I'm not normally one for playing a large number of computer games I must admit, recently I've enjoyed the new Formula One game F12010 purely because of my passion for that sport. But when it comes to gaming, in our home, the XBox lives in my corner of the house, its not normally a 'lounge room' or 'family' experience. 

One reason for that might be the style of games I do like to play, being shootem or driving games, not really suitable or easy for young kids.

So when XBox Kinect arrived, I immediately changed that thought process.  The XBox moved into the lounge room, and my son and I started enjoying a fantastic game of ten pin bowling!

Kinect is a new way of gaming.  Nintendo started the trend of active participation in console gaming with the Wii.  Playstation have recently followed suit with the Playstation Move.  Both use a single wireless controller in your hand which together with sensors near your TV detect the movement of the controller to participate in the game.  For example hold the controller like a tennis raquet and swing to play tennis.

Microsoft have broken that mould, there is no physical controller.  You are the controller.

With the addition of the Kinect system to your XBox 360, the Xbox essentially sees you, knows where and how you are moving and uses that to control objects within the games.

We took the Kinect out of the box, plugged it into power, and then the USB port of the XBox 360, and immediatley on startup, it began the task of calibrating itself for my lounge and within a few minutes we were ready to play.

It's slow, frustrating sometimes, to want to skip through a menu, or just press the Green A button on the controller to say YES - with Kinect you wave your hand for the XBox to know you want it's attention, then you move your 'hand' over the button on screen and hold it there for a few seconds to press or accept.

It's certainly a slower menu navigation method, but it's amazing at the same time.

The first title I put in was the Kinect Sports - no doubt built to rival Wii Sports, Kinect Sports has Soccer, Table Tennis, Bowling Boxing and more.

My 3 year old son LOVES Ten-pin bowling, so it was an easy choice to start with.

We played a two player game, in which you stood in front of the TV taking turns to bowl.

Simple as anything, take your place, put your hand in the air, then once it 'sees' you, you reach to the left or right for a ball, then just BOWL! What an immensely entertaining game, simple, effective, and addictive.

As you can see, my son picked it up pretty fast, and loved it.

I took a few moments to check out some of the other titles at the same time.

Soccer within Kinect Football was difficult, some real effort and understanding is required there, and I'm not such a fan of these games because they do rely on the computer doing some of the work for you, like moving you to the ball, but the basic game play is all about you kicking and passing as you need.

With Soccer (sorry, Football!) you can play two people at the same time, either against each other or playing together on the same team.  Again, more time and effort needed to learn how to play as it wasn't automatically obvious to my son or I:)

Later, I quicky tried JOY RIDE, the car driving game which is a ball of fun.  No accelleration or breaking - the XBox 'takes care of that' - you just need to steer (holding a pretend steering wheel) and lean around to perform tricks in your car.  I can see this one being addictive.

Next, I checked out the interesting looking Kinectimals.  In this, you adopt a pet lion cub, and you can pet it and play games with it.  I gave up once it told me to name my pet cub, talking to a TV screen on my own is a step to far in my book!  But I can see kids enjoying this one!

Finally, with the family in bed, I took on the computer in a game of Table tennis.  The flow of the game was slow, the ball really not flying around the table like it would in real table tennis, but you soon get used to that - And you really do find yourself getting right into it with movement all round the room. 

How do I know?  Well, while you're playing, the KINECT box is filming you, to detect your hands and movements, but its also recording that.  At the end of the game you can choose to upload the pictures or video and even share it with friends.  To prove that - here's me!:



There are already six titles to choose from, including a Dance game, and a Fitness disc, which I assume helps you with fitness routines etc.  This will grow and grow, but if you have an interest in fun family gaming, and have an XBox 360 then Kinect is for you!

This is simply amazing technology, and we can only imagine what the future might hold.

Let me know in the comments below what you think of Kinect - you can also follow me on twitter - @trevorlong