Kinect games without a Kinect

The Kinect was the best thing that ever happened to living-room screen time: a game you could not play sitting down. Then Microsoft dropped it, the sensors stopped being sold, and the games that needed one went with it. What nobody said out loud is that the hard part — seeing where a body is — now runs inside a browser tab. That is what the Hopla Ninja Academy is: the same idea, on a webcam, for free.

How it works: open the site, allow the camera, stand back until your whole body fits on the screen. The browser tracks your arms, legs and head on your own device, and the games use that as the controller. Jump and the character jumps; raise both arms and the lantern climbs. There is no download, no account and no video leaving the computer — the tracking runs on your own machine.

What you need is a laptop or a PC with a webcam, or a tablet propped up on a shelf. Plug the laptop into the TV with an HDMI cable and you have the Kinect setup back exactly: the kid in front of the big screen, the camera on top of it, 2-3 metres of clear floor. Chrome, Edge and Safari all work.

The games are built for kids from 4 to 14, with four ranks — Rookie is very forgiving for a four-year-old, Master is a real workout for a twelve-year-old. Two kids can play at once, side by side, each on their own rank and sharing one score. Points are never taken away, and every rank has a medal to earn.

Hopla is not affiliated with Microsoft. Kinect is a trademark of Microsoft.