Posts Tagged ‘dancing’

New Kinect Trailer (E3 2010)

New Xbox 360 Kinect trailer! (Kinect is the new name for Project Natal).

First it shows Kinectimals which is the Kinect (Project Natal) equivalent of Sony’s PlayStation Move game EyePet. But it’s been super-sized. You get a life-size tiger, lion, or other big cat to play with. And it doesn’t appear to have augmented reality.

Then it shows the latest version of Ricochet, the game where your avatar deflects balls back to destroy blocks. Microsoft have been showing this game almost exclusively for the past year.

Then it shows Kinect Adventures, which is the river rafting game for two players.

Then it shows the media player with voice controls which was in the video last year. They were watching Harry Potter. I wonder if there will be Harry Potter games for Kinect, since they would be an obvious choice for gesture and voice control. Lego Harry Potter (Parts 1 and 2) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Parts 1 and 2) are still to be released, so keep your fingers crossed. There are two franchises players have been dreaming of Kinect controls for since long before Project Natal: Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Then it shows a new dancing game, called “Dance Central”. Unlike the standard Dance Dance Revolution/Guitar Hero rhythm and timing games, this game doesn’t have scrolling notes that you have to hit in time with the music. Instead it has a wheel on the side of the screen that tells you what dance move you have to do and what the next ones will be, and you have to spend a few seconds doing that move correctly. And of course this game requires no extra hardware, due to Kinect.

Then it shows two Kinect Sports games hurdles and table tennis. Sony’s PlayStation Move also does table tennis, as does Nintendo’s Wii Motion Plus. Microsoft’s version seems the worst since you are using your open hand instead of a table tennis bat. If I was Microsoft, I would let players hold any random prop they have lying around the house and use it as a table tennis bat. A spatula, a carrot, your TV remote control, even a real table tennis bat, or a Wii Remote. I don’t see why Kinect can’t use random household objects as props.

Then it shows Your Shape: Fitness Evolved. You might remember this from the Nintendo Wii, it came with a Wii webcam peripheral. Now it doesn’t need one. This was an obvious choice for Kinect, and I’m surprised it never occurred to me that we would see this game for Kinect.

Then it shows Kinect Joy Ride. This is actually an old game that was going to be released last year for free on Xbox Live Arcade with traditional controls, but it was delayed and made into a Kinect launch title. It is a cartoony car racing game with obstacles that includes split-screen multiplayer.

Lots more games are being announced though, so stay tuned for a low more info and videos.

DDR and Guitar Hero Natal Now With Stagediving!

On September 25, Naoki Maeda gave an interview at TGS 2009. He is the Producer at Bemani Production of Konami Digital Entertainment Co.

Bemani is of course the company that brought you Dance Dance Revolution, Dancing Stage, BeatMania, Dance Maniax, Pop’n Music, Pop’n Stage, GuitarFreaks, DrumMania, Rock Revolution, Keyboardmania, ParaParaParadise, Ubeat, Bemani Pocket, and Pop’n Rhythm.

They invented the whole genre of rhythm and dancing games, and had games like Guitar Hero and DJ Hero long before Guitar Hero itself.

These games are such an obvious usage for Project Natal, so it’s not surprising Bemani is very keen on adding Project Natal support. You wouldn’t need to buy a dance mat anymore, which makes games much more affordable and gives them a much wider audience and profit margin. I don’t know if we’re going to have air-guitar games. But there’s no reason it can’t use normal guitar peripherals while using Natal for things like starpower, avatar control, avatar creation, etc.

But Naoki Maeda wants to go a lot further than that… (transcript after the video).

“I feel we could try a lot on Natal. My specialty is games that work with music.

My instincts tell me that Natal would be ideal for dancing. Any form of dancing could be emulated on Natal. [starts dancing] … I really can’t dance, obviously.

The fundamentals of music are about performing. Well, dancing too.

For example, when you’re on stage, the audience reacts to your performance. This is where Natal may prove to have a lot of potential. You’re up on the stage, and you see the audience. You might want to call out to them. And then the crowd also calls back to you. You throw something at them, and somebody in the crowd catches it. The responses from the audience are what makes it so exciting for the performer. You’re on stage, performing to your audience, and they react to your performance.

I’d like to create a more realistic music entertainment with Natal for my fans.”