Kinect Fun Labs

Bobbleheads

A more recent addition to Fun Labs, this is basically an evolved version of Kinect Me that uses the same visual information to create a bobblehead figurine based on your face and (optionally) your clothes. There are also 12 preset costumes to wear - ranging from pirate to princess - and you can record a voice message that plays whenever you "hit" your bobblehead.

It's another cute idea but one that also has limited entertainment value. And, as with Kinect Me, it has trouble merging your real features with the rigid plasticity of the character models. Real mouths look smushed and smeared, while cold, dead doll's eyes glower above.

Credit where credit's due, the software is reasonably good at matching skin tone and colour, but the results just don't look very good and once you've made a couple of bobbleheads, there's not much else to do.

Build-A-Buddy

Just as Bobbleheads is the technology from Kinect Me tweaked into a slightly new shape, so this is Googly Eyes pretending to be Kinectimals. As before, you scan an object but now get to choose from three either-or personality traits - serious or silly, for example. You can also record three voice clips. Your buddy is then hatched, and you get to play a very basic “repeat the actions” game where you jump, duck, wave, dance and play peek-a-boo.

And that's it. There is at least a semblance of gameplay in this one, and you can go back and change the personality settings for any of the buddies you've created. The buddies themselves seem to act identically, but the choices do dictate what sort of "character" it will be. Pick bouncy, crazy and silly and you get a Clown, with circus themed scenery items and reactions. Other combinations I discovered included cowboy and ninja.

The same visual problems from Googly Eyes recur here, and are amplified by the wider range of motions your creation is put through. When flipping, rolling and running in circles, anything beyond a simple shape takes on a frankly disturbing appearance, like those Silent Hill enemies that are just undulating bags of skin and meat. If you really want to traumatise a young child, just scan their favourite toy. Nightmares guaranteed.

Sparkler

This is the only gadget – so far – that comes with a price tag attached: 240 Microsoft Points. It's not much, but is it justified? From a technology point of view, yes. From a gameplay point of view? Not so much.

It is, as the name suggests, a virtual sparkler. Just like on bonfire night, you can swirl your hand around and leave sparkling trails on the screen. Once you've doodled a giant fizzing cock and balls, there's really not much else to do - other than starting on a large pair of boobs.

No, where Sparkler becomes interesting is in the mechanisms driving it. This is the first Kinect app to use finger tracking, with your sparkler bursting into life when two fingers are held up and switching off when you make a fist. There's also a little bit of background manipulation, as you take two photos on which to doodle. The first is the foreground, the second becomes the background. By moving your hand forwards and backwards, it's possible to trace your sparkler around and behind the foreground objects.

It's actually very clever but, like a real sparkler, also fairly boring, and the initial thrill fades long before you run out of fuse.