Kinetic knows what time it is

February 10, 2006

So for the past few weeks I’ve been “playing” a PS2 game called Kinetic. It’s an Eye Toy game where this computerized trainer puts you through a bunch of exercises to try and get you in shape.

Essentially it’s a bunch of mini-games, like avoiding the red mines as they drop on the screen or punching a bunch of blocks to clear a wall. The trainer just selects which mini games you’re playing each night and then offers lame motivations regardless of whether you do well or poorly at each game.

It’s actually a lot of fun but it’s too early to tell if it’s helping or not. The game eases you in, these first few weeks it’s only selecting a couple mini-games each night. But the games it picks have definitely been getting harder this past week so it’s stepping things up.

I know this is stupid but I think the coolest part is that the game adjusts the environment depending on the time of day. The “room” where the trainer is in gets lit differently depending on whether it’s night or day. Nice touch.

I’ll report back in a couple months, when I’ve hopefully finished this first cycle (it’s a 12-week session).