Just curious if there are any truly cool Kinect experiences out there. On mainstream forums people will be quick to track Kinect hardware and software.
But this is retro games boards, and I think people here have a more open mind here about alternative experiences to what is popular today.
So was Kinect ever any good? What were some of your favorite Kinect experiences if so? Really interested to hear about people’s opinions about the entire Kinect project.
I had a Kinect that I actually bought after I got my Xbox One that we had fun with Dance Central. It stopped working a few years ago but by that stage it was only being used for voice commands like pausing videos/taking screenshots which are now easy enough to do with a few button presses.
I got one for Child of Eden on Xbox 360, and it was worth it.
That game was designed from the ground up with a good concept for Kinect, the 360 controller controls just didn’t invoke the same feel.
It also helps that it only needs to recognise your hands as inputs, you can sit down to play or stand up, which mitigates many of the reliability problems that might crop up compared with games that require your skeletal structure be parsed by Kinect.
Always wanted to try Konami’s ‘next gen DDR’ - Dance Evolution but never did. The Sonic Free Riders demo was a mess.
I have Child of Eden but it didn’t grab me like Rez did, iirc the choice of music did nothing for me. I’m yet to try it with my Kinect.
The only games I’ve used Kinect for are some wingsuit flying games. And a skiing game.
I find it annoying because you can’t have anybody else in frame otherwise it gets confused, which in my house is impossible with two little kids running around.
Also interesting that the technology for Kinect was licensed from PrimeSense who were later bought by Apple and are the team responsible for the LIDAR in iPhone “notch” models since the X. Later versions of Kinect use Microsoft’s own technology.
I’ve had a fair bit of experience with both Kinects.
360 Kinect: Fundamentally broken. Will not work in anything less than perfect conditions and even when it does, it feels laggy and gestures will frequently get misinterpreted. For games that require you to stand, you need to stand really far back to get yourself into the frame (I think about 3 metres). I would spend far too much time trying to get into the sweet spot and every time a game would moan at me that I was no longer detectable because I had moved too far forward or whatever, I would come closer to quitting.
XB1 Kinect: Significantly better but still requires a wide play area and there aren’t that many interesting games for it. If you can, try out FRU.
Unfortunately Kinect compatibility is being removed from Series S/X.
This concluding sentence doesn’t gel with the rest of your post. Do you mean “fortunately”? 
P.S. Reading this thread made me go look up Project Natal and Milo again, haha…
Well there are a few games that are worth playing! Even if Kinect never came close to fulfilling its potential, that’s a pity.
I find some 360 games to be good. The hardware wasn’t good enough but when used in a limited capacity it usually was fine. I’d still recommend the gunstringer for it’s amazing free DLC. Explaining it would spoil the fun
Even though everyone who played it hates it, I’m still interested in trying out Steel Battalion Heavy Armor. Wondering if Kinect 2 (or an hypothetical Kinect 3 for Series X0 would’ve helped there…
I see the Kinect a gimmick and nothing more.
If it was left optional, it would just quietly fade away
As MS tried to shoehorn the Kinect into the Xbox One (at launch) it soured more people than it really should. Not having the console boot without it originally was a bad move.
I feel many things can be viewed as a gimmick. I think Kinect had room to expand gameplay in great natural ways but the insistence on “being the controller” was always a mistake and in a way a gimmick. I feel tracking of the body for subtle full body movement was more important than hand gestures which required users to take their hands off the controller.