072911_KinectFruitNinja 007.jpgWhile at the Xbox Holiday Preview this week we started thinking about the games that were making us sweat. Of course there are the dancing games and fitness titles, but what about the games where fitness was probably the furthest thing from the designers minds...is there fitness to be had from those? Can a game like Fruit Ninja give us a good workout?

072911_KinectFruitNinja 010.jpgBeing huge Fruit Ninja fans for the iPad we could not resist queuing up to give the Kinect version a try. Since we have been doing this series on health benefits of gaming it was only natural that during our demo game we thought a bit about the workout potential of this addictive game.

Unlike the iOS version, to really play Fruit Ninja for the Kinect both hands need to be involved and more than your thumbs are moving. In order to play well, much arm swiping and chopping of the air is par for the course and with that sort of movement, comes exercise.

The game is seriously fun and we would love to see more titles like this that take advantage of the Kinect. This is truly a game that was created for this platform and we were really surprised at how well our movements registered as motion in the game. If more active games were this fun and easy to play we think there could quite possibly be less of a childhood obesity problem in the US.

072911_KinectFruitNinja 008.jpgWhile it seems that based on our demo, we tried single and multi-player, the game could have some fitness benefits we won't really know until we give it into the Test Lab. Our preliminary take is that there are definitely some benefits to be had and this is going to be one hot title for the whole family. Fruit Ninja will be available on Arcade Kinect and the price has yet to be announced.

What is your favorite game to exercise with that is not a fitness title?

052011Kinectweeks-small.jpgWeeks 1-14 with the Xbox 360 and Kinect:

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