The Philippine Online Chronicles

They can also play games with Disney characters in Disney locales, as exhibited by the two pairs of children in the pictures above and below. Kinect Disneyland Adventures will be available by the end of 2011.

The moment the Star Wars theme played, the audience immediately started cheering. This cheering was immediately dampened the moment Star Wars Kinectwas shown, which is another on-rails game (which seems to be all Kinect-only titles can be) in the Star Wars universe. Several worlds make an appearance, such as Coruscant, Felucia, Tatooine and Endor. While there are some vehicle sections involving Podracers, Jedi Starfighters and speederbikes, the bulk of the game seems to be centered around Jedi combat, fighting against droids, clones and even Rancors. Players can use Kinect to use the Force and swing a lightsaber, which is activated by saying “Lightsaber on!” It’ll be hard to be excited for this game when it launches near the end of the year.

Double Fine’s new game for Kinect stole the show for many. Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, set to release in the fourth quarter of 2011, is a game set in a living storybook where Cookie Monster and Elmo help out other monsters in need. The title has a very Where the Wild Things Are aesthetic, and so that and the license make it tolerable, even anticipated, for a Kinect game. Staying true to the license, the Sesame Street monsters are voiced by their pupeteers and are animated very accurately. The game was presented by games legend Tim Schafer, who made it a point to show how ridiculous many Kinect demos are by prompting “Let’s roll out the demo… unleash the simulated family!”

Kudo Tsunoda announced Kinect Fun Labs, a content center where users employ Kinect functionality to make media. First was “Kinect People Scanning”, which makes people’s avatars by scanning their face and clothing. The demonstrator took two shots of her face and her clothes and a stylized but accurate avatar representation of her was created with the Xbox. It appeared to be the Kinect version of the 3DS’s Mii Maker.

Also showcased was “Kinect Finger Tracking”, which enables Kinect users to draw in midair with their fingers and make 3D art, possible via the Kinect’s two cameras, and draw in front of and behind the subjects photographed. It would’ve been more impressive if the presenter didn’t keep saying taglines like “Kinect plus finger tracking equals awesome.”

Third, and most impressive, was “Kinect Object Capture”, in which uses show Kinect the front and back of an object and a 3D counterpart will be created in the Xbox. Possible gameplay uses were already suggested when Kinect was announced two years ago, like scanning in cars and skateboards, but it’s good to see this functionality actually being implemented.

One of the last shows to be presented was Kinect Sports Season Two, the followup to last year’s Kinect Sports. It adds six new sports playable via Kinect: basketball, skiing, golf, darts, and American football. Golf was shown off; players pretend to hold a club and can select them via voice commands. American football was also demoed, letting players call plays using by saying them and also it lets players of all sexes be over-the-top bromantic:

The last game announced for Kinect was Dance Central 2, which now features simultaneous multiplayer dancing, something I was not aware the first game lacked, and a campaign mode, which is something every rhythm game needs. All the songs from Dance Central can also be imported. Simultaneous multiplayer dancing was demoed to Usher’s “DJ Got us Fallin’ in Love.”

Don Mattrick, wrapping up the press conference, reiterated the concept of converging technology that Kinect represents. The interactive media and virtual reality aspect of Kinect are pretty interesting things, but many of them are very US-centric. It seems to go against Mattrick’s claim that Xbox 360 “will go from being the number one-selling console in North America to the number-one selling console globally”. It also ignores the fact that the Wii did most of these things first and has sold far, far more, and that Kinect is retreading old ground with the majority of the motion games. The focus on Kinect, and the dearth of compelling and fun games for it (with the sole exception of Sesame Street) doesn’t seem to be the way gaming should be going. Though perhaps Microsoft isn’t putting all their eggs in the Kinect basket; Mattrick left the show with a teaser for an upcoming game that fortunately isn’t on rails. Halo fans can only hope.