The European launch of the Xbox 360 Kinect is nearly here. Next Wednesday, Irish gamers will finally get their hands on Microsoft’s “revolutionary” new hardware, with its makers anxiously looking on hoping for high early adoption rates. With a marketing budget exceeding that of the Xbox 360 itself, Kinect represents Microsoft’s biggest and boldest move since it launched the original Xbox all those years ago.

So is it any good? Right now the answer depends entirely upon who you ask. More and more reviews have begun to trickle out from gaming’s most trusted sources, with verdicts tending to vary greatly from source to source. Kinect’s best reviews have labeled the device as revolutionary, magical and “a joy to use”. The worst: “limited”, with “plenty of growing up to do”.

Somewhat predictably, mainstream media have been blown away by the new system. USA Today drew that old Minority Report comparison we’ve been hearing since Kinect was first announced, heralding the device as both “surreal” and “marvellous”. Perhaps the most enthusiastic comments were made by the New York Times, which promised a “crazy, magical, omigosh rush the first time you try the Kinect”.

With a launch line-up aimed at a very specific (read: casual) market, it’s easy not to get too excited by Microsoft’s latest effort. This coupled with the device’s prohibitively high price will lead many gamers to ignore Kinect entirely, at least for the time being. However, with Christmas just around the corner it’s hard to imagine Kinect’s initial sales as being anything other than perfectly healthy.

Kinect’s weak launch line-up does little to convey just how much Microsoft’s new motio-tracking camera is truly capable of. From here on it’s up to both first and third-party publishers to release games that live up to and exceed all expectations. Though the reviews vary greatly, virtually all arrive at the same conclusion: Kinect has enormous potential, and only time will tell just how “revolutionary” this new hardware will prove to be.

Chronic Reload will eventually review Kinect… maybe if there’s a pricedrop or if we visit a beautiful family who have one… and a white house with lots of space