Kinecting With Our Kids

On Christmas morning the kids were elated to find that "Santa" had left the family a brand new Xbox 360 Kinect and two additional video games.  By that afternoon the system was hooked up to our Xbox 360 and we were ready to play.  Our choice of games right now are Kinect Adventures, Game Party in Motion and Sonic Free Riders.  While it was Michael who was setting up the system and testing it out he chose the first game to play, Game Party in Motion.  Now this game is slightly entertaining but I find that the little ones quickly loose interest since there isn't a lot of movement involved.  It is a compilation of about 16 arcade and outdoor games that people play.  Some examples of the games you can play are skeet ball, darts, bean bag toss, horseshoes, pool, bocce ball, air hockey and double rackets. 

(The Kinect)

(Michael playing basketball)

(Alyssa playing skeet ball)

(Alyssa & Michael playing bean bag toss)

(Throw that bean bag!)

After a little fun with those we decided to move on to Kinect Adventures.  Now this is the game comes with the Kinect system and by far has been the most fun to play over the past four days.  In this game you play rally ball, go river rafting, maneuver through obstacle courses, and so much more.  You can opt to play free play or work to earn badges at different levels (basic, intermediate, advanced etc).  You can play by yourself or with others and I swear there is never a moment of just sitting still.

(Alyssa & Cayden playing Rally ball Christmas Day)

(Dive for those balls!)

(Get your whole body into it!)

(Day 1: Cayden & Alyssa learning to play Rally ball)

As for Sonic Free Riders it's sort of like your typical Sonic game except for the face that your body is now the controller.  We've played it a little, however I think that maybe it is better suited for the teenage players.  So far the little ones haven't been able to get passed the tutorial in order to play the game and for me it was quite difficult too.  So for now this one seems to have taken a back seat to our other games.

Since getting the Kinect on Christmas morning we have absolutely dedicated at least an hour a day to playing the games.  I have to admit that with all of the rain and cold it's been great for burning off all of that stored energy.  Besides if the kids are going to play video games I'd rather it be ones that keep them active.  I also have to admit that even I have been in on the action quite a lot and this has definitely made playing video games fun.  Another sweet surprise to playing the games is that they also take photos of you as you play that you can later upload via the Kinect share website and review.  So far the only ones that I've been able to upload and share are the ones of myself because of the security features that are set on the kids and the fact that you have to have an Xbox live membership but none the less it has been fun. 

Photos from Kinectshare.com

(Go ahead and laugh)



Another awesome thing with the game is that when you earn badges you also get what they call live statues as a reward.  These little statues of course are different for every level and badge and you can animate each one with your own movements.

(One of my living statues via Kinectshare.com)

So all in all this has turned out to be one great and fun activity for the entire family. With time I am sure that we will all improve both our game play as well as our relationships with one another.  It's great for promoting teamwork and I can't wait until we get to try out some other new games and features that are offered with this system. 

And before I forget, yes you may have to rearrange your furniture in order to create the optimum play space (persons need to able to stand 6-8 ft. back from the sensor), we did.  Also, it didn't say so in the initial set up but we did have to take down a mirror that was on the wall opposite of the sensor because it was reflecting light at the sensor.  Other than that, not too much of a change was needed. 

(Day 4: Cayden flying for space bubbles)

(Day 4: Alyssa & Cayden River Rafting)

(Day 4: Alyssa & Cayden playing Rally Ball)