New titles expanding on Kinect's abilities

Here is a reason to be glad you invested in a Kinect.

When Microsoft launched Kinect last year, the accompanying software lineup included plenty of dance games, exercise games and other titles aimed squarely at attracting the casual crowd. Yet while many of those first-generation games were fun, they did little to sell Kinect to Microsoft's core gaming audience.

That fact hasn't been lost on Microsoft, which used its E3 press briefing earlier this year to spotlight Kinect and showcase its potential to the hardcore crowd. The first wave of those titles geared toward core gamers has finally arrived. And while the overall results are mixed, the unique ways in which they utilize Kinect's motion-tracking capabilities reveal just how much potential the system truly has.

Not that I'm a serious gamer by any means. But without gamer-style games, you end up with a product that won't have the people who are spending the most money and passion on games paying attention to the Kinect. Chumps like me need these folks to drive investment and innovation in a product we like.

At the same time, I get sad when I read about the possible death of dance titles. I also get confused when I hear that a title like this is going to change the face of dance titles.

Boom Boom Dance will not ask players to mirror complicated dance routines performed by pre-animated on-screen dancers.

Instead, as shown in the debut trailer, players will directly control an on-screen avatar, performing freestyle dance moves in an attempt to hit on-screen balls in time with the music.

I'm not sure how "freestyle dance moves while hitting marks" does not equal a marks-hitting game that can be done sans-dancing. But I love surprises.

It looks like a decent way to get a workout, assuming you like the music, though.

Why Kinect?

The first time I seriously considered getting a videogame system for myself, I was playing with a Wii. It was me, my much younger cousins (like, in high school), and "Just Dance 2." I could have played that game all day with them.

My exercise life was in a bit of a transition at the time. My longtime aerobics instructor had just left the classes I'd depended on for fitness, and my work schedule was making increasing demands on my time. My local Y is overcrowded, and I don't get excited much out of the fitness machines, if I can even get the one I want. The Wii appealed to me, and "Just Dance 2" was precisely the kind of thing I liked to do -- boogie down.

So when I went home, I thought to myself that maybe a Wii was right for me. At the time, the Kinect had just come out, and when I started Googling around, I made these notes:

1) Kinect had no controller except your body. I'm in my 30s and a decade of desk jobs had given me some carpal-tunnelly/repetitive motion-y type stuff in my right wrist. Gripping a Wiimote was not something I wanted to do all day. Also, being in my 30s and basically having never played much in the way of videogames, I was not into the whole controller thing. Too many buttons, too much pressure to make the right combinations, too much Skinner-boxing. I want to use all my muscles, and I don't need anything that keeps me on my butt. (My decision was further confirmed when the new Wii was shown to have an iPad-like controller. Clever, but no thank you, I do not do traditional push-the-button gaming, I am an old lady.)

2) "Just Dance 2" was published by Ubisoft, a company which had just announced its intentions to be the number one third party videogame publisher for Kinect. Since "Just Dance 2" was a huge winner for me, I thought, "Dude, that sounds perfect."

3) The reviews for Kinect were ecstatic. Its sales were already breaking records, and it seemed like a pretty sure bet that developers would fill the gap of its fairly paltry initial game offerings. Plus, what existed at the outset seemed to fill most of my basic needs. It doesn't matter if there aren't a lot of games as long as the few you need are on offer, and as long as better ones come along as time goes on. Right?

A couple of things nagged at me. First, there was the fact that it is a Microsoft system. I'm sorry, but Microsoft has always offered products with counter-intuitive, over-buttoned, over-optioned, not-quite-working-right clutter. Nintendo is sort of the Mac of the videogame world, albeit softer and fuzzier. Playstation is the Unix (in the sense that hardcore gamers, like my brother, use this system). By this equation, I should be a Nintendo person, considering the Playstation Move as my backup. But the Move doesn't seem to generate much enthusiasm at all, and Nintendo is headed in a touchscreen direction.

Second, there was the cost. The Xbox and Kinect are freaking expensive. No getting around that.

There was a lot of dithering room, and I dithered. Enough so that my husband -- who I would have expected to say, "Don't do this, do you really need more time in front of a screen?" -- said if I thought I'd really enjoy it, I should go get it. Nuff said.

So, months later, here I am, Kinecting and liking it. Hope I can help all you other grown-up ladies and gentlemen out there who are considering expanding your videogaming from Farmville and Bejeweled to something more physical.