Kinect Disneyland Adventures

Under development by the team who brought you Kinectimals, Frontier is working on a new free roam, open world adventure based on Disneyland. The team at Frontier has thoroughly researched Disneyland acre-by-acre for the most authentic virtual Disneyland experience yet. Designed for younger gamers, players can play as a boy or girl and roam the massive theme park. Point in the direction you want to walk in and the Kinect will guide your character in the appropriate direction as you check out the sights. Stand still and move your head to look in different directions. With the other hand you can pretend to wave a magic wand to bring environmental elements such as street lamps or plants come to life. Waving your wand at objects also reveals coins that you can spend in Disneyland shops in the game based on the real-life stores to buy new items and costumes.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures will allow players to meet and greet with more than 40 Disney mascots such as Mickey, Goofy, or Pluto who will give you quests to embark on. All characters are voiced by their official voice actor. You can also hug and take photos with the adorable characters as well. When navigating the giant park and completing quests there is a "fast pass" option that allows you to head straight to your desired location in seconds by simply putting your arms up and then selecting your location. In one sequence I saw a young girl flying through Neverland and collecting coins. A second player can seamlessly drop in, drop out as well if they want to join the fun. The team at Frontier explained that a narrative will tie together activities, but won't be discussing that until later in development.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures is due out this holiday.

Kinect Fun Labs

The folks at Good Science known for Kinect Adventures bring a series of minigames or "gadgets" to Kinect. Inspired by the hackers in the Kinect community, the team has worked with various community members to explore new ways to utilize Kinect. Even though most of the experiences offered through Fun Labs feel like tech demos, the purpose they serve is to show other developers unique features that they can implement into their own games. The app and gadgets are all free to consumers.

I got to check out the Bobblehead gadget that uses Kinect to scan your likeness and record an audio clip of your voice, then will take those components and create a bobblehead (that's me in the image above looking confused because I didn't know when the camera was scanning, or I just always look that way). Kinect successfully scanned my face and clothes, down to my media badge, and put me in a cat suit in a second scan for fun. Needless to say I walked away impressed with its accuracy and could only think of the possibilities something like this could bring in blockbuster titles that allow character customization. Perhaps you could someday have Kinect generate a Commander Shepard to your likeness in Mass Effect.

Another gadget allowed me to scan a plush animal, add googley eyes to it, then moved my body around to make the finished product dance. Not quite as exciting as the face/body scan that was incredibly accurate, but just one more feature showing off what Kinect can do.