EuroGamer - Kinect Fun Labs appeared on the Xbox Live dashboard with uncharacteristic stealth back in June. It was hardly a secret, but given that it essentially offered free software for the world's fastest selling consumer electronic gadget, it was a muted debut. A straw poll of Kinect-owning normal people in my social circle reveals that none of them were actually aware that Fun Labs even exists.
With the continued absence of Joseph Barron (Kwalee) Nick Lynch once again stakes his claim for the host’s chair. But lo, he has tales of Child of eden, Papa Roch and kinect fun labs mars rover landing. Mark Craven is swinging a crowbar like its 1998. While Richard Plant (Gameforge) sounds off about Kickstarter, The Walking Dead, and tries his best to verbalise ‘To the Moon’.
Runtime – 01:11:32
Episode Number – 118
What Games – Black Mesa, machinarium, Rayman origins, child of eden, Fun labs, the walking dead, to the moon, wii u, Project Eternity, Gary Whitta, Telltale, introversion, Humble bundle, Kickstarter, obsidian
James Steel writes -
"Kinect Fun Labs is certainly case of promise vs. reality. Announced at E3 2011, the new application promised fun, quirky, experimental side projects that aimed to show off unique ideas and concepts for the Kinect. While some of that may be true, there’s definitely potential for so much more. The unfortunate reality has resulted in paid-for widgets that are pretty shallow. While I’m not going to argue that I haven’t had fun with the current offerings such as Googly Eyes, Build a Buddy and Air Band, it’s far from what the service should have been.
Imagine of the Kinect Fun Labs application was much more open, just like the Indie Games platform, allowing developers to release free or cheap experimental applications for Kinect gamers to play. There’s certainly been a huge influx of Kinect titles recently, more so with ‘Kinect features’, but there’s nothing quite like community projects."
Gaming Update's CM Boots-Faubert takes a look at The Kinect Fun Labs and its most recent add-ins in an exploration of the utilities and apps that offer gamers a deep exploration of the capabilities of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect motion-sensing controller.
Well that doesn't sound good.
"Mostly, it's disappointing that the technology on display feels so clumsy. It feels like a step backwards for Kinect, displaying its limitations more than its strengths - right when mainstream developers are starting to do interesting things with the device outside of the obvious motion control applications."
Having worked with Kinect, I've got to say I wasn't that impressed with it. The technology was neat, but very inconsistent. We were using it for a training simulator and sometimes it would recognize you, sometimes it wouldn't, sometimes the clothing would interfere, sometimes it read had gestures perfectly, other times it didn't. And always calibrating. "Clumsy" is certainly a word I would use when describing the Kinect.
That being said, we never tried gaming with Kinect during the couple of months we worked with it. I've heard from friends that Dance Central is certainly fun and seems to have no problem tracking full body movement.