Remember Kinect, me neither but Child of Eden does.

Almost one full year ago the Kinect hype train was going full speed, titles like Star Wars Kinect and Codename D had everyone a buzz with excitement. It seemed that gaming as a whole was on the cusp of emerging into something both exciting and new, but somewhere along it's path the evolutionary controller lost momentum and slowed to an almost dead crawl. After almost 7 months, we are getting our first glimpse of a solid new IP since the launch titles debuted, Child of Eden.

Its no secret to anyone that since the initial launch of Kinect its title base has been less than stellar. Since launch you have most likely played Dance Central to the point that you can go to any local dance club and not get laughed at. And I'm sure you've had just about as much fun as expected with Wii Sports errr... I mean Kinect Sports (totally not the same, at all.) That being noted, both of those titles were released along side the peripherals initial launch. A hand full of lousy dance releases later and I'm feeling like I ended up with an over-hyped vision camera.  Almost a full calendar year since launch and E3, Kinect has nothing to show for itself... until now.

Everyone meet Child of Eden.

Tags: GameTrailers.com, Mood Trailer, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Child of Eden is the latest electronic music game set to revolutionize the way we play games, both in the sense of how we traditionally have thought about using Kinect and what we think music games should be. In this game, the player has the duty of purifying the memory banks of Lumi, the digital resurrection of the first person ever born in space, whom has been attacked by an unknown virus. The game’s premise sounds like a cross between Mystery Science Theater and Tron, while sounding like a Deadmau5 concert. 

Ridding the viruses from Lumi's system can be done in one of three ways. First, the tracer that acts as your primary assault weapon by unleashing an unending stream of projectiles at whatever you wave your hand at. Next is your lock on shot, which lets you target several enemies while waiting to launch your assault at the right time by pushing your hands forward. Finally, you have what is called the Euphoria attack that clears the screen of all enemies. This can come in handy during later levels when the action can become overwhelming.

The environments look beautiful, the enemies are varied and the music is masterfully woven together with the gameplay in such a way that you will even receive a bonus for exterminating enemies to the rhythm of the music. 

Tags: GameTrailers.com, Welcome to Eden Gameplay Trailer HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

If all of this sounds a little to good to be true its because you've never heard of its lead designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi. His track record speaks volumes. Mizuguchi has seemlessly found a way to bridge the gap between the senses. His games have always been visually astounding in terms of graphics but his true mastery is the way he has always been able make the gameplay and music share a unique and harmonic coexistence. Masterfully, his games find form a distinct bond between the music and what the player is doing on screen. In essence, the better you play, the better the music gets. The better the music gets, the better the visuals get, and so forth. Having worked on titles like Lumines and Gunpey, Mizuguchi knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to music games and coincidentally, Child of Eden is a direct sequel to the acclaimed classic Rez.

Knowing how much effort has been put into this game, I have faith that it will live up to the hype. With a great mind behind the design, gameplay that's been proven to be better with Kinect time and again, and a great team behind it's soundtrack can Child of Eden cure Kinect from the illness of a lifeless library? We can only hope to see next month. Until then I'll bide my time and hope that Child of Eden stays on beat so it doesn't miss it's target.