Microsoft Kinect REVIEW ROUNDUP: Critics React To Motion-Sensing System For Xbox 360 (PHOTOS)

*Scroll down for photos and additional reviews.*

(HUFFINGTON POST/AP, RON HARRIS) There are a lot of futuristic things we're still waiting on: jet packs for the entire family, self-driving cars and time-travel, to name a few. But one new, pretty darn amazing bit of technology has finally come to fruition, thanks to the folks at Microsoft.

The Kinect system, on sale beginning Thursday for the Xbox 360 game console, offers controller-free control of living room entertainment and aptly delivers a groundbreaking piece of technology.

It's part game controller, part fitness guru and part "Minority Report," the movie where Tom Cruise famously interacts with a multi-touch interface by making rapid motions with his hands. Instead of gripping a physical controller to play games and movies on your Xbox 360, Kinect allows you to simply move your body – hands, feet, hips – to do everything.

Kinect is a hybrid video camera and motion sensor that sits just above or below your television display. It looks like an extra wide webcam and connects to the Xbox 360 – even older models – through the USB port. Kinect sells for $150 and comes with one game; you can buy it bundled with a low-end Xbox 360 for $300, saving $50 on the package.

View the slideshow (below) to see what reviewers from Joystiq, Engadget, the New York Times, the Boston Globe and Gizmodo thought of the Microsoft Kinect. Will you purchase the motion-sensing system for yourself? Share your opinion in the comments.

1 of 5

New York Times

1 of 6

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

"There’s a crazy, magical, omigosh rush the first time you try the Kinect. It’s an experience you’ve never had before," David Pogue of the New York Times writes.

7 Things We Want To See Invented In 2013

Craziest Google Map Sightings

Google's Biggest Acquisitions

7 Things Microsoft Surface Has That iPad Doesn't

Google Doodle Slideshow

gadgets/slideshows/221347/slide_221347_883610_small.jpg

9 Best Google Glass Parodies

"There’s a crazy, magical, omigosh rush the first time you try the Kinect. It’s an experience you’ve never had before," David Pogue of the New York Times writes.

comments(237)

featured comment

Reply | Share

Matt Corbin said on 6 Saturday 2010 pm30 4:24 pm: Kanye moment: Microsoft kinect does not care about black people. No seriously. It's can't see them.

Total comments: 237 | Post a Comment

1 of 6

This Review

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Pass Helpful!

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Reviews

loading...

Reviews

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[Devin Koemm]

09:07 AM on 11/09/2010

The thing that I find most interesting, is that Microsoft updated the whole system configuration by putting an update on X-Box live a few days before release of the kinect.The Wii is completely built around motion control but the Kinect is a peripheral and if it can keep the graphic quality of standard titles than it will blow Sony and Nintendo out of the water.Not only that Microsoft has a much farther reach in the gaming community, the wii can be fun but most games are made for younger audiences being a 20 year old gamer I want blood,explosions and the sense that if I'm playing I'm the biggest badas* around, definitely can't acheive that with wii titles.
Sorry for punctuation issues I'm a gamer not a rocket scientist.

[Kalel]

08:54 PM on 11/08/2010

I'm just surprised that Sony and Microsoft allowed Nintendo to have the motion capture market for so long.

[thejongardner]

02:47 PM on 11/08/2010

It's definitely an interesting tech development that should have implications for how we interact with and consume media http://on.fb.me/buH1HV

[jsgaetano]

01:42 PM on 11/08/2010

I think MS failed at what Nintendo always excels at- launching new hardware with at LEAST one AAA title.
 
Look at the Kinect game list.  What is there?  Anything that says "OMG Must Buy!!!"?  Nope.
 
There are like four "Wii Sports" wannabes... a bunch of other filler... and that's it.

[jgeurian21]

04:59 PM on 11/08/2010

You are comparing the launching of an entire console to a USB add-on for an already existing console. A bit different. Without motion control the Wii is nothing more than a very outdated Gamecube. Without motion control the 360 is still a very capable gaming machine. Again, a bit different.

[jsgaetano]

06:49 PM on 11/08/2010

Not really.  I'm talking about a strategy Nintendo always uses when it launches new things.  And if Nintendo can't launch with at least one AAA title, they'll usually delay the release.  Look at the "Wii Motion Plus"- they made sure there were at least two games which came with it, as well as more on the way.
 
Also, there are TONS of games for the Wii which don't even use motion controls.  If you think everything on the Wii is based on motion, you really don't know what you are talking about.
 
Superior hardware doesn't make superior games.  Yeah, it would be great if the Wii had more beef, but it's not really necessary.  That's because Nintendo is more interested in gameplay than using graphics as a gimmick.  There are tons of games that look great but are terrible games.  Like the Fable series, for example.

[Ryosuke91t]

03:15 AM on 11/08/2010

Where is Milo?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWsMlfj68

Kinect (or Project Natal) was supposed to be so much more.

