Can You Tell Me How to Get to Kinect Sesame Street TV?

by Mike Bowser

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The show we have all loved since 1969 is bridging the gap between the worlds of video games and television with Kinect Sesame Street TV featuring programmed content sprinkled with moments where kids can interact with the characters and activities on-screen. Kids can pretend to catch and throw a ball with Elmo inside the screen, the Kinect sensor sees their motion and shows the ball landing back in the screen giving kids the sensory that they are interacting with the Sesame Street characters.

In another scene Grover drops an entire box of coconuts and kids can help throw the coconuts back to Grover and he will count each one as he catches them teaching kids interactively how to count. Don’t be mistaken though as playing this game is more like watching the Sesame Street TV show rather than trying to achieve goals and beat your high score as you would in a traditional video game. Kids are not required to interact with the game in fact, the Sesame Streets characters only provide positive encouragement for participation but do not make it a requirement for the stories or games to unfold as the content progresses.

The Game comes in two discs with the following activities:

• Growing Up – Elmoville, Baby Bear’s Baby Doll, Goodbye Pacifier, Siblings
  
• Science – Humpty’s Big Break, Failure to Launch, Roccos Boat, Bubblefest

One of the more fun activities for my kids was when the Kinect captures live video of the room and shows the kids on screen, making them part of Elmo’s World and other scenes.

If you’re a parent thinking about buying this one, pay particular attention to Microsoft’s recommended age range of 4-7.  My kids are 3, 5, 7 and 13. My 3-year-old enjoyed watching the episodes but was not all that into interacting with the characters and could only last for about 20 minutes with the game before wanting to do something else. My 5 and 7 year olds both enjoyed the challenges that the characters presented such as holding still for the Count while he counted on the screen or taking pictures of objects such as crayons or rulers while a story was being told. Surprisingly my 13 year enjoyed watching his younger siblings play helping them along in the game if  needed.

From a Dad’s Perspective

I was very apprehensive when the game first started because I felt like there was no real goal. I grew up in a world of video games where your purpose was to get a higher score or eat the pellets while running away from the ghosts or getting to the end boss for each level you were on. The game developers of Kinect Sesame Street TV did not have the traditional video game in mind for this but rather a way to entertain kids while teaching them life lessons such as getting along with your brother and/or sister, counting, giving up a pacifier, and teaching kids that not everyone grows at the same pace in life.

One thing I loved is that the Kinect Sesame Street TV not only teaches kids through story telling but makes it fun so that your child is also occupied with taking pictures of objects on the screen, which my 7 year old absolutely loved doing. He would always want to hear the story again so he could try to figure out what objects he missed taking a picture of.

If your worried about the game becoming boring over time as the content never changes, the Kinect Sesame Street TV plans on releasing new episodes in the Xbox marketplace for purchase to add to the game and give kids more fun activities and things to learn. This is neither a game nor a TV Show but a really nice merging of the two into a hybrid of what I believe the future of interactive gaming will look like. If you have a Kinect and have kids who love Sesame Street, this is a must have game. The last thing that sealed the deal for me was the price, most new games today can cost $50 to $60 brand new and this game was half that which makes it a great deal to consider with the holidays coming upon us.

Kinect Sesame Street TV is available at Gamestop new for $29.99 and used for $24.99. You can also get it on sale at Amazon.com for $27.67. This is a great deal! Take advantage of it!

*  I was given Kinect Sesame Street TV in exchange for my honest review.  All expressed opinions are my own.