Features// Kinect: The Year Ahead

But of course, the number one desire for motion gaming has always been to pretend that you’re a Jedi Knight. And when Microsoft showed off Kinect Star Wars to the world at E3 2010, the world was stunned... at just how poor an idea it really was.

Terminal Reality is pushing on regardless though, and a much better build was demonstrated at the showcase. Unfortunately, it was very susceptible to lag, the motions quite awkward to pull off (or maybe they just weren’t registering) and the scenarios a bit dull to watch.

As in Rise of Nightmares, you can turn your Jedi character around by moving your shoulders about a bit. Swinging your arms lets you unleash hell with your lightsaber, but the reaction time is quite slow. If you were a real Jedi, fighting real clone guards, you’d have been shot in the face so fast - instead, they politely wait for your character to finish his epic slow windmilling manouevre that reminds me of a cheesy 90s dance move.

The only way to actually move around the level is to do a Jedi dash, which involves you crouching a bit and pushing your arms back like you’re Sonic the Hedgehog. It didn’t make for very fluid gameplay, sadly. If it was any consolation, it was quite funny watching enemy droids limply collapse to the ground and explode with the tiniest brush of your hand.

So it’s a good effort at exploring brave new worlds with Kinect for the coming Christmas period, but it doesn’t look like any of them are going to really set the world on fire in terms of quality control. With a bit of polish though, these worries could all be turned around, and the ever-improving development software from Microsoft will ensure that a truly playable experience will get here sometime.

It’s admirable that developers are even trying, to be honest - many third parties simply gave up trying to push the boundaries of the Wii after six months.

Perhaps Molyneux is right to a degree, that we’re looking at the birth of something great and the tech is simply in its infancy. While that happens, Microsoft does have several games planned for the Kinect which hark back to its more casual output from the peripheral’s 2010 launch - namely Dance Central 2, which is as addictive as ever thanks to the drop-in two-player mode, and Kinect Sports Season Two.

The game I have my eye on for Kinect over the next year though? You’ll be surprised. It’s a Sesame Street game, by Tim Schafer’s Double Fine studio (of Brutal Legend fame). Once Upon a Monster has kids and adults playing through minigames together to complete a story led by Elmo and the Cookie Monster. But the adorable presentation and hilarious set-pieces make this a treat for the young-at-heart as well.

The stage I played had both Elmo and Cookie Monster having to follow the movements of a big monster called Gerhoof, who wants friends but is simply too scary. Aww. So to make him certain that we want him to be our friend, we have to wiggle our bodies, pause, pose and tip-toe on the spot to complete the stage.

All of these games will surely resonate with certain gamers in various ways - but even though they may not all end up being critical masterpieces, it’s great that Microsoft is still very keen on supporting this peripheral for many months to come yet. At least that £130 camera isn’t gathering dust just yet.