Kinect-ion Strength: Strong

Late I know, but I’ve just found out about the Kinect exclusive games announced at the Tokyo Games Show in September and I for one, am very excited about their prospects. Microsoft announced 10 titles at the event, 5 of which exclusive to Kinect. Developers are keeping the cards very close to their chests at the moment with only teaser trailers to show, and I can’t wait to know more.

Amongst the five games announced were Capcom’s Steel Battalion: Heavy Armour; a game similar to the Armoured Core series from the outlook, and Project Draco; a flying shooter brought to you by the director of Panzer Dragoon, Yukio Fatatsugi. In addition are the announcements of three horror games. Haunt, a horror game based in a haunted house (what better place really), codename D where the player battles for survival in an evil amusement park, and Rise of Nightmares from SEGA were all announced. Unfortunately, as expected, no release dates have been announced for these titles but gamers will have to wait at least until 2011 for any of them.

It will be interesting to know how these games integrate the capability of the Kinect system; making them independent from the rest, or evidence to support the idea that Kinect is just a gimmick along with the other motion controlled console hardware. I think these games look promising and may be just what is needed to bridge the gap between the Kinect system and hardcore gamers. A large part of the market for Kinect heavily rests on these type of games to introduce the hardcore gamer demographic, so is the fate of Kinect hanging by a thread, or are these games going to seal the deal? Judge for yourself as I strongly urge anyone to check them out.