Even though Nintendo’s brightly coloured, family friendly games did everything to hide it, the release of the Wii was a landmark in home video gaming.
The Wii’s wireless, 3 dimensional hand held control system allows users to play a more active part in games, a first for any home gaming system. The Wii is really cool but essentially, it’s just a starting point for motion in video games. This year Microsoft are looking like they will blow the Wii out of the water with Project Natal.
Natal is basically controller free gaming, all you need to do is attach the Natal sensor to your Xbox 360 and away you go. There is no need to touch anything; it is controlled by body movement, facial recognition and voice recognition. In theory, Natal is the next step in gaming, making the possibilities pretty endless. Rather than furiously tapping the controller to run, you will now be running yourself; instead of holding down buttons to throw objects you will be doing the throwing etc, etc.
The cynics will say it is Microsoft’s attempt at hijacking Wii’s market but hardcore gamers will be really, really, really excited about Natal. The Wii is great but it’s games are built for casual gamers and the cuteness does get a bit repetitive. Motion detection on an Xbox 360 opens up a whole new can of worms. Natal is going to be integrated into the more serious games, meaning that Project Natal has the potential to be seriously fun.
Check out the (slightly cringe) videos below for more info on Project Natal