Motion-controlled Nex Playground brings back the spirit of Xbox’s Kinect – and it’s finally coming to the UK
Just don't forget to warm up first – you're not as young as you were the first time round
If you’ve ever wondered what you’d get if you crossed a Rubik’s Cube with a webcam there’s no need to start Frankensteining stuff together in the shed, just have a look at a Nex Playground ($250/£269).
Its similarities to Ernő Rubik’s iconic tactile puzzle actually begin and end with the shape, and you won’t have much luck using it for a Zoom call, but if you want to test your goalkeeping skills or chop up virtual pineapples with your bare hands this little box has you covered.
It’s essentially a repackaged Xbox Kinect that works without a console, so you just plug it into your telly and the camera lets you play games by tracking 18 points on your body in real time. The wide-angle lens is pretty good at squeezing stuff in, so you should only need about six feet of lateral space to play most of the games.
It comes with five pre-installed on the 64GB memory – Go Keeper, Fruit Ninja, Whac-a-Mole, Party Fowl, and Starri – but if you want more you can sign up for a 12-month Play Pass (£90), which unlocks over 50. That includes stuff like Zumba Fitness Party and BoxFlow Fitness, so while you can use the Nex Playground to keep the kids busy, it can also help to stop you turning into a sofa-bound slob.
Privacy has come a long way since the Kinect days, so the Nex Playground has a little magnetic cover that you can use to block the camera lens when you’re not using it. It also comes with a remote but it’s only for navigating the menus, so there shouldn’t be any danger of smashing your TV screen through any Wii-style accidents.
The Nex Playground has been available across the pond for a few years already, where it outsold the Xbox on last year’s Black Friday, but it’ll go on sale in the UK on 22 June, with pre-orders open now.
Tom Wiggins
Contributor