#tgs
Microsoft's TGS booth is looking a little brighter this year, a little airier. Want to see what's being shown off on their particular slice of the Makuhari Messe's showroom floor? More »
#kinect
If Haunt is the kinect horror game for the family and kids, Sega's Rise of Nightmares sounds like the horror game for those of you who really like their horror. Think Silent Hill, with waving arms. More »
#kinect
Masaya Matsuura's NanaOn-Sha are working on a game for Microsoft's Kinect. Considering these are the guys who made PaRappa The Rapper, it's not what you'd expect. More »
#tgs
Japanese games impresario Goichi Suda, creator of No More Heroes and Shadows of the Damned, and his studio Grasshopper Manufacture will bring an all-new title exclusively to the Xbox 360, titled "Codename D." (Skittles? Is that you?) More »
Microsoft Game Studios unveiled five new Japanese partnerships during its Tokyo Game Show 2010 keynote today, each intended to "provide fun for users throughout the world." Takashi Sensui, general manager of Xbox in Japan, claimed the projects would "define the future of Xbox 360 and Kinect" -- a future that now promises Kinect-enabled Xbox Live Arcade games.
Out of the five new XBLA-exclusive games announced today, three will use Kinect: Haunt, a spooky adventure from Parappa the Rappa's Masaya Matsuura; Project D, a stylish new endeavor from Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51; and Project Draco, a Panzer Dragoon-esque flight game from Phantom Dust creator Yukio Futatsugi. These will join third-party Kinect games Child of Eden, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor and Rise of Nightmares in 2011.
Microsoft also revealed Fire-Pro Wrestling from Spike, and a new version of Radiant Silvergun from Treasure (much to the chagrin of eBay profiteers). Both are coming to XBLA in 2011.
#kinect
Yukio Futatsugi, the creator of Panzer Dragoon and Phantom Dust, has a new game coming out for Microsoft's Kinect. What do you do? You ride dragons. More »
#kinect
Of all Microsoft's surprising Kinect reveals earlier today, none carries the weight of nostalgia - and potential - like the reimagining of cult mech combat title Steel Battalion. More »
#tgs
During Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show press conference this morning, Capcom's Keiji Inafune took the stage to introduce the world to Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor for Kinect, a new interpretation of the classic game with the extremely expensive controller. More »
Take some of Silent Hill's nurses, and some of Saw's torture devices, and you might have yourself a Rise of Nightmares. Sega announced the brand new Kinect exclusive at Microsoft's Tokyo Game Show press conference with a teaser that was genuinely scary. "I knew I'd ... die here," the trailer says.
Thankfully, he won't die until 2011, when the game comes out.
#tgs
Japanese games impresario Goichi Suda - "Suda 51" (pictured) - the creator of No More Heroes and Shadows of the Damned, will bring a title exclusively to the Xbox 360, titled "Codename D." More »
Kinect isn't just about petting animals and playing sports games. The newly announced Project Draco from Grounding Inc. is about dragons, and it's Kinect-enabled. Yukio Futatsugi, creator of Phantom Dust and collaborator on Panzer Dragoon, revealed the game at Microsoft's TGS conference this year. "What I wanted to do most is to fly," Futatsugi explained to the audience.
Unfortunately, other than a few red dragons flying through the environment, not much else was shown. It's pegged with a 2011 date.
We're queuing up outside Convention Hall B at Makuhari Messe convention center for Microsoft's TGS 2010 keynote, titled "Xbox 360 Vision and Strategy 2010." If you can't tell from the title, it's all about the Xbox Vision camera which is coming back in a big way. Watch out, Kinect!
Oh, and here's an interesting note: We spotted Metal Gear Solid: Rising producer Shigenobu Matsuyama entering the room. You know what that means, right? Kinect support for Rising totally confirmed. Zan-Datsu!
We had a peek at the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update back when the Kinect beta began, but the video after the break represents one of the most detailed looks we've seen so far. Apart from some aesthetic tweaks -- dig that swirly new boot sequence -- the interface remains unchanged for the most part. There are a few additions, notably the Kinect setup area in the system options with settings for the sensor, microphone, voice recognition and something called "Kinect tuner." The new dashboard is also rocking some new sound effects and, good news for theme hoarders, it supports current NXE themes.
