Just a follow-up on my Happy Action Theater purchase. I would
highly recommend this for anyone with kids (say younger than 11 or 12) or maybe just anyone in general looking for a fun distraction on Kinect.
It does 2 things really well that are utter failures on many Kinect games:
1) It starts right up with the games without requiring "recoginition" or arm waving though 5 layers of menus. This is
critical to making it a fun experience for kids in particular. What this game is, basically, is a series of EyeToy-like minigames. Nearly all of them are very good (and light years beyond the Eye Toy stuff). But the game just starts right up in one of them, then proceeeds through them all at regular intervals until you stop it. A very simple and yet elegant design for a Kinect game.
2) It also recognizes multiple people
instantly and addes them into the game. Other people walking behind or in/out of the frame don't screw things up. My 9 and 4 year old boys were playing seamlessly even when one or the other would go out of frame or their 2 year old sister would wonder into it (and she would even show up on screen on occasion). For most of the games, it recognizes a person (and apparently up to 6 at once based on one of the achievements) and puts them into the game flawlessly. Sometimes this is as a crazy dancing figure, sometimes piloting a spaceship, sometimes just standing where you are.
I can tell you that the two boys got a great workout from one full session and my 4 year-old is sleeping soundly now as a result
.
For $5 this is well worth it.