Review: Kinect for Xbox 360 "sloppy"

By Shaun Conlin, Evergeek Media

There's no denying that Nintendo took Microsoft by surprise when its comparatively wimpy little Wii became a runaway hit with general consumers, not just gamers. Wii's simple, and somewhat sloppy, motion-sensitive controllers were key to its success.

After some presumed head scratching, Microsoft set about the none-too-small task of one-upping the competition. Taking the controller out of motion-controlled gaming altogether, the Xbox people delivered last week a true evolution of interactive entertainment, one where the player's body waves and flails and prances about - and sometimes speaks - to invoke on-screen actions of the playable character on screen. Awesome idea there, Microsoft.

Wee problem: Kinect is sloppy - just like Wii. So while it's still an evolution, it's a lateral mutation rather than an advance for the species. Further to that analogy, Darwin might suggest it will only keep on living and maybe even thrive if its unique new features don't prove a detriment in the eat or be eaten ecology of videogames.

The good news: It'll probably thrive. Someday.

As of today, Kinect comes off as rushed.

In and of itself, Kinect is a remarkable chunk of technology, a forward-facing, articulating camera and microphone array that's like nothing else out there. Within its elegant, foot-long sub sized housing (a slim, calorie-wise sandwich at that) resides more electronic components than a James Bond wristwatch. We're talking two auto-focusing cameras and an infra-red projector so the thing can "see" in light spectrums beyond mere mortals, scoping out the room size and then monitoring bodies, hands, arms and legs in 3 dimensions of motion therein. Also in the mix: four microphones for voice recognition with noise filtering and positional awareness, plus a double stack of circuit boards apparently born of black magic and cinnamon. It sits atop a motorized stand so the thing can self-adjust its view of the world and even look around a bit.

Jacking Kinect into an Xbox 360 (game console sold separately or as a bundle) is straightforward enough with a conjoined power plug and USB cable connecting AC power with the console and the Kinect sensor in two steps.

All plugged in and fire up, Hal 9000 it is not. Bummer.

Here's the thing: most of the Kinect marketing material out there - the TV commercials, the magazine ads, etc. - invariably show a couple or a family of four engaging with Kinect. There's mom and dad and/or their teen and their 'tween bopping around a spacious living room. HDTV and connected Kinect sit on a knee-high entertainment stand against the wall.

As it turns out, that's not just a shiny-happy-people ideal, it's a requirement.

With the understanding that Kinect offers an off-the-couch gaming experience, that you'll need to move the coffee table out of the way is a given. However, while Kinect's instructions indicate that the device needs to sit under or over a flat panel TV within 2 to 6 feet off the floor, our testing environment had Kinect struggling when placed at both the minimum and maximum heights suggested, above a picture- high, wall-mounted TV or below on the 2" high cabinet.

In fairness, our seven-person testing crew range in height from 2'6" to 5'8", and Kinect seems unable to distinguish a toddler from dad's right leg when forced to "see" both, and assumes someone's having one mean conniption. This is also why a family with five kids (ages 2 through 12) won't be appearing in Kinect commercials any time soon.

It took the 7-year-old in the crew to figure out that a stubby tower of MegaBlok's could set the sensor at an ideal (for us) height of 42 inches - just below the wall mounted 46" Sharp Aquos Quattron (sweeet). Other user experiences may vary. It took the 2-year-old 10 seconds to shriek with glee and topple said tower and a dad with cat-like reflexes to grab the sensor before it smashed.

Needless to say, Kinect expects you to dispose of your toddlers or have a roll of duct tape handy. Fair enough. And then there were six.

Next up, the instruction book suggests you stand 6 feet away from the sensor while a second player, if optioned, should stand 8 feet away from the sensor and arm's length from the first player. Good call, considering the YouTube-documented dad-elbows-son-in-face mega hit appearing on day 1 and dozens of "Kinect Fail" videos after that.

So yeah, lots of space needed. Even more than suggested, actually, as Kinect and its instruction booklet don't seem to be on speaking terms. The sensor instead insisted the "good" position for one player was 8 feet away, not 6, and the second player barely "good" at 10 feet away, also known as standing on the couch, where upon Kinect surmises the first player is now on his knees because the second player could not possibly be 7'9".

Assuming the average living room is 12, maybe 14 feet deep, take away roughly 3 feet for the couch and two feet for the entertainment unit, you have 7 to 9 feet of Kinect-friendly space. As dad's back is not what it used to be, our testing scenario left the couch in place and only one person testing at a time.

After a great deal of calibrating and re-acquainting Kinect with its environment and the bodies on hand, playing Kinect games actually turned out to be a lot of fun - with caveats.

As advertised, you use your whole body as the controller; mostly hand gestures for all the basics, plus a the gambit of running on the spot, head bobbing, arm flailing, body swaying and kicking motions in games. And yes, you'll look ridiculous. Kinect will even snap a few photos on-the-fly and embarrass you with them later. Fine. And then there were five, said mom.

Kinect comes bundled with a mini game collection called "Kinect Adventures!" that could have done without the exclamation point. Nevertheless, "Adventures" does offer a solid sample of what Kinect can to your living room: make it a lively place for the family to hang out and watch at least one person, maybe two people make spastic fools of themselves and synchronize the spasms with some rather stunning high def visual up there on the TV. This includes jumping in a river raft (repeatedly), whacking at balls in a 3D breakout kind of thing, dodging obstacles while standing on a conveyor belt, and plugging aquarium leaks with your head.

