Star Wars Kinect has been released on 360 Kinect and been provided for us to preview/review by the publisher.

Believe it or not we are still playing it. Here are some extracts of what we made of it in chronological order:

"Kinect Star Wars Product Manager Glen Gregory talks about the development and design decisions behind Kinect Star Wars..."
- Family Gamer (Tue, 22 May 2012)

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"Kinect Star Wars goes the extra mile with dancing, racing and destruction complementing the main Kinect controlled campaign. The force is strong in this one..."
- Family Gamer (Fri, 20 Apr 2012)

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Star Wars Kinect 360 Kinect Release

29/09/2011 06:51

Kinect Star Wars makes up with Jedi drama for anything lacking in the something-to-hold department. Finally seeing motion controls and the Star Wars universe coming together like this is enough to get anyone born in the 70's pretty excited.

Ever since the Wii drew back the curtain on its motion controlled gaming there has been an expectation of a decent one-to-one Star Wars game. Where you can have light saber fights that are controlled in real time with the angle and motion of the controller.

Although Wii-Sports Resort Sword Fighting came very close, it lacked that magical George Lucas ingredient. No, not the inability to leave anything alone, but the fantastical world he created -- and we grew up with.

Kinect Star Wars promises to edge us closer to that dream. First off it looks amazing with the 360 recreating iconic characters, vehicles, ships and of course droids.

Add to this the theatrics of the Kinect controller and we have the making of an exuberant action game. You play through classic moments from the motion pictures and interact in a variety of ways.

Firstly there is a nice drop-in drop-out co-operative mode. Then there is the motion controlled Lightsaber combat, force moves, speeder bike and pod racing. Although the fidelity of the Wii-mote may be absent, as part of a second wave of Kinect games (along with the likes of Kinect Sports 2 and the impressively four player Just Dance 3) it has a good chance of pulling this off.

Kinect Star Wars is currently expect it to be out in 2012.

Announced for Kinect

19/07/2011

Star Wars Kinect promises to realise childhood Jedi fantasies while offering Microsoft and Lucas Arts the promise of a huge seller as it leverages both the 360's huge install base and the popularity of the brand.

Star Wars Kinect will offer exactly the kind make-believe play that every child who has ever seen Star Wars is familiar with, pantomiming Force powers, piloting star-fighters and most importantly Lightsaber.

Beginning around the time of Episode One and culminate during Episode Three some may considered this to be aimed at the new younger Star Wars fans. To ensure the broadest possible appeal however, settings from the later movies are also to be included, such as the ice fields of Bespin and lightsaber battles with Darth Vader himself.

Kinect will of course allow everything to be controlled using your body, along with voice commands. One upshot of this will be some restrictions to your freedom; with many areas of the game being guided on-rails that funnel you down a single set path using Force powers and the iconic lightsabers to destroy scripted enemies along the way.

These limitations could easily be offset if Lucas Arts manage to get the feel right. The joy of Force pushing crowds of troops and swirling an imaginary lightsaber around your living room is undeniably seductive.

When not tearing up troops with the Force and lightsabers, action will switch to star-fighters and podracers. Again this will be controlled using the body, again granting more freedom of movement as you fly around the environments.

Star Wars Kinect holds a lot of promise, both in terms of the fiction and gameplay (not to mention the huge nostalgic appeal). There is a lot resting on developer Microsoft Game Studios and Terminal Reality to create a play experience that will realise the potential of the licence and the Kinect controller.

Star Wars Kinect will be released on 360 late this year.