Interactive TV games combine learning with fun for kids
— -- TV watching is no longer a passive experience. Kids can now interact with two of their favorite TV shows, Sesame Street and Nat Geo Wild, when watching them on the Xbox 360 running Kinect.
Boxed as Kinect Sesame Street TV and Kinect Nat Geo TV, these two products combine watching TV episodes with interactivity available by playing on Kinect. Kids and families are invited to get up off the couch to move and play while appearing inside these TV shows. Providing a two-way TV experience, these two new titles are revolutionary. Here's a closer look.
Kinect Sesame Street TV
Co-produced by Sesame Street Workshop and Microsoft Studios, this game presents eight special 30-minute episodes of Sesame Street put together from segments of the 2011-12 season with extra filming for this game. Broken into two discs, Volume 1 presents four episodes about growing up, while Volume 2 focuses on science. Families can select to "watch" and "play" a whole episode or they can select to view a smaller portion.
As preschoolers watch an episode of Sesame Street, new content has been inserted that allows your child to be brought into the action. The most obvious new content is the arrival of an original muppet named Cooper, who serves as host.
The interactivity can take many formats. For example, in the episode entitled "Elmozilla," kids meet Cooper's friend Mirror. The mirror actually shows your child in its reflection. Kids stand and line up in the mirror to activate some of the interactive games.
Kids will play catch with Elmo and his new-for-Kinect pal Paul the Ball. Elmo will throw Paul to you and then ask you to throw Paul back. When kids mimic the action of throwing, the ball appears to be sailing into the screen from your child's throw! The game uses this throwing to reinforce ideas such as throwing the ball "under" the acrobats or "over" Gladys the cow.
In other episodes, when a section about Elmo's World comes on, your child shows up inside that world with Elmo and can play by moving around, batting things to make them move. Kids can also move their hands to pick up a watering can and then sprinkle the seeds to make them grow. In a cute sequence, the plants open to reveal the player's photo inside. It's fun, silly, and completely enthralling. Other interactive games use voice commands, such as instructing a camera character named Flash to take photos every time a ruler appears in the background.
Kinect Sesame Street TV takes learning to a whole new participatory level for kids. Two children, or a parent and child, can play this game together. Don't miss this new two-way TV experience.
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