Official Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures (Xbox 360)

I pre-ordered this on Amazon together with a number of games as soon as they were listed and have been (in-)patiently waiting since. The wait was well worth it as it is a simply amazing piece of kit that transforms the Xbox into an 'Active' experience i.e. it will get you up off the sofa :)I didn't even bother reading the instructions: just plugged it into the USB port on the back and plugged in the mains power adapter and placed the sensor on top of the centre speaker of my home theatre system (supposedly not ideal, but works perfectly in practise). Then just load up the trial game and follow the on screen instructions.My girlfriend and I have tried the supplied 'Kinect Adventures' (really for kids only), 'Dance Central' (REALLY good and goes from easy to very hard) and 'Kinect Sports' (only Boxing and Ten-Pin Bowling so far). Still have 'Your Shape (Fitness Evolved)' to try and 'Dance Paradise' when it's released in a weeks time.In my opinion this utterly destroys the competition (Wii and PS3), and should give the Xbox a huge boost (as if it needed one!) as well as you the buyer. I simply can't praise it highly enough as it does everything claimed for it, including speech recognition (first go) which isn't easy. I can see why it costs what it does and I think it's worth every penny.I must say I don't understand the comments that some people have made about needing a large room. The games I played kept telling me I had to move closer (which narrows the angle and makes some games easier anyway. My settee is 4.5 metres from the screen (65") and 2-3 metres was where it wanted me to stand. I would have thought that would be fine for the majority of rooms.10/10 for innovation and sheer fun factor (and will make a change from my usual FPSs). Might even get me exercising and a bit fitter which was part of the reason for buying.

I bought my Kinect for the speech recognition that some current games either already have (Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360)) or are going to get soon via download (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360)) - however I found myself totally taken with the games that make use of its main function - that of using your body as the controller.Connecting and calibrating the Kinect is really easy. I found that positioning it was the tricky bit, but eventually decided to buy a separate third party wall mounting and fix it on the wall above my TV. You need to make sure you have enough space in the room to move about, jump up and down and wave your arms about, and the Kinect needs to see you from your head to your feet. It can adjust its angle during play if needed, but positioning it right to start with is going to result in less need for it to do that. The Kinect needs a power supply, and you can switch it off when not needed without the Xbox complaining when you power it up again for non-Kinect use. The Kinect however does complain, in its own way, as it displays a red light powered from the Xbox 360 USB port that you cannot switch off without unplugging. This can be an annoying distraction, so you'll need to find some material to cover it when not in use.It would be difficult to review the Kinect without mentioning games I have tried it with, as without games it is little more than an interface to verbally control the Xbox dashboard and get videos to pause and rewind. The speech recognition works brilliantly, and issuing commands to the Xbox to control menus or game characters is a weird experience at first, but it soon becomes natural. The accuracy of the body recognition however varies from game to game. Currently if you buy a Kinect from Amazon, as I have, the box has KINECT ADVENTURES! SOLUS XBOX 360 [Xbox 360] inside it. Reviews of this game exist elsewhere, but just commenting on the actions you perform - jumping, ducking, leaning, hitting, pointing at specific spots - the Kinect is quick in responding and is accurate enough for what it does (the game shows you displayed as your Xbox avatar). The game that really showed me what was possible is Fruit Ninja Kinect - a download-only game that is seriously addictive and worth getting a Kinect for even if you never did anything else with it. This game demonstrates just how fast and, to the point, how accurately the device can be used with good game programming to track your hands, feet, torso and head.Some games utilise the new abilities - jumping, using objects and virtual weapons, turning, walking, running, etc - better than others. I tried the Rise of Nightmares - Kinect Compatible (Xbox 360) demo and found its control interface difficult and anything but intuitive. I tried the Haunt demo (another arcade game) and all the motions were completely natural. I bought the latter but not the former. If the control mechanisms had been reversed, so would my choice of purchase have been. The lesson from this is that some games may seem in theory like they'll be awesome with Kinect, but it's the way they choose to use the Kinect that makes or breaks them.On quality, price and overall enjoyment the Kinect is a solid five stars from me. I absolutely love it, and that's even before its next generation of games comes out.

I bought this as a gift for my partner to get him moving a bit more and interacting with the kids.Having read one or two negative reviews I was a bit sceptical but I have been very pleasantly surprised! Set up was quick and simple, playing within five or ten minutes. There was the occasional hiccup with the kinect ID set up but it still recognised everybody despite not actually completing all stages of the set up.Kinect adventures game supplied is fun and gets you moving.Pros: quick easy set up, gets your butt off the settee, can do video connect sessions with other kinect users where you can hear and see each other (cheaper than using the phone - Xbox live account needed), fun and easy to exit and join/ swap players in game play.Cons: bit pricey, doesn't work perfectly all of the time...but I haven't found this a problem and it usually down to being too close/ far away or lighting conditions.I think most of the people who have given negative reviews of this (as is the case with most things) just expect too much or are total perfectionists who expect everything to work perfectly all of the time. I am thrilled to bits with this purchase and can't wait to play on it again!