The video also shows off the new Avatar editor, which has seen significant visual overhaul, featuring new menus that seem designed to accept Kinect hand gestures. The background music has also been altered and is now -- dare we say it -- a little more Kondo-esque.
Looking for a good deal on Kinect? Amazon hasn't discounted the $150 tech, but if you pre-order it along with an additional game (it already comes with Kinect Adventures), the retailer will hook you up with a $30 game credit when the goods ship. Your additional game? It had better be Dance Central.
#microsoft
Being a YouTube video, you might want to reach for the mute button, but once hit, enjoy this tour of the Xbox 360's new dashboard, fresh from the Kinect beta. More »
#clips
Kotaku reader Anas in Dubai was surprised to find a Kinect display at his local GameStop, and even more surprised to see an Emirati getting down and funky to a little Lady Gaga. More »
#xbox360
Despite being one of the cooler elements of Kinect's original E3 2009 reveal, the ability to "scan" real world objects and use them in games won't make the peripheral's launch. But that doesn't mean the tech is forgotten about. More »
Tucked away in this morning's press release revealing the 250GB Xbox 360 with Kinect bundle was news that, at this year's Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft will be showing off new Kinect games. The release says that the company will unveil "even more new controller-free games and experiences never before possible," without making any mention of the Microsoft-hosted keynote or the recently announced brain game from Dr. Kawashima and Namco.
At the very least, we know to expect dozens -- if not hundreds -- of videos showing Japanese people waving their arms and legs about, trying desperately to maintain control while piloting Kinect-based games. We can hardly wait.
One of the cooler features Microsoft touted in its first Project Natal (now Kinect) video was the ability to scan objects and use them in your games. Unfortunately, that feature is nowhere to be found in any Kinect game announced so far, and Microsoft has been mum on the subject ... until now. Kinect mastermind Kudo Tsunoda told Eurogamer that although current games may not utilize it now, it's something we can expect in future titles. "Being able to digitise real-world objects and take them into the virtual world ... I think we're going to see a lot more games start using that as well as we go forward."
The future of Kinect won't be entirely controller-free, either. While Sony has taken shots at the Kinect's lack of button input, Tsunoda says that "it's not like we're trying to take controllers out of the equation." While the current library is focused on an entirely controller-free experience, Tsunoda says that "games that involve both controllers and Kinect as well are totally possible."
"That's one of the unique things about the Xbox platform: we can do controllers; we can do controllers with Kinect, which is more than just motion control, it has voice and human recognition as well." So Kudo, when are you going to reveal the head-tracking enabled, voice-command Halo tactical FPS we just imagined?
Just when you thought you couldn't train your brain any more, Dr. Ryuta Kawashima - the Tokyo University-based professor who turned "brain training" into a video game hit with Nintendo's Brain Age series - is bringing his particular brand of supposed self-improvement to Microsoft's Kinect this November. Instead of using the DS stylus, Karada de Kotareu Atarashii Nou-tore (or "Respond With Your Body: New Brain Training," as translated by Andriasang) tasks one to four players with moving their body to solve problems. For example: Align your arms, analog clock-style, to match a digital time. Your performance will be used to assign an age to your brain (sound familiar?).
You can see some examples in the Japanese trailer embedded below; pay attention or you'll miss the Pac-Man-themed challenge right around the one-minute mark. The game was announced today in Japan as a November 20th Japanese launch title for Kinect, and will retail for ¥6,279. No word yet on a US release, but with the Tokyo Game Show next week, we expect to learn more.
#xbox360
In 2005, Nintendo published Nintendo DS game "Brain Age" in Japan, a title that claimed it could train players' brains. In 2010, Microsoft's Kinect is getting its own brain game. More »
#microsoft
Microsoft has tonight officially revealed a new Xbox 360 hardware bundle, almost a month to the day it was inadvertently leaked via some packaging shots. More »
#clips
Kinect might not be able to read a Big Daddy's Poker Face, but it doesn't seem to have any trouble reading the rest of him as he tries out Dance Central at last weekend's PAX 2010. More »
#xbox360
Microsoft's Kinect doesn't need a controller. That's the whole point of the thing! Still, a controller-free gaming experience is a hard idea to get your head around, which perhaps explains why Peter Molyneux and Rare asked Microsoft to include one. More »
