Customer Reviews

Eye Toy Kinetic

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The game has 4 major elements: Cardio, Combat, Toning and 'Mind and Body'. The cardio and combat sections of the game are marvelous with lots of fun elements. The mini-games (in the combat and cardio sections) are 10 minutes each. Even the easiest level can get you huffing and puffing with lots of sweat. You are tested on your reflexes as well as precision. I don't know much about the strength part in the combat games because I kind of cheated by moving very very rapidly.

Just like what the company describes, you can set your own workout profile. It's as if you have your own personal trainer.

However, Sony needs to work out the kinks of the Eye Toy hardware. Our living room is quite comfortably sized for a couple with 2 cats, but Eye Toy doesn't think so. There is a distance of 7 feet between the TV and the couch, and the Eye Toy still doesn't think you have enough room. Unfortunately, Eye Toy isn't quite for apartment dwellers unless you mount the Eye Toy on the wall.

Lightings is another problem. The room needs to be EVENLY lit or else you'd have a hard time reaching one side of the screen. Setting the camera for 'dim room' helps tremendously. The camera sensitivity should set to Medium or even Low. I accidentally set it on High, and I saw my furniture playing the game with me.

Nonetheless, if you have a decent sized living room, and if you can get the camera working right, this game is AWESOME!!

Over all the game has a very sweet idea to it play games and excercise at the same time. when you buy this title you wont be able to wait till you get home.

as soon as you start you build a profile your height, weight , age and how active you are. After you select your personal trainer they will set up a routine for you. mine was set up for advanced the first week i had a routine on Wed/Thu Fri/Sat Sun/Mon which seems like a lot of work but the excercises range from 4-10 minutes long each routine had only three excercise's though. if you dont want to go that route and want to just start playing you can build a routine. you routines will consist of either Combat, toning, mind and body , or Cardio. For those of you who think this product wont work i play football and baseball and the cardio workouts will get you winded and sweating,provided you dont cheat. And even if you think you are pretty warmed up beleive me you probably aren't. Like on the combat i swung at A Target and hit it but since you are swinging at air if you think you can just throw a haymaker right of the bat you cant, i thought i threw my arm out tyring to swing at that thing. Some of the problems are that you need to have quite a bit of room , and it needs to be pretty will lit. in some cases a had to wrap a shirt around my fist for the camera to pick it up. If you have a lamp or two close by just turn them on this should help.

Pros. 1. Burns calories
2. Fun and entertainiing for the whole family even mom and pops
3. Actually pretty challenging.
4. actually measures how hard you hit the object
5. ther are many more i jsut cant list them all

Cons. 1. need to have a pretty good sized area
2. needs to be well lit
3. and a few more little things but nothing major

I own five games for Eye Toy, the majority of the Eye Toy collection.

This might be the best use of this technology thus far. Fun, exhausting and highly customizable. There are thousands of ways to play this game. Each exercise has its own unique choice of music and an initial difficulty level that automatically increases as you progress through the routine. Entire guided fitness plans are created for each player after series of questions. It even snaps progress photos as you complete your plan.

In addition as the camera, a wide-angle lense is included to accomodate an entire body workout. After your body and a Playstation, everything you need is included. This is more than a game, it is a revolutionary exploration into what video games can do for us.

Per usual, while the Eye Toy does require a rather bright room to function well, a standard two-bulb overhead fixture works fine. If you really want the full Eye Toy experience, I would reccommend this game, as well as Antigrav.

We just bought this game a week ago. Not a day goes by that I don't work out with it!

Why do I love it?

The game has Cardio, Combat, Tone & Mind Body.

Cardio - the games require you to hit and kick moving orbs on the screen. This is really FUN!

Combat - the games require you to hit and kick things on the screen, but HARD. This is also very fun and gets out any anger or frustration you have.

Tone - Abs, lower body, upper body, arms... - I've only done the abs portion on easy. I've done loads of pilates and crunches and though it starts off easy (for me, I imagine for people that haven't done a lot of abs work should probably take it easy) and works up to some really HARD abs stuff.

Mind Body - These are fun stretching, tai chi, etc. games. Games, yes, and you have to break the orbs, or followi them, etc.
Very fun.

You can have a personal trainer in either Anna or Matt (I have Anna, my husband has Matt) and do a 12 week personal trainer workout that gives you days off.

There is also Routine Builder and you build routines if you wish.

I do both, the personal trainer mode and the routine builder mode. On my days off from the personal trainer, I do several cardio routines sprinkled throughout the day.

The warm up on the eyetoy is great. The stretch after is also nice.

What I like more about this game, rather than Yourself Fitness is that you are not doing jumping jacks and jumps. I have a really hard time with them, and YF doesn't have a skip (yet). Also, with this game the game doesn't have to test you. It knows how well you are doing (ie, because of the camera). On YF you have to constantly take hard physical exams which require you to do jumping jacks and interrupt you if you want to just do the exercise for the day.

So, I really really LOVE eyetoy kinetic!

I have problems staying motivated to go workout at the gym on a weekly basis. The motivation wasn't consistent for me, because I get bored easily doing the same things: riding a stationary bike, treadmill, precor machine, etc. With Kinetic, however, I'm having fun playing this "game", but I'm really getting some good exercise in!

I'm currently on week three of Personal Trainer mode. The first two weeks were fairly easy for me. I can tell, however, that the workouts are getting harder as I am sweating more and breathing hard, and the next day, I can feel the burn in my legs from all the squatting and kicking certain games entail, and my arms are sore, too, from all the punching.

One thing I think is missing from the game is the game not telling you proper form. Yes, you're punching and kicking like there's no tomorrow, but you risk getting injured if you don't know how to punch or kick correctly.

The yoga exercise, too, is great IF you've had yoga instruction before by a yoga instructor. For someone who has never done yoga before, they may find this difficult, or they will most likely not be using proper form. Same with the Tai Chi. I've never done Tai Chi before, so trying to follow this part of the game was pretty hard for me, even with all the camera angles the game shows. I would probably have to take a Tai Chi class somewhere to know what the heck I'm really doing.

Another thing that bothered me was the loading time in between the workouts. I guess it's good for those that need a good break in between to grab some water, but I just want to get into the groove and keep going back to back non-stop for a fluid exercise routine.

Overall, believe it, or not, I look forward to turning the game on to see when I'm scheduled for my next workout. That's how motivated I am now after buying Kinetic.

If you have enough room to play this game in, the lighting works out for you, and if you want to lose some weight and have fun at the same time without joining a gym or a sports team, Eyetoy Kinetic is the game to play! Of course, you only get out of it what you put into it. Don't forget to also watch what you eat!

A well thought out game with fun activities that DO give you a work out, is over-shadowed by the devil of all Eye Toy games: lighting.
The game requires your whole body to be in the screen to complete most of the activities. This is seemingly impossible for someone with a small and crowded house (such as mine.) And when you do finally get to a comfortable position, there's the issue of the lighting. The whole room has to be filled with light, otherwise the sensors won't pick your movements up.
While most of the games are reasonably do-able, some are not. Some games in the Mind and Body zone are more frustrating than in the Combat zone, and end up doing the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do.
But, once you do get adjusted it is a fairly good workout program. It also includes how many calories you've burned, a progess chart, a heart rate feature, and a weekly work out planner.
Over all, it's a decent game once you get past the downsides of it.

I have been playing Kinetic for two months and have seen great weight loss results. I have saved 6 routines so I pick a different one each day so it does not get repetitive. What I like most about this workout is I don't notice the time passing while I workout.

I turn off the TV volume and play either my stereo or ipod to get around the repetitive music. Playing the game without the wide-lens attachment has helped the Eyetoy pick up my movements. You can use the controller to move more quickly between games in a routine to keep your heartrate up. You may need to put your furniture on sliders if you have a small space so you can move it out of the way in order to have room and avoid the game picking up outside objects. Once you know where the game is not picking up your movements, adding a lamp or night-light in that spot will help. Setting up the lighting is annoying but takes the same time as getting out the mats, steps or hand weights that other workout videos require.

This workout definitely keeps things interesting and hard enough to see results. It is well worth a few minutes of set up time to look forward to working out each day.

What many of the other reviewer's have said about the camera is true. Unfortunately it's just not sensitive enough. I got the game home very excited to try it out. I threw the game in the PS2, and got ready to see what it could do. To my disappointment, it wouldn't notice my movements. In order to get the game to work properly, we had to move the PS2 downstairs, move everything out of the way so we had enough space, hang a white sheet in the back of the room, turn a floor lamp sideways; much like a spotlight, and wear black clothing. If you're comfortable with doing these types of steps to get the game to work, it's really a game to try out. The workouts are fantastic, and the excercise routines are really fun. You can see yourself on TV hitting objects, and dodging others. It was very much worth the money. I just wish the camera would more sensitive. Overall, excellent product.

The game itself, is excellent. A great idea and put to good use to get people up and moving while having fun. The game gets you working hard and working up a sweat. It has plenty of options, like entering your weight, height, and it asks you questions to see where you should be as in difficulty.

Now with the game down, this is where the problem kicks in, the camera. Eyetoys just still aren't meant for this type of game. To get this game to work you pretty much have to be in a plain white room and plenty of lighting and space. You will be tinkering with it and never get it perfect. With the camera you will become frusterated with the game. So for now, save your cash, untill they release a better camera.

I purchased Kinetic 2 weeks ago to help with my unmotivated desire to get in better shape. After some tinkering with the camera and the lighting in my house, I was hard at work/play. The idea of the game is really cool, and both my wife and I have used in daily. I am on my second week of personal trainer mode, and I am already feeling much better, plus it's just fun to do. I can exercise in the warmth of my home, and the games keep score and give you a grade so it feeds my competitive side also. A couple of things could be cons on the game. First, you need plenty of space. I have to stand about 10 feet from the TV, so a small area is out of the question. Second, there really can't be any other motion going on in the room. I have to wait until my kids are in bed, because even if they are in the open room behind my living room (15 feet or so back), it detects them. Overall, my wife and I have agreed that the purchase of Kinetic was well worth the money.