Star Wars Kinect Message Board

We can understand why you may be a bit hesitant to take our verdict on Kinect Star Wars as gospel. It's got Vader fights, rampaging rancors and is the closest physical manifestation of that one kid's dream journal we may ever get.

Now you can discover how not good the game is yourself with a free playable demo - if you're a Gold subscriber and own a Kinect sensor, that is. We may all have The Force inside us, but you still have to purchase your own Kinect sensor.

Let's just get this out of the way: in its current state, the Kinect can't deliver a true lightsaber experience. The device's input lag combined with the hardware's finicky nature simply won't allow it. That's not to say that Kinect Star Wars isn't without its merits. There are a few decent ideas hidden in its sub-games, even some fun to be had, but the overall package is lacking.

I suspect some Star Wars fans (or parents of Star Wars fans) will find its Force pull irresistible, but even the most dedicated Jedi is likely to find it underwhelming.

#starwars The dancing in Star Wars: Kinect is admittedly quite silly to say the least. But you don't need to chalk this latest Star Wars-branded product up to a scar on your childhood memories. More »

While Amazon isn't actually discounting the Star Wars Xbox bundle, it is willing to offer a few extra space credits on the side. Specifically, the Star Wars bundle is now eligible for a $50 Amazon credit. Lest you've forgotten, the bundle comes with a sweet R2-D2 Xbox, a white Kinect unit, a gold C-3PO controller with transforming D-pad and, naturally, a copy of Kinect Star Wars.

Lest you've also also forgotten, we'll be giving one of these away at our live podcast at PAX East later this week. Be sure to come see it this Saturday at 3pm in the Manticore Theatre!

#starwars We've had a copy of Star Wars: Kinect in our New York office for a few days now. Which means, aside from Stephen's upcoming review, people have been dancing their asses off to pop songs. More »

#cheeskaslimo There are enough copies of Star Wars: Kinect out there in the wild now that people are stating to upload gameplay videos to YouTube. More »

After missing the exhaust port its planned holiday launch, Kinect Star Wars and the Star Wars Xbox 360 console bundle have settled on a new release date. The game and console bundle will now launch on April 3. The bundle features a console and Kinect unit in the style of everyone's favorite droid, R2-D2, a C-3PO styled controller and a copy of Kinect Star Wars. It will retail for $450.

Alongside the news, Microsoft has also released some new screens of Kinect Star Wars. Said shots include images of the dance mode revealed by the ESRB, entitled "Galactic Dance Off." We considered writing something funny about it, but then we saw the above screen shot and the words just left.

Finally, a handful of AMC theaters in the US and Canada will host special screenings of the "new" 3D version of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, during which moviegoers can try out Kinect Star Wars. Visit the official site for more details.

#fineart Concept artist Ben Hagan has worked for clients like MMO giant NCSoft, Microsoft, Lucasarts and id Software. Which means he's worked on properties like Star Wars and RAGE. More »

Imagine Obi Wan Kenobi not as Jedi master, but a guy working the cash register down at the Gas 'n Gulp. Rather than wielding an elegant weapon for a more civilized age and being a princess's only hope, he's closer to the idiot in the Kinect: Star Wars trailer above.

A little known fact about the Padawan training program is that it includes an intense, three-month course on dance. Think about it: dueling with lightsabers is basically dance fighting. Right?

That's why the ESRB rating for Kinect: Star Wars didn't really throw us. The promised "dance tournaments, podracing, and Jedi duels" sound like de rigueur, believe us. We've read extensively on the subject.

Joking aside, there isn't really anything else we can say beyond this: the following is the final excerpt in the ESRB listing for Kinect: Star Wars. "In the dancing mini-game, some female characters perform suggestive moves (e.g., gyrating their hips/buttocks) and wear revealing outfits (partially exposed cleavage/buttocks). The words 'damn' and 'hell' can be heard in the dialogue."

We imagine the "dialogue" in question goes something like this: "What in the damn hell has happened to Star Wars?"

Kinect Star Wars and the R2D2-styled Xbox 360 Kinect bundle will launch "beyond holiday 2011." Speaking to OXM, Microsoft and LucasArts moved the game's release date (along with that of the console bundle) to "ensure the full potential of this title is realized."

Microsoft and LucasArts plan to communicate additional timing at a later date. We've contacted our network of Bothans to obtain new information as soon as possible.

#starwars What might have been the perfect Christmas gift for the Star Wars gamer will have to find another special occasion to be gifted on, as Microsoft confirms to the Official Xbox Magazine that Star Wars Kinect has been pushed into 2012. More »

Joining the bite-sized quests for Jedihood and Pod Racing glory in Kinect Star Wars is "Rancor Rampage." From what we saw at Gamescom, the mode plays exactly how it sounds: Players embody the Rancor, trashing houses on Tatooine and eating Jawas. How we long for actual Kinect Rampage now.

