And that is because Child of Eden makes the best use yet of the new Kinect system for the Xbox 360. Kinect, introduced by Microsoft last fall, does away with the video game controller altogether. Using advanced technology and software, the Kinect sensor, which sits under your television, can see your body in three dimensions and recognize your voice. So in all sorts of games, you just lean if you want your character to lean. If you want it to jump, you jump, and so on.

In this game you use your hands to control pointers on the screen to direct your fire. After a few minutes of adjustment it feels completely natural. But the beauty is not merely in the controls; it’s in how those controls draw you into what feels like a transformation. (You can also play with a traditional controller, but that completely misses the point.)

When Kinect was introduced, it was immediately clear that the system could usher in a wave of innovative games accessible to a vast majority of people who can’t deal with a complicated controller covered with buttons, triggers and sticks. With Kinect you don’t hold anything.

But that wave of great Kinect games has not been so immediate. Until now the system has been distinguished by a litany of dance and exercise titles. In most of these the program displays a dance move or exercise pose, then grades how well you perform it. That’s fun as far as it goes, but it isn’t especially interesting or creative, which is why you haven’t been reading about many Kinect games around here.

As a matter of visual and audio design, Child of Eden is an aesthetic triumph. The psychedelic graphics envelop you as you delve into the Internet of the future, where Lumi’s soul dwells. As in Mr. Mizuguchi’s previous games Rez and Lumines, the music is not a soundtrack merely accompanying the action. Rather, the mixture of electronica beats and Japanese pop by the collective Genki Rockets is an integral part of the game play, shifting in time with the player’s action.