My husband sold me big and set HUGE expectations regarding Kinect. He has been talking it up for almost a year now.
He promised Kinect will change how our kids play video games and move towards a ‘healthy’ gaming in our living room.
It has been two weeks since we had Kinect and here is what I think.
| What He Said | What He Actually Means |
| Kids will love it and you will actually like that they play video games | Finally I can use kids as an excuse to play more Xbox |
| Kids will have educational and physical games on Kinect | Man, I cant wait to play bowling and soccer on Kinect |
| They specially designed games like Kinectimals for kids | Clever set up for the realease of Gears of War.. Awwwr!!! |
| Honey, they even have Yoga and work out games for you | If somehow I can get you in to this, then my life is nirvana!! |
Having said that, Xbox Kinect has certainly done one thing. Kinect forced a redesign of my living room.
More on this and some more game reviews from a mother’s viewpoint in the next post.
Enjoy!
Kinectimals Review:
What my toddler likes in this game: (Pros of Kinectimal game)
- Visuals are truly high definition and that lets my kids get the ‘movie’-like experience with this game.
- Love that she can name her pets. She has a Royal Bengal tiger that she named ‘Robbie’. She can call him by that name and he responds! love it!
- Kinectimals game keeps kids active. They are always doing something physically. Petting, jumping, throwin balls at their tiger, feeding them and cleaning them too! ( good training on the cleaning concept)
- The game prompts them to take a break. This is good design for those overactive toddlers
- The challenges are simple and keep the kids interested. Water gun sprayin, knocking targets with tennis balls and driving a remote controlled car are really fun indeed.
What my kids and I dont like about Kinectimals (Cons of the game):( please help us if you know how to fix these)
- The videos in between the challenges are bit too long and repetitive. Kids dont have patience!
- Controls throuh Kinect are a bit hard for a 3 year old to master. Things like ‘selecting’ , quitting ( left hand 45 degrees!) are hard for a restless toddler
- To get the pets attention, they have to YELL their names. Else they just ignore you. I wish Microsoft can fix this issue with Kinect
- We still havent figured out how to switch between the pets. She has a few tigers and leopards now. She wants to switch between them and we just dont know how to. Help?
Note: if you know any way to fix the above issues with Kinect for kids, please suggest away in the comments. Thanks ahead.
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