Dance Central Review (K: 9/10)

I'm not ashamed to say that I thought the tech Dance Central boasts for Kinect was years away- every move you make translates perfectly to what's happening on screen, and through this overwhelming accuracy comes one of the best launch titles yet that's sure to be a hit at any party. Though gamers in their teens might not have heard of older tracks like 'Evacuate the Dancefloor' and 'Funkytown', the title will be a great way of introducing them to such greats, and in any case well-known newbies like 'Poker Face', 'Down' and 'I Gotta Feeling' will be more than enough justification for a purchase. There's no doubt that Dance Central is the child of Rock Band developer Harmonix, boasting ace graphics and animations on each dancer and sublime tutorials to ease you into a game which becomes more challenging as the difficulty levels progress. In fact, in my opinion it actually eclipses the music-rhythm genre's ever growing number of repetitive instrument instalments thanks to its innovation and genuine style that's apparent in the jazzy menu screens, the freestyle sections brimming with visual splendour and the excellent soundtrack that can easily appeal to every kind of player. As I've mentioned, the technology on display here with Kinect is incredible, light-years ahead of its time and therefore makes this a near-essential purchase with the peripheral so long as you've got friends to watch!

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved Review (K: 7/10)

Like so many other titles in the Kinect launch line-up, you can easily see Ubisoft's incentive for making Your Shape Fitness Evolved: Wii Fit was a massive hit on Nintendo's family-orientated console, so taking away the oft temperamental Balance Board in exchange for actually using your body in physical workouts sounds like a sure-fire recipe for success. To give it credit, Fitness Evolved comes very close to being the perfect fitness experience for video gamers to get off the sofa and participate in, but a couple of foreseeable errors hold it back from that spot. Calibration is key here, as the game maps your body height, shoulder span and an all manner of parts you probably never knew the names of to create an accurate training scheme for you alone, and while this can take a little while once the actual activities get going Fitness Evolved is great exercise. Everything from streches to active rhythm routines has been included, so any part of the body can easily be targeted, and if you haven't simply bought Your Shape to be left exhausted then there are a number of diverse games to have a go at. Fitness Evolved works fine in all those respects, but sometimes the Kinect camera can tend to lag somewhat trying to keep up with your movements, occassionally pausing vigorous routines to find your body. If this problem occured in other games such as Kinect Adventures and Sports, it would be a little more forgivable here, but as it does not it's hard not to think that something went awry in the game's programming (perhaps due to a rush to have it out for launch day of Kinect?). No matter what the reason for this flaw, it's clear that given how often it happens it needs to be remedied in the next Your Shape, at which point the Xbox 360 might just have an excellent exclusive on its hands!

Kinect Joy Ride Review (K: 4/10)

How do you go about making a racing game for Kinect? Do you provide tight controls and sacrifice some of the technical aspects, or try and keep hardcore drivers happy with the specs and lose some control in the process? Kinect Joy Ride doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind, constantly disappointing both as a video game and a family title. One thing it has got going for it is the visuals, with each track proving pleasing to the eyes and all of the cars sporting a neat cartoon style, but when this is one of the only highpoints of a racing instalment, you know something is very wrong. As if the idea of holding an invisible steering wheel wasn't weird enough, Joy Ride dispenses with tutorials, figuring that just about everyone can pick it up and learn on the spot (clue- they can't). Even if this shortcoming wasn't present, gamers hardcore and casual alike would still be frustrated with the over-sensitivity of the steering and frequent misinterpretations of the movements they're making, and it's in this misstep that Joy Ride just about loses all of its appeal. Once you've realised what you're doing isn't translating fully to the on-screen racer in any sense, I'd be surprised if you didn't put Joy Ride down; little to no extras are included bar the ability to colour your car the same as whatever you're wearing (though this is a great idea for future games using Kinect) so after a few irksome races around the various tracks, there's not a lot to bring you back, and it's for this reason that Kinect Joy Ride fails to interest as the first motion-control racing game for Xbox 360. On the plus side, hopefully 2011's Forza Motorsport 4 will benefit in learning from this wasted opportunity to make driving sports cars in the living room possible!

Kinect Sports Review (K: 9/10)

If the Wii can do it, we can do it better! This must have been the thinking by Microsoft behind Kinect Sports, an excellent compliation of fun mini-games that's accurate enough to provide a good workout but equally light-hearted such that families will have a great time all the same. Every area of the title has been superbly refined to create an experience worthy of your £40: hit songs like 'We Are The Champions' and 'Chariots of Fire' are incorporated flawlessly into replays for a sense of real acheivement when you're victorious, videos of your best moments are recorded for future bragging rights and each of the sports feels like it could quickly form the basis for full games in their own right. What is perhaps most impressive is that (as is all but stated as the purpose of Kinect) anyone can simply enter the room and play with no need for lengthy instructions- for example, in Football the players are moved automatically so you simply have to aim your passes and put power into a goal-scoring kick, while in Table Tennis your hand controls the racquet depending on its position and strength. None of the sports seem like unneccessary inclusions, though Boxing does often seem to require less skill than flicking of your wrists. Overall, Kinect Sports is the best showcase of the launch line-up for the peripheral, and is the best place to head once you've got Kinect!

