and field games work well with the interface, particularly the quick shot we got of the javelin throw. I think long-jump might have people crashing into their TVs in a similar manner to the incidents of flying WiiMotes we saw at the first launch of that console.
6. Dance Central – Harmonix has put together a pretty impressive new iteration on the dance game. Using the body tracking of Kinect, Dance Central is able to coordinate actual dance moves, rather than just the hands (Let’s Dance for Wii) or feet (Dance Dance Revolution). Using actual professionally-developed choreography, and a training mode that will allow even the most awkward individual to learn some pretty advanced moves, I think Dance Central is going to be a pretty big seller. Don’t be scared if you start seeing nerdy guys approaching the dance floor next summer, they might actually be halfway decent dancers.

For release in 2011:

• A Kinect-enabled version of Forza that looks pretty impressive so far. As is to be expected of a Forza title, the car models and overall design are fantastic. The introduction of Kinect allows for some unique control options, such as being able to look into a corner as you’re approaching it. The inability to do this is something that has always bothered me about racing games, particularly when you’re dealing with road courses in heavy traffic. The same concern with Joyride applies: How do you control throttle and brake without a controller?
• A Star Wars game reminiscent of the Force Unleashed that appears to be set in the Clone Wars era. Light saber battles and use of The Force are there, as well as the appearance of everyone’s favorite villain right before the cut. Not having played any of the recent Star Wars games, it’s difficult for me to compare with existing IP, but it definitely looks like it will be a pretty good title.

It will be interesting how the Kinect-enabled ecosystem comes together. They definitely took some time putting together the titles that work with the new controllerless control system. Everything we were shown today looks like it works well with the setup.

I’m still concerned about the driving games, though. I’m sure they have put together a mechanic that works well for players, but they didn’t really show us how that part of the control system works.