Kinect - the new Guitar Hero or Wii

I'm guilty I am an early adopter.  I bought the PS3 bundle from Wal Mart so I could get it "first day".  I bought the Move and Kinect also (my review of Move is in an earlier blog).  So over the weekend family and friends gathered at our house for a party and I put on the Kinect, before I get to the results I want to go over the set up. 

1.  I have an Xbox Elite 120gb (the old one) with a wireless adaptor
2.  I have a pretty good amount of room
3.  I still had to move furniture
4.  I am pretty good with the set ups

It took me some where between 10-15 to get the wires where I wanted them and to hook up my wireless adaptor.  I would give yourself between 45-60 minutes set up time before the game play can start.  So do not unbox this thing at a party and tell Santa to hook it up before Christmas morning. Put the disc in and away I went.  Directions are easy to follow on screen.  Now to the fun...

The disc is some typical mini games but its fun and fast.  There are five different mini games to start.  All show off the fun of the controller.  There is an aquarium mini game where there are cracks in the tank.  The now famous "human breakout" that was used in the demos at E3 where you hit a ball back at the wall, a rafting game, a pop the bubble game that is located in space and a running game where you need to duck/jump when cued.  Each game is easy to learn.  See it once and away you go.  This is where the party fun begins.  Each person can jump right into Kinect view and start to play.  At our party everyone from 10 year old nephew to my 40 year old brother jumped in the same spot on the floor and played with minimal problems.  Each game takes 5-7 minutes at most.  The best part of this process was Kinect will take 3 pictures of you playing during game play.  Some you will see coming others you will not.  The fun ensues with the ones you are not expecting.  Everyone had fun.

This is the new Guitar Hero/Wii.  Let me explain. 

1.  This may be hard to find, you can see by the Amazon icon this thing is selling upwards of 20% over cost and some stores are already out for now.  MSRP is $150

2.  This is fun for the whole family.  Grandma can get up and plug the leaks and its fun to watch.  With the camera I can already see the pictures that could be posted.  Remember the famous Wii fit girl?  http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?title=wii-fit-girl&videoId=262460

3.  Its easy, remember picking up Guitar Hero and letting your four year old niece play the drums, I do.

4.  How will it hold up in the long run?  For the longest time my Wii was the expensive bookend I have ever had.  Most of the games are the same but who cares until they are all the same.  Everyone "bowled" on the Wii but what else was there?  Nintendo was forced to change and years later everyone is catching up.  Lets hope I don't just jump and duck. 

5.  Dance games and exercise games will be huge on this so college kids will go crazy for this.  Its a party starter and whats funnier then when I reach for my drink so does my avatar.  Plus my wife may want this so what is a better reason to buy it.

Grade - B

Xbox 360 quick reviews & Kinnect Deals

Last week we gave the PS3 love and this week with Kinnect right around the corner I decided it was time to do some quick reviews for the Xbox 360.  The first game up for review is Ninja Blade.  The best way to describe this game is Ninja Gaiden meet God of War lite.  The mechanics of this game are similar to Ninja Gaiden (the reason I bought it) with quite a few quick time events and just like God of War they can get annoying at time because there are so many.  The story on this one starts well enough but gets worse as it goes on.  This is your typical button masher with big boss battles but the best part of this game is the price.  Usually you can find it in the 29.99 or less bin.  This game is an ideal title to tide you over between games you are waiting for.  This game does do plenty right and was kind of a sleeper Xbox exclusive and is great if you are buying an Xbox and looking to expand the game library without going broke.

Grade - B


Monopoly seems to come out for every system every time.  I remember having this for the Sega Master System so many moons ago and the problem is it really hasn't changed.  There are new ways to play the game and the game still takes a while.  The AI has only improved slightly even at the most difficult level.  The deals they propose are usually terrible for one player sometimes including them.  The control scheme is a bit troublesome also.  There is a light at the end of this tunnel: the new mini games on this Monopoly are fun and kept friends and family entertained for sometime.  This game screams rental though, once you have gone through the mini game once or twice it gets kind of old and playing single player seems kind of dull.

Grade - C

On Thursday Microsoft releases Kinnect for the Xbox 360 and there are a few deals out there but it sounds like finding the thing is going to be tough enough.  Kmart offers a $25 coupon/reward for buying it there and an additional $15 coupon for a game purchased with it.  The new book is out at TRU and has $10 off $75 on the back page so that is an option also.  Looking at games Target has Buy 2 get 1 Free and looks like Amazon is going to match that deal but do not use 1 click when when buying.  Later this week more Xbox games and I will be reviewing Kinnect more toward the middle of the month.  Any questions please ask...