#starwars The newest Kinect Star Wars screenshots come straight from straight from Gamescom and give a taste of the rage of the Rancor. In addition we get a look at the Jedi as they dismantle a few droids and some shots of pod racing. A feast for the eyes fit for a Rancor. More »

The Limited Edition Star Wars Xbox 360 console, priced at $449 in the States, has been given a suggested retail price of £349.99 in the UK (ouch, that's $570 US!). The standard 250GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle retails at £299.99.

The rebellious console from a galaxy far, far away was revealed last week at San Diego Comic-Con. It includes a 320GB hard drive, a white Kinect, the R2-D2 inspired console, a C-3PO colored controller, Kinect Star Wars and Kinect Adventures. The console will also feature Star Wars sound effects for operations like powering up, ejecting discs, and setting coordinates for Dagobah. Xboxes can do that, right?

At the Comic-Con panel for Kinect Star Wars earlier this week (the same panel where that R2D2 Xbox was announced), Microsoft's head of Kinect Jorg Neumann told the story of how the game itself came about. Back in 2008, when Kinect was still called Project Natal, and basically consisted of just a camera in a back room at Microsoft, Neumann and his colleagues found an engineer playing with game prototypes on the system, and one of those was a lightsaber simulator. That alone convinced Neumann and his division that Star Wars needed to be on the interface in some format.

And it turns out LucasArts didn't need much convincing either. Lead producer Craig Derrick described flying out to the Microsoft campus to see the proposal for the game, and saying among his own colleagues that all they planned to do was hold out their hand and see what happened. As soon as they pushed a hand out to the Kinect unit, said Derrick, "it knocked over a bunch of droids, and we were like, 'OK, we're in.'"

We saw the game's Force-driven droid pushing and lightsaber waving at E3, but Microsoft and LucasArts introduced a new mode to the game this week: pod racing. Anakin Skywalker's motorsport of choice is in the game as well, and I got to take a pod out for a spin later on in the week at a Microsoft preview event.

"Beep! Beep beeeeep boop whiiiirrr boop boop (fall over)!"

Or, in English, Microsoft just revealed a new R2D2-styled Xbox 360 Kinect bundle at Comic-Con, in honor of Kinect Star Wars. The Xbox has a special R2D2 look and custom console sounds, and is bundled with a gold, C3P0-style controller (Oh, my!) and an all-white Kinect. It also includes Kinect Star Wars, Kinect Adventures, and a 320GB hard drive!

The bundle will be out this fall. Pre-orders for the $449 bundle are expected to begin today.

Update: Added official pics to the gallery, and moved our Comic-Con snapshot past the break!

Update 2: According to Gavin Spicer of Xbox UK PR, the bundle is coming to the UK as well, though no details have been announced yet.

#exclusive Fanboy. There's perhaps no franchise more immediately connected with our immediate mental conception of a fanboy than Star Wars. Then there's Xbox. A whole ‘nother world of chest-thumping, battle cries, and utter devotion. Those two worlds just smashed into each other at lightspeed. Meet the Star Wars Xbox 360. More »

"Beep! Beep beeeeep boop whiiiirrr boop boop (fall over)!"

Or, in English, Microsoft just revealed a new R2D2-styled Xbox 360 Kinect bundle at Comic-Con, in honor of Star Wars Kinect. The Xbox has a special R2D2 look and custom console sounds, and is bundled with a gold, C3P0-style controller (Oh, my!) and an all-white Kinect. It also includes Star Wars Kinect, Kinect Adventures, and a 320GB hard drive!

The bundle will be out this fall. Pre-orders for the $449 bundle are expected to begin today.

#starwarskinect LucasArts' Craig Derrick and Kinect's Jorg Neumann sit down with USA Today's Mike Snider to discuss new gameplay from the Kinect-enabled Star Wars game. The panel is said to include new details about the game include an all-new mode. The duo are also supposed to be "unveiling an exciting announcement," according to the official panel description. More »

#impressions For as long as brothers have swatted one another with wrapping-paper tubes, Star Wars fans have wanted something, anything, to give them the sensation of wielding a lightsaber, repelling blaster fire and cutting down Stormtroopers in a streak of blue. More »

Automatic doors are a wonderful opportunity to pretend, aren't they? As children, I imagine my parents approached them while saying something like "Open Sesame." Personally, I like to use the opportunity to practice my Jedi training. A simple wave of the hand and the doors bend to my will, granting me a private thrill and entrance into the local drug store.

Star Wars Kinect is filled with automatic doors.

Microsoft didn't allow direct filming of the games featured at its after-hours E3 preview event, though it did offer a fun keepsake to attendees who tried out Star Wars Kinect. We nabbed some exclusive footage that you won't find anywhere else. See it after the break.

Entertainment Weekly has just released a preview that reveals new information about Kinect Star Wars. This exclusive title for Microsoft's motion-sensing device was hinted at last year, but little has been said since then...