Games Review Scores: A Refresher

With Kinect arriving onto the gaming scene this year, my review scores for video games are going to need a little bit of extra clarifying. Really, the only big change is that most reviews of Kinect games will have a score starting with 'K:', and if I think it appeals to a hardcore audience, then the score will look like this: (K: Casual/10, Hardcore/10). In case, however, you're new to the blog and are wondering what scores for other video games mean, here's my guide...
0-1/10: Some people are just sick- don't give this to your worst enemy.
1.5-2/10: Still not much better, containing game-ending bugs and horrid design.
2.5-3/10: Mediocrity at its height, these titles simply are no fun to play.
3.5-4/10: Getting better, but you'll have to be a major fan to overlook the flaws.
4.5-6/10: Depending on where the score lies, either very or quite average.
6.5-7.5/10: Normally a big name that didn't live up to the hype, for example Call of Duty Black Ops and Gran Turismo 5 fell into this category last year.
8-8.5/10: Great fan service, gets pretty close to being a must-have, so should be bought if you were interested.
9-9.5/10: Now we're in must-have territory, innovates and surprises frequently, just about as good as 10 games but one major flaw will hold it back from supremacy.
10/10: Not gaming perfection (that's impossible, as there will almost always be one noticeable shortcoming), but as good as it comes in its genre, for its console and for gaming in that year. GTA IV, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach and AC: Brotherhood are prime examples of those worthy of a 10!

Kinect Adventures Review (K: 7/10)

Before I start, I want to say that Kinect Adventures would not have received nearly that generous a score if it was one of the £40 launch titles and did not ship free with Kinect: while each of the 'adventures' are equally diversive and innovative, they won't last much more than a few hours in terms of genuine entertainment, in which case you are probably best off buying one of the other launch games as well (once again, my reviews of some of these are coming later). That aside, Adventures boasts five mini-games, River Rush; 20,000 Leaks; Space Pop; Rally Ball and Reflex Ridge. River Rush involves players controlling a dinghy as it plummets down a waterfall, and works well as you tilt to control the vehicle and jump for extra points. Meanwhile in 20,000 Leaks you stand behind an imaginary glass wall that is constantly leaking from the pressure of the sea, and have to use your hands to stop each leak. Space Pop and Rally Ball both involve using your body to deflect incoming objects, and the former even employs some gravity-based puzzles to mix things up. Finally, Reflex Ride sends you along a mountain course where you must duck, side-step and jump over obstacles while staying on a small platform. Each of these adventures make good use of Kinect's motion-sensing, even taking photos of you playing for certain humiliation later, but as I mentioned earlier once you've played them once, you're unlikely to revisit those that weren't your favourites, and thus bar working towards Acheivements the replay value here is fairly limited. Nevertheless, as a free bundle with the peripheral, Kinect Adventures is a fun starter, and a decent showcase as to what Kinect is capable of!

Kinect Review (9/10)

There's been a fair bit of cynicism regarding Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360, but let me put your mind at rest: the tech works- brilliantly. From the moment you open the Minority Report-style dashboard with a swish of your hand, it'll be clear that the £130 peripheral means business, and there's just about no way to describe how quickly it could change the console forever. Some calibration is as ever required to set it up, and as worried you will need to clear some space to play (though not nearly as much as many cynics have claimed), but once these are out of the way all that's left is a revolutionary gaming experience where you really are the controller. Voice control has even been implemented into menu screens, and as with any other element of Kinect it works superbly (so somewhat disturbingly too), indicating an exciting step forward for entertainment and the way we make use of it. So, why hasn't it got full marks? Tiny niggles may hamper your experience very occassionally. For example, when the sun shone in on the room I was playing in at one point, its reflection on me meant the device couldn't see me properly, and thus the game I was playing couldn't respond to what I was doing, so I had to close the curtains and keep the room darker. This can be remedied by using Kinect ID in different levels of light to get a better grasp of what you look like, but it is a potential shortcoming. In addition, the launch software is lacking any hardcore titles that I'd really recommend to COD and Halo fans, but that's not to say that there aren't games which make great use of the hardware (see my Kinect launch reviews later), and we already know 2011 will see loads of hardcore games for the peripheral, but until then depending on whether you mind a lack of major releases, have a think before dishing out the cash (yet bear in mind if you don't you will be delaying trying the best motion gaming controller- yourself- yet on a console).