Kawashima Kinecting

Kinect seems as keen as ever to chip away at the massive – and massively profitable – casual market previously nailed down tightly by Nintendo. This collaboration, previously an exclusive for the old Japanese masters, sees the well-known brain-trainer make the leap to an HD console for the first time.

Players will be able to train both their minds and their bodies with the Kinect-enabled title due for release in February 2011. The game’s full title is Dr Kawashima’s Body and Brain Exercises and it will no doubt be aiming to achieve the same sort of fame and popularity that the handheld games, supervised by the Japanese neuroscientist, have managed.

We’ve got some screens for you to look at but as with any of these slightly off-kilter games, the test will be in how it plays and how it compels the player to keep returning. Some of us were big fans of the DS outings though, so definitely one worth watching.