Kinect is an additional piece of equipment that you'll need to buy that hooks up to your Xbox 360.  The promise and appeal of Kinect is that no controllers are required.  The sophisticated camera technology is able to let multiple people jump, twist and dance around to control the action on-screen.

If you already have an Xbox 360, you can purchase a Kinect for $150, and it comes with the game Kinect Adventures included.  If you don't have an Xbox 360 yet, you can buy some more expensive bundles that include an XBox, the Kinect and some additional games.

Once you own Kinect, games can be purchased for around $50 each.

Kinect is being designed and promoted as something that families can enjoy together, so it's something that obviously has a great appeal to us here at FamilyFriendlyVideoGames.com.  Kinect promises to offer something for the whole family across a broad range of ages.  The camera comes with the very enjoyable Kinect Adventures.  There are games that the whole family can play together, like Dance Central (a dancing game) or Kinect Sports (a track and field competition).  There are also games that will appeal to older tweens and teens (and Dads) like one that lets you wield a light saber and wreak havoc in the Star Wars Universe.  Toddlers should enjoy the Kinectimals, the pet simulator that sees you take care of young cats such as tigers and panthers.  And there's even a Yoga title, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, that is designed with Moms in mind.

The Kinect experience is great for families, and the camera does a really good job of recognizing different people of different sizes, even if young kids do tend to wander into and out of the action.  You will need a decent amount of space to play, but depending on your game setup this may not be a big deal.  If you do have your Xbox and TV in an area with a lot of furniture, then the game actually tells you that you have to move it out of the way.  For our family, we have a dedicated room aside from our main TV area where we play games, so clearing out the furniture was not a big deal, although we have heard stories of folks having to rearrange quite a bit of furniture in order to make Kinect work.

When you are using connect, you place your hands with your palms facing the camera whenever you need to make a selection.  If you ever need to pause the action, you simply put one arm at your side, and your other at a 45 degree angle to bring up a pause menu.

Microsoft is really trying to break down barriers with Kinect and remove some of the negative stigma that many non-gameplaying familes have attached to video games.  Kinect promises to provide a way for families to come together in a fun, wholesome and even active manner.  At this point, the only reason we can think of to not recommend Kinect to any family that wants to play video games together would be the price.  Both the PlayStation Move and Nintendo Wii can provide cheaper options, but none can provide the controller-free Kinect experience.  We highly recommend Kinect as the perfect option for families that want to play videogames together.

*FamilyFriendlyVideoGames.com Favorite* - This was one of our favorite family-friendly video games we saw at the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles in June.