The challenge for those of us who want to play games with our families is to encourage them to play without making them feel pressured. It can take a long time, but this approach is, in my experience, much more successful than haranguing a spouse or loved one.
I’ll admit it, I get a little excited when my wife shows interest in a game I’m playing. But I realized the other day that she needs to find her own games, rather than simply dipping in and out of mine.
To that end I was interested to read this review of Kinect Fruit Ninja recently. Josie Campbell finds a reason to play this Xbox 360 Kinect game because it turns out she is rather good at it, as she put it in her words:
Winning at Fruit Ninja on my first go, was enough incentive to play some more. I actually got quite into it. As you progress there are different power-ups and levels you can try. We particularly enjoyed the two player games where you work with (or against) a person stood next to you.
The best part of all this was the Kinect controls. You don’t hold anything, and instead stand in front of the Kinect camera. This works better than on some other Kinect games I’ve tried like Dance Central because you can see your actual outline filling the screen.
I’m still not totally convinced about the Kinect controller, but have to admit that Fruit Ninja was a nice energetic and involving way to spend a recent Autumnal afternoon.
Reading this reminded me of the online dating post I mentioned a while back on Geekdad and how another friend of mine has been getting into bingo games. Gaming can be much more than entertainment, and actually impacts us in all sort of unexpected ways.
Perhaps this is why we each need to find our own way into it.
Note: Check back on GeekDad later this week for Matt Blum’s full review of Fruit Ninja Kinect.