Milo dects your feeling in your expressions. Milo can even check your homework.

I want Milo!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

[HappyVomit]

02:45 AM on 11/08/2010

I wonder if this will join the myriad other gimmicky technologies consigned to the historical dustbin. The Wii proved there's a market for this sort of...stuff. I guess as long as you don't look like a complete tool playing it then it'll sell well, and judging by some of those pictures that won't be a problem . I'll stick with my PC for games, thanks very much.

[jgeurian21]

10:46 AM on 11/08/2010

I thought the samething too. I am a PC gamer most of the time, but do enjoy some console games from time to time. I did buy the Kinect and was very happy. The games are quite fun. When I started on Friday I was getting beat by the beginner in table tennis and by Sunday I was beating the pro. It is quite addicting to say the least and I only stopped when I got sore. Then up to my PC for some LFD2.

[jsgaetano]

01:45 PM on 11/08/2010

I'm a PC gamer, but I like my xb360 quite a bit.
 
I have to say, one of the biggest things MS did right with it with the XBox Live service.  When you use it, you actually wish they'd roll something like that into Windows.  It also makes the other consoles seem lame by comparison: I know every time I play something from Nintendo it just feels like they are really missing the boat by not having anything beyond the really lame and user unfriendly connectivity they currently have.

[Steven Meece]

12:41 AM on 11/08/2010

Look at the first two D.B.'s with the box above their heads: They look like six year old boys in 22 year old men's bodies. Typical gamers...

[Angelus2007]

08:35 PM on 11/08/2010

And when us gamers are 60 we will look 40...woohoo!!!!!

[Dolphinfan65]

10:25 PM on 11/07/2010

http://www.youtube.com/user/SCElabs

[faustfire]

07:11 PM on 11/07/2010

Overall I can't stand Microsoft products, but the xbox 360 is an exception. It's a pretty solid entertainment device, and the Kinect is pretty solid as well. My whole family's been playing it for the last few days, (ages 2.5 to 65) and it is a complete hit. For a first gen product it works amazingly well, and should only get better as they tweek the software.

The naysayers commenting here were probably the same people who were moaning about how the iphone is just too expensive and will never sell well.

Give it a couple of years and this tech will be built into every tv standard.

[justlw]

12:06 AM on 11/08/2010

The xbox was an exceptional product for the same reason the IBM PC was an exceptional product: large company recognized its own limitations in innovation, and set up a small group of autonomous people to come up with something new -- and they did.

Note that IBM no longer sells PCs. Everyone else caught up and did it better, and the larger organization eventually rejected the invasive creature it had spawned.

Microsoft may or may not be on the same path: the people responsible for running the XBox organization have left, and that business unit now reports directly to Ballmer. This is not a positive development.

[jsgaetano]

01:49 PM on 11/08/2010

What are you playing on it?  My only complaint is that none of the launch games seem even remotely interesting.

[Angelus2007]

08:34 PM on 11/08/2010

I would agree. Once games I am interested come out, I may give it a shot. I played with it in the store and it is amazing, but none of the games interest me.

[Clozure]

05:32 PM on 11/07/2010

So funny to read all the people hating on it who probably haven't used it. I bought one and the pack game in is super basic, but quite fun. Dance Central is also fun, and quite a workout, and no, it could not be done on a wii. Sensing the accuracy of the full body tracking has me very excited to see how developers of traditional, more complex or hard-core genres, will incorporate physical movement into future RPGs, FPSs etc.

[philp71]

03:42 PM on 11/07/2010

what does microsoft make that they haven't copied

[banjokuzi]

07:00 PM on 11/07/2010

Kinect

[jsgaetano]

01:48 PM on 11/08/2010

What does Apple make that they haven't copied?

[rotorhead1871]

03:01 PM on 11/07/2010

cool technology showcasing MS strong point.....software.

[Sparky Mahoney]

01:46 PM on 11/07/2010

This is OPINION, not news. Did MS pay for this PR piece outright? I'll wager dollars to donuts that while the sheeple ooh and ahhh over this thing for Xmas it'll be nothing but buyers remorse inside of 1-3 months and you'll see these things at every garage sale next summer. Fools and their money.

[Doc Wattson]

03:26 AM on 11/08/2010

If Microsoft did pay for this they should get their money back since have the reviews linked are negative.

[DSOTM]

11:36 AM on 11/07/2010

I am not much of a gamer but I have played them at my friends homes, no matter how advanced these games get, they still can't beat a good ole' game of Monopoly with 4 or 5 people.

[DisgruntledYouth]

10:46 AM on 11/07/2010

waiting to see what kind of games they produce for it.

[philp71]

03:43 PM on 11/07/2010

nothing the wii doesn't already have

[Doc Wattson]

03:26 AM on 11/08/2010

which basically means crappy games