Sold separately, a game called "Kinectimals" had the 4-year-old girl of the group absolutely gushing with joy as she interacted with a big cat cub, petting it virtually, playing fetch and spinning with it like a ballerina. It didn't bother her that Kinect assumed she was an adult on her knees rather than a little girl standing up, but it did make for a peculiar rendition of jumping-like-a-double amputee. Mind you, this was before we taught Kinect who was who and who and how tall, a brutally cumbersome process.

Also on hand was "Kinect Joy Ride," an effective little "air driver" where you make like you're holding a steering wheel. Not precise enough for Formula One, but silly, wholesome racing fun nonetheless.

"Kinect Sports," meanwhile, offered token similarity with "Wii Sports," but the controller free play of it all did make for an utterly fresh experience - though still a little slipshod at times, more dumb luck than competitive. Kinect bowling, it should be noted, is an absolute standout, the best motion-activating bowling of any platform.

That said, fun as it is, the body-as-controller shtick is currently a sluggish affair more often than not - the same sort of laggy, hit and miss exactitude as the good ol' Wii. Much better looking mind you, and spooky cool with the controller-free control concept. But slow to behold, no doubt about it.

In fairness, Kinect never promised a suite of neurosurgery and small appliance repair games. Not yet, anyway. Still, rushed to market, no question. Kinect needed another year of tuning, tweaking, and debugging, certainly. Of course, one could argue that there was market share in the waiting, Wii's sales are slumping, opportunity knocks, the next new thing is needed now and Kinect is certainly "it," get it out there. Polish it up on the fly, because everyone's Internet connected and patches and firmware updates are relatively easy. That's the now and the future of Kinect: pretty great family fun for those with the space or the patience to set it up now, great gobs of controller-free potential to be realized in a year or two. Or so Darwin would indicate.

Copyright Evergeek Media 2010.

View the original article here

Kinect Joy Ride Review [Xbox 360]

This motion-controlled racer is fun, but it'd undoubtedly be better if you could play it with a regular controller.

Kinect Joy Ride is a colorful racing game that has a lot of good things going for it. It lets you play as your Xbox Live avatar and choose from a number of good-looking rides; its imaginative environments are host to several different event types, in addition to regular races; and it can be played with friends both locally or online. Sadly, though, almost every aspect of the game falls short of its full potential because you're forced to play with motion controls that, while uncomplicated, are imperfect at best.

All of the events support two players simultaneously on the same console.

You don't need to concern yourself with accelerating or braking in Kinect Joy Ride, but you are responsible for steering, performing tricks, using weapons, and charging up and triggering speed boosts. To steer, you stretch your arms out in front of you as if you're holding a steering wheel. The Kinect has no problems recognizing your attempts to turn left and right, though it's difficult to make subtle adjustments when drifting around corners or attempting to collect tokens on the track, for example. Worse still, attempts to charge up your all-important boost by pulling both of your arms back don't always register. Activating boosts by thrusting your arms forward works more reliably, but that doesn't count for much if you're having trouble charging them beforehand. Weapons and other power-ups--which only come into play in Battle Race mode--are activated by holding one of your hands out to the side. That works just fine, but because steering is already problematic, it can be a little worrisome to take one of your hands off of the invisible wheel.

Despite the problems with its controls, Kinect Joy Ride is rarely frustrating. There are times when a missed boost opportunity might cost you a position in a race, but the game does a good job of rewarding you regardless of whether you finish on the podium or are last across the line. Every time you finish an event, you gain fans, and as your fan base grows, you unlock new rides and events. You make progress regardless of how poorly you do, and you're free to repeat events that you particularly enjoy and can ignore any that you don't like. It's unfortunate that the differences between the numerous vehicles you can drive are only aesthetic, but it's at least fun to show off your latest unlocks in online races.

Pro Race and Battle Race are the only modes that can be played online, where they support up to eight players simultaneously. Races are contested on tracks that incorporate plenty of shortcuts, numerous boost pads, and--more often than not--some opportunities to get big air and then perform flips and rolls by leaning as if you're shifting a significant amount of weight in your kart. Stunts earn you additional fans, and although there's no other tangible reward for performing them in the middle of a race, there's also never any danger of you failing to land one and losing time as a result. AI opponents do a good job of keeping both offline and underpopulated online races challenging, and even if you manage to finish first, there's some replay value to be had attempting to beat bronze, silver, and gold medal times for every event. Battle Races aren't as much fun as Pro Races. There are only six different power-ups, and none of them are particularly satisfying to use because they don't require any skill. Falling foul of one that freezes all of your wheels or having opponents simply teleport ahead of you just isn't much fun either.

Stunt mode, on the other hand, offers an enjoyable challenge and--because it doesn't demand precise controls--is one of the better event types on offer. Your goal is to rack up as many points as possible on courses that resemble either a gigantic halfpipe or multiple halfpipes connected by loop-the-loops and the like. Using well-timed speed boosts, it's possible to get insane amounts of air, and as you perform stunts, you can also score points by collecting items like bells and cherries that are hanging in midair. There's something very satisfying about launching your chosen ride high into the air and then, as you lean in different directions, watching your avatar clinging to it for dear life as you perform barrel rolls and backflips.

Similarly satisfying, though more demