Kinect Sports

Congrats to Microsoft for a highly responsive and fun game. Gets the kids off the couch and up moving for hours. We got this game today and our 13 year old son played for three or four hours. He was so exhausted! And it is just as entertaining to watch...the real entertainment is not on the screen, lol! This has 6 games: beach volley ball, soccer, boxing, bowling, track and field, and ping pong. They were all very responsive to the movement of the person playing. There are several skill levels to choose from so you can choose: beginner, amateur, professional and I think something else. There are tips and tutorials throughout the game. And there is no need to get bored because you can challenge others in the room or on xbox live. There are also mini games/challenges and party mode. Have not tried those yet. It can be played as a single player or with others. For anyone hesitant about the Kinect...the games are a lot of fun and it is easy to calibrate (which I would NOT skip). Lighting is not a problem. Our set up is this: we have the projector set up to the xbox360 and it projects on the wall with surround sound. Because of the projector it is best to have a dim room. We actually have the lights OFF and it works GREAT. It actually suggests dimming the room a bit. I am really impressed with how the game is able to pick up the movements of the player even in darkness. I really think the key is to carefully go thru the calibration before doing each game. The game will remember your settings each time you use it. If you are still having problems, adjust the lighting and be sure that there are no people, pets, curtains, etc. fluttering nearby or behind the player or the movement will "hijack" your game. And it seems to have more difficulty recognizing movement with baggy clothing. This is simply fantastic for a family game. All can participate and burn some calories while having fun! Edit: 11/26/2010 So far we have played Kinect Adventures, Dance Central, Kinect Sports. Since it is the holidays and we are all together, we literally play for hours at a time. The kids grew tired of Kinect Adventures quickly, but really their target audience appears to be much younger kids. My kids are Halo/Call of Duty/Assasin's Creed players. Kinect Sports really gets them going though. Maybe because we are playing as a family. I truly think most people will really enjoy the bowling. I had wondered about the motion detection and dimming of lights. When I was playing Dance Central the time of day was different and the lighting more to my left side (coming from the kitchen and dining room). The arm movements seemed to have difficulty registering. I played with the lighting, adding floor lights, turning lights on and off in various areas. Finally, I just turned them off completely and much better. Here is what I found about that...(regarding motion sensing) ============================================================================================================================= "It's made of two main parts: a projector and an IR VGA camera. The former bounces out a laser (don't worry, Microsoft insists it's safe) across the entire field of play, which the camera picks up to separate you from your sofa on what's called a `depth field.' It's essentially all the pixels that Kinect gets back as IR noise measured in varying colour dependant on how close they are to the system. That way bodies appear a bright shade of red, green etc, and things further away appear grey." ============================================================================================================================= I noticed with sunlight reflecting from my arm that the motion controlled hand bounces everywhere and was impossible to control. Again, pulled the shades and good to go. If the system is using IR, it is no wonder. The dimmer the lights the less it has to sort out the background and can focus only on the body. Shimmering/flickering lights or other movements or very warm sources of light,objects, etc, may confuse the Kinect sensor. If you are one of the people having trouble with responsiveness to your motions, definitely try messing with the amount of light in your room. LESS light. Not more like I have seen some try. As I have said, our set up utilizes a projector and we do have some light in the room because it is a full wall image, so it is not pitch black, but there is very little light in the room. No overhead lighting at all. Hope this helps some who have had trouble with some of their games being a bit buggy.

My (just turned) 7 year old daughter and I play this game on a nightly basis. The accuracy for this title is about as good as it currently gets with the Kinect. For my daughter, who is a complete non-gamer, she was able to pick up this title and run with it without hardly any direction, and although she highly anticipated the Kinectimals, and initially turned her nose up at this title, this has since been crowned her favorite in our library by a landslide. I am more of an avid gamer myself, but have found myself more driven to play these games with my daughter as they are great active entertainment, while offering far greater family fun than your typical "sit in a chair" FPS. At first use, I found this title to be slightly irritating in it's lack of recognition of who we were as players, as it would commonly swap us, or pick a generic player. This turned out to not be the fault of the game, but rather the fault of impatience (not waiting at the beginning for it to recognize us, and trying to just select our players) combined with the lack of going through the routines in the Kinect setup for recognizing us a few times for fine tuning. The bowling takes a little bit to get used to, but after you do, it's hard to go back to WII bowling where the physical position has to be calibrated manually. For kids, I could swear this game adjusts down for them, as my daughter is almost equally matched with me, and sometimes beats me even when I'm trying. She absolutely loves that, of course. The track and field, while some say is great, I actually found a bit awkward. Specifically with the hurdle jumping, the timing seemed a bit lagged and took the most time to get used to. The boxing is just "meh"... It seemed to not quite line up with what we were trying to do, and the lag really showed itself in this game, so it ended up in wildly throwing punches at the screen, and rarely going back to visit that particular game. Could it have been done better? Sure, just look at the block game in the Kinect Fitness title. This, however, does not lower my review of this game, because I really had little expectations for the boxing in the first place. The table tennis was exactly what you'd expect, and was entertaining to use you hand as a paddle while watching your avatar mimic your actions. The soccer was great, and very forgiving to the younger ones. My daughter was able to run around the room, and the sensor still picked up her movements. The simplicity of the coerced actions in this game made it very easy to pick up, while still allowing for a great deal of fun. The main attraction for both my daughter and myself was the volleyball. The amount of craziness that ensues from jumping up to spike a ball, going in for a block, or moving side to side while running into each other to try to get the ball was the icing on the cake for this title, and with this title as well, I believe it forgives kids quite a bit on their movement in this game. Initially we spent quite a few matches losing, as the challengers do not commonly miss, but we are semi-pro after repetitive nights of playing this game. Overall, this title has been a huge hit, and currently is the family favorite.

I just got finished playing all of the sports in Kinect Sports and here is my evaluation: 1. Track & Field: This area includes a variety of different activities that work well with the basic body movements the Kinect can control. These include running , jumping, and throwing things (javelins & discus). I think young and old would both have fun with this! This may actually be my favorite activity in this game. 2. Bowling: Not as much control as Wi Sports bowling--but it is actually feels more like bowling when you can just stick your hand out to pick up the ball and then swing your arm to bowl. No controller to hold on to or push buttons. Once again this is an activity that would appeal to both young and old. Personally, I still like the bowling in Wii Sports better because of the more precise control. 3. Boxing: I like this better than the Wii Sports Boxing--but there is still some lag time and I just don't get the feel that all my moves are translating accurately. Plus, like an earlier reveiwer indicated it seems like punching wildly is actually a winning approach in this game. I do like how you can just hold your arms up to block--this felt very natural. I'm waiting for the Kick Boxing version because when you kick your legs in this activity your avatar kicks its legs--but they don't seem to translate to "hits" in the game. 4. Beach Volleyball: This one will take some time to master. It can get a bit confusing because there are several different techniques involved--jumping, hitting, and blocking. If you're tall--make sure you don't have a ceiling fan above you--or at least make sure it's not on! 5. Table Tennis: Once again it was fun to play without a controller in my hand but I felt there were a few times when the intensity of my hits were not reflected in what actually happened on screen. For example, when an opportunity comes up for a "smash" the game announces it and then actually does it regardless of whether I swung harder or not. 6. Soccer: Fun and interesting. You don't have to run around the field yourself. Your player magically appears where the ball is kicked to. Simple body movements control your kicks and blocks. Gray directional lines on the screen show the directionally options when kicking and your location when blocking. Throughout the games the Kinect takes photos and short videos of your movements. These are played at the end of each game. The images are saved so you can share them with others. This feature will appeal to some and not to others. For example, I find the images of my son interesting and humorous--but I need to find out how to erase the images of me! Adding a second player was extremely easy. If I wanted to join my son all I had to do was step in front of the TV and the Kinect added me to the in-play game. The graphics are also much better than the Wii! Kinect Sports looked great on a 40" HDTV. We don't even play the Wii on this TV because of how bad it looks. Bottom line: If you have an XBOX already--adding the Kinect and Kinect Sports really adds a nice dimension to your video game experience. If you have young kids or older folks that have trouble remembering what buttons to push on a remote--it doesn't get any easier than the Kinect. P.S. It is a neat and strange sensation to be standing in front of your TV and the avatar on the screen is doing the same movements that you are. You can sway, move your arms and legs, and dance, and the avatar mimics it. This alone makes for good entertainment!

Six Sports (Soccer, Track & Field, Bowling, Table Tennis, Boxing, Volleyball) + mini games involving these same activities = Lots of Fun. First off... I would like to say The Kinect works very well with all this Kinect Sports title. I have excellent response times. There are really no glitches that stand out that would make this title have any serious negative feedback. Kinect Sports works! Its fun for everyone and has something for everyone young and old. It is intuitively easy learn all the moves as you move your body the way you actually need to. So it is simply plug and play and lots of fun. It all basically comes down to getting off your couch and doing what you physically can with these sports activities. The only negative that can be said is that if you don't like a particular sport activity because you simply don't like that sport ...you can just move on to a different sport activity. However, you really can't be critical as these sport games are intended for easy fun for everyone. All these sports are easy to get into regarding the fun factor. Even if you just play Kinect Sports title for half an hour at least you got off the couch and did some physical exercise in a fun manner. These are not a heavy thinking sport activity games... Its a physical arcade game activity to get you moving and it does all this well. You use your XBOX360 Dashboard Avatar within Kinect Sports which mimics your every move and is plenty fun to watch react as you move your body. Its pretty cool. Don't over think that this is complex and not for you. Kinect Sports is for everybody. The only thing is with every Kinect game is to make sure you have at least 6'ft. to 8'ft. of clear play area in front the Kinect camera. So, to reiterate! Kinect Sports is fun for everyone. It is not complicated. It responds excellent to your body motions. The fun factor is excellent. Kinect Sports is not a serious mind game it is quality family entertainment for all ages to have fun together with family and friends! And a note for all you guy only vs guy only hardcore gamers.... female gamers are into this Kinect Sports title too! ; ) So, if you must continue to save the world within your popular guy only couch potato titles. No need for me to further explain what your 'frag'n' missing.

This is one of the family favorites right now in our house. The game play is super-fun and has enough challenge to play against the computer at 4 or 5 skill levels, or against other members of the family. No major critism, game menus are intuitive and once you know how to play each of the sports, you can turn off the tutorials and even skip the entry cinematics. If you are looking for a light work-out that is fun you can warm up with bowling, move to table-tennis, then boxing, then soccer, then beach volleyball, and finish up with track and field. It will get your heart going and before you know it an hour has passed and you've had a decent session of exercise...It has challenging and fun achievements (some are actually funny). Very high replayabilty. Only a couple of very small comments or room for improvement. 1. if you are switching the main player, you have to leave the stadium (I haven't seen any short-cut to this). This is not really a pain, just takes a few more actions that would be necessary otherwise. 2. The sports commentator has a limited number of things that are programmed to say (though they do seem to track what the player is doing -- example if a bowler is ahead the commentator makes note of it....) As this game gets a lot of play at our house, we mock the commentators...With the recent release of Kinect Sports Season 2, the price point for the first season is perfect and a very high 5-star recommendation!

Being a new Kinect Adopter (since Christmas '11), I think it's safe to say that the Kinect adds a whole new experience of usage for my multi-year old Xbox360. Although I'm late to the party, I ended up having to buy Kinect Sports separately, as my Kinect Bundle came with Kinect Adventures. Having had tons of experience with Wii Sports, I could at least have something to compare to while playing Kinect Sports. Kinect Sports is broken down into 6 different "sports". I'll write a brief summary about each one. Track & Field - This is one of my favorites. Compared to the other sports in the series, this one is much more extensive simply because of the different "events" within the game. These events include running, long jumping, javelin throw, discus throw, and hurdles. Because of the series of events, this one will take the longest to complete but is also probably the most involved as it truly shows you what the Kinect is capable of by giving you a wide range of movements to test. Bowling - Compared to Wii Sports Bowling, this one isn't as good. With Wii Sports Bowling, you have more control and can add a spin to the ball depending on how you throw it. This is not really the case in Kinect Sports Bowling because to spin it, you have to move your arm across your body. It's a little different but at least the graphics are good (but it's clearly better than Kinect Sports soccer). Boxing - Compared to Wii Sports Boxing, this one is clearly the knockout. The problem I had with Wii Sports is that it was much more juvenile and a lot of times when I observed/played with others, most of them just flailed their arms like they were having some kind of panic attack. With Kinect Sports, there is a big more strategy than just flailing your arms. In Kinect Sports, you have the option to hit high or low and also BLOCK high or low. In addition, if you rear back and make a swing, that signals to the game that you're attempting to make a "haymaker" swing which can severely damage your opponent. But what I like most of all is that if you experience someone who is repeatedly trying to punch you as quick as you can, you can block them and you'll gain a notch on "3 meter bar" that indicates you blocking punches. When you fill that up, your next punch will severely damage your opponent as well. So because of this, it takes a bit more "technique" than that of Wii Sports. Standard boxing rules apply too, as KOs are done by punching "stars" while laying on the canvas to get up and TKOs by several knockdowns in the same round. Beach Volleyball - Beach Volleyball in my opinion is fun but has a quirk that is somewhat offputting until you get used to the lag. First off, it's fun because you have the option of not just hitting the ball, but being able to set it (toss it up vertically for the other player) or spiking the ball (after your teammate sets it). The quirk that I have with the game is the lag. Beach volleyball requires fast reflexes, especially when your opponent ends up spiking the ball. When they spike, you have a roughly 1 second opportunity to attempt to block it, which is indicated by a colored circle on the screen showing you where the ball is going to go. In order to block it, you need to reach into that area to successfully block. The problem is that given a 1 second chance to block, it's difficult (especially for newer players) because of both the fast pace of Beach Volleball and your movement on screen is slightly lagged. So what you need to do to successfully block is have fast reflexes and attempt to block as soon as you see the icon on the screen. Once you get used to the lag, Beach Volleyball for the most part is really fun. Table Tennis - I hate Table Tennis in real life and because of it, I would assume that I would have hated Table Tennis on Kinect Sports, but this is not the case because there are no balls to chase when it goes off the table. In essence, it plays like any other tennis game (especially like Wii Sports) where all you have to do is move from side to side and just swing your arm to hit the ball. What I especially like about Table Tennis is that it makes you move around from side to side and from time to time, you get the opportunity to "smash" (hit the ball with high velocity). Soccer - This one is probably one of the more boring games of the Kinect Sports mix but I understand the approach that Rare (the company that made this game) had to take because you have to keep it simple. With soccer games in general, you have to pass the ball to your teammates and attempt to score as you run down the field. While Kinect Sports soccer does keep this concept in mind, the running is totally removed as an element of gameplay. Essentially, you (the player) control all the people on your team. However control is limited to the player who has the ball. So what you do is pass (either left or right) to another player on your team. Each pass has an opportunity to be blocked by the opponent. As you pass to each teammate down the field, you gain control of that teammate who received the ball. When you finally get to the goal, you have the opportunity to score. It's that simple. In the case of being on the defensive, as your opponent makes a pass, you can move either left or right to the path that the passed ball is taking in an effort to block it. If the opposing team reaches your goal, you get a chance to block it as the goalie. Overall I think this game is just OK, but it's really slow paced (especially with the pass/block chances). Overall, I ended up paying full price for this game on Amazon ($49.99). It's currently on sale for $29.99 (only a week or 2 after I bought it). Amazon doesn't do post-price matching so I am slightly peeved that I had to pay $20 more for the game, but given how much I like it and how much time I've spent playing it, I'm not that upset. Graphically, it's very flashy and every game puts you in an "arena-style" setting which is nice. The inclusion of using your own Xbox avatar in the events (a la Wii) is a nice personal touch. Of course during all the sports, you get to see snapshots of your different movements which can be humorous at times. Bottom line is that this is a good demonstration of the Kinect's capabilities as a party game and I can only expect later games to be better on the Kinect hardware. Recommended!

If you have an Xbox 360, do yourself a favor and get this right now!!! You can't imagine how much fun we have had with this simple game. Ok, so there are different games to play ( from Table Tennis,Boxing, Running and Jumping on a field, Soccer and I believe I'm missing one more) the great thing is that you can play with the computer, with a friend or family member who is with you, or if you are with more people you can make groups and play against them. This is so much fun!!!! We literally spent the entire night playing this on my friends house. They invited us for beer and BBQ the other night and since they have kids (5 and 11 years old) I decided it'll be fun to play all together. Kids and adults. Oh my God!! All the boys (grown up boys) were having a blast!!! They were competing between each other and they were sweating like if they were at the gym!!! I said, Wow you guys are training for the Olympics? !!! So hilarious to see everyone having so much fun, no matter the age. I like that it's easy to understand (like for small kids) and that you are active all the time. You have to stand up and jump, move, run, you exercise. My husband was joking and said this was more fun to do rather than going to the gym to loose weight. There you go! I said. Trust me, buy it. You will enjoy it. You're welcome!!!

Kinect Sports is one of Microsoft's leading titles for the Kinect, and it shows. The game provides a variety of activities (bowling, beach volleyball, track & field, boxing--just to name a few) plus additional "mini-games" if you get bored with the main titles (which you won't). The sports that this title includes range from fairly low-action (bowling) to pretty high-intensity (track & field) that will wear you out in no time at all. We often found ourselves breaking a sweat while "running" in track & field, or playing some of the more intense volleyball games. You can definitely burn some calories here! Each sport starts out seeming pretty easy in terms of skill, which will definitely aid players in getting the hang of the controls. However, as you become more skilled and advance through the levels of play, opponents become more difficult and play more challenging. This helps to keep things pretty interesting. There are also plenty of multiplayer options for anywhere from two to four players. Some games are turn based, while others allow everyone in the play space at once, so it helps to have an open area when playing the latter. All in all, this is a fantastic title, and one I highly recommend. I'm such a fan of the franchise, that I would even suggest grabbing the bundle that includes Kinect Sports - Season 2. I don't think you can go wrong with these!

Item as described. Fast shipping. Recommended.

Das beste bowlen Spiel der Welt...ich habe alle konsolen schon durch ..es hat so viel Spass das es immer aufs neue wieder Spass macht.

É muito lento para carregar os mini jogos, mas para a tecnologia da época está bom

Es entretenido y muy pero que muy divertido, revivió mi Xbox 360 de nuevo

Great games so much fun to play