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Casey Anderson, host of National Geographic Channel's Expedition Wild and America the Wild, is walking around Yellowstone National Park. He's hiking across the rocks, talking to the camera about the local bears. Then, the action stops and he turns to the camera and asks for your help. Some animal tracks pop up on the screen, and you or your child indicate which ones to follow using the Xbox 360's camera-based motion controller.
This isn't a television show, this is an interactive videogame – Kinect Nat Geo TV.
While this fact is not too surprising considering that you were aware of the disc you were putting in the Xbox, Kinect Nat Geo TV blends the television episodic delivery of a nature program with some neat interactions that let your children get involved in the program and stimulate learning. An educational game wrapped in an educational program, Kinect Nat Geo TV does a good job of pacing learning with fun.
The game is hosted by Anderson, a man who is just about as close to nature as anyone could be. His best friend (and best creature at his wedding) is a bear named Brutus, who accompanies Casey throughout a good portion of the game. Casey has an affable and likeable tone that is never preachy when it comes to subjects like nature preservation. His interactions with your kids are aimed at the 7- to 12-year-old range, asking questions and touring nature with continuous attention to the viewer.
I asked Anderson via phone what it was like filming a nature program for a videogame audience rather than a television audience:
"When you are filming for television, you are not as engaging with the audience," he said. "My show, I tend to produce it that way more than traditional television. That was a natural progression for the game. When I'm looking into the lens, I'm looking into the lens of a 9-year-old. Whomever is on this hike, this adventure with me out into the wild. For me, I have to make sure that I'm teaching, that they are having a good time, to generate this excitement and appreciation for the wild."
With an in-game layout similar to the current Xbox Live screen, Nat Geo TV gives you the option of viewing multiple episodes, all with interactions built in, or just playing the game or doing the extras. There is a lot of content on the two discs for your child to go through.
The only downside to the content is that once you watch the episodes once or twice, you really don't want to watch them again, at least not for a while. I'm thinking that perhaps there will be future episodes via downloadable content, supposing the game does well. Anderson was enthused about the interactions when we spoke:
"Kids are having that experience of being out there with me. Often in my episodes, I'm out there learning as well. There is a bit where we are differentiating animal tracks. I let them know what is in my thinking and teaching them, but instead of me making the decision I'm letting them make the choice. Kids may go to Yellowstone a few years from now and they might see bear tracks and say pause... no pun intended. It's great because the game shows them far-out places that may become a reality for them to visit."
I have to say though, the best part about the game was living as an animal. Each video has a set of mini-games (which can be selected and all played from the main menu) where you become the animal and have to perform general survival tasks. Kinect does a good job here not going nuts when someone walks behind you (as in many other Kinect games) and keeping your animal facade on. Whether it be bears, owls, wolves, rams, panthers or wolverines, your head and arms become that of the animal. Tasks include digging in the snow for meat, heading off magpies and snakes to protect your nest, and shaking branches to eat ants.
There is a point system, and Anderson's narration adds a good sense of urgency to the games. The games are fun and the kids loved them, and Anderson hopes that experiencing a little of the animal life will lead to future conservation efforts.
"I found as we built this game, it was a surprise to me a bit in the gameplay – after the episodes, you then become the animal and face a very real challenge that animals face every day in their lives," Anderson said. "You get to experience challenges in finding food and so on. Animals don't live an easy life, every day is a job. Kids are smart. When they start to think about things on a different level, they start making these connections in their head and they become endeared to these animals. There is really cool first-person thing that happens to them that is really magical and just happened as this game was developed. Fear of the unknown. Take that fear and change it to respect."
Kinect Nat Geo TV is a fun experience to bring the excitement and learning of the wild animal kingdom into your living rooms in a very interactive fashion. Nature shows over the years aren't always the most exciting bits of television. That's not saying they aren't good, but that children need a bit more stimulation when it comes to this kind of learning and playing. Kinect Nat Geo TV offers that in spades.
Anderson notes that moving his show into a videogame was the natural progression of things.
"I played videogames when I was a kid. I got to be part of the ride," he said. "I never looked at games and the wild coming together, though. I knew I was always going to be doing something with animals in the wild. The truth is as I've went down the line, when this opportunity came to me, I guess trying to be an old fuddy-duddy and competing with gaming, we decided to be part of it, instead. We wanted to bring the wild and learning experience through that platform rather than fight it."
WIRED Full of fun interactions, Kinect Nat Geo TV is a great combination of television, nature and the functionality of the Kinect.
TIRED Some more hyper kids (like mine) might not have the patience for nature programming. Start them off with the games, then they'll watch the episodes.
Kinect Nat Geo TV is available now for Microsoft's Xbox Kinect at a pretty good price point.
