The Key to Kinect

The best games for the Xbox Kinect follow a certain pattern.  Having played successful ones and terrible ones, I began to recognize what the pattern is.  Take Dance Central for an example of a good Kinect game.  Kinect works for the player and is forgiving; the dance moves just have to be copied fairly close.  Dance Central 2 and Kinect adventures also respond well to the player and are forgiving in that they recognize what the player means to do more than what their actual body movement is.

Moving on to an example of a bad gam

ZUMBA FITNESS RUSH First Screens

Finally, Majesco Entertainment’s Zumba Fitness franchise is coming to the Xbox 360’s Kinect, where it belongs. After becoming the best-selling fitness game on the market, most of what you know about Zumba Fitness and its sequels is bundled in Rush exclusively for the Kinect. And we have the first screens!

Launching in February, Zumba Fitness Rush will feature 42 songs and routines, including 10 Kinect exclusives. The game features several dance styles and all of the previous instructors from the previous games. Best of all, since it uses the Kinect, players can’t cheat by wiggling the Wiimote (I did that at a party once and beat the “real” dancers). If you’ve upgraded to a Kinect, it’s time to put away Zumba Fitness and upgrade to Zumba Fitness Rush.

Holiday Shopping Guide: 5 Awesome Xbox Kinect Games from 2011

The Kinect is still a young peripheral, and while several games promise that they’re better with Kinect, here are the 5 that had the best showing from 2011.

Child of Eden

Metacritic: 84

Average price: $39.99

As a rythm-based shooter, this is nothing like the rest of the games on this list.

The game is a mixture of light and sound. Players, as the controller, take aim and fire into corrupted stages. As they purify the stages, they open new worlds and challenges.

The concept is simple, and some players will rush through the game in a few hours. But players who work towards completing the unique challenges will find far more enjoyment.

Dance Central 2

Metacritic: 86

Average price: $49.99

As a launch title for the Kinect, Dance Central was the embodiment of great software to new hardware. It wasn’t perfect, but even The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has glitches now and then.

The biggest complaint from the first game was addressed. Now, two players dance simultaneously, rather than taking turns.

As an added bonus, owners of the first game can import all songs and dances into Dance Central 2, allowing for twice the options while trying to bust a move against your cousin this holiday season.

Xbox 360 December Dashboard Update – First Impressions

Announced earlier this year, the much-anticipated Xbox 360 dashboard update is now live for all users, after experiencing some slight delays earlier in the day (along with a few launch bugs). The new theme is designed akin to the Windows Phone dashboard, and contains some hints about future content to be released to Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

Kinect 2 Rumors

Rumors of the next gen Kinect are uncovering some… creepy news about the Xbox peripheral.  Kinect 2 will supposedly be so accurate that it will be able to recognize lip movements, facial expressions, and voice pitches (with the mic) to sense emotional responses and anxiety levels in the player.  The possibilities a device of this type opens up many doors for the gaming community.  Imagine playing Texas Hold’em Kinect and having to pull a convincing bluff.  Kinect two could even be integrated into games not generally used for Kinect for some interesting tweaks on conventional gaming.

There are also reports that two versions of the next generation Xbox will be released.  One will be a cheaper, less robust machine, while the other will be fully loaded complete with optical drive, hard drive, and backwards compatibility.