Ever since its first showing at last year's E3, Star Wars Kinect has been a game that's had people of all callings interested. Offering you the chance to step into the world's most famous sci-fi universe, and, y'know, actually be a Jedi thanks to the way the Kinect sensor will track your body, it certainly seemed to be overflowing with potential. And now, with this year's version of the massive games show, E3 looming like an overfed whale above us, Microsoft have released a trailer showing off how just far Star Wars Kinect's come in the past year. And just from the haunting music alone, it's enough to give us goosebumps.
What can we tell from the trailer? Appearing to be set in the timeframe between Episode 1 and Episode 3 (although potentially straying into the good trilogy from time to time), Star Wars Kinect will put you in the padawan training boots of of a Jedi, as you stand in your living room, assume the stance, and pretend you're wielding a lightsaber around (if ever there were a game that deserves a collector's edition, complete with plastic lightsaber, this is it). With Kinect as the leading lady, you can control your Jedi by doing things as you'd do in the movies - force powers in the films are always controlled as gestures, so how cool will it be to use force push on a group of enemies by literally pushing your hands forward, or fire lightning from your fingertips? Interestingly mixing in with the Jedi lightsabering action are podraces; bits where you'll take over a Rancor, as seen in Return of the Jedi being crushed by a gate, after failing to eat Luke Skywalker; and, strangely, space segments. Quite how these are going to control without, well, a controller, is anyone's guess - but we haven't got long to find out.
Star Wars Kinect (seemingly now its official name) will be shown in all its glory at Microsoft's press conference tonight, after which we'll be spending every waking hour telling you everything we know. It all kicks off at 5:30pm GMT, and if you fancy tuning in for yourself, make sure you hit up xbox.com for the live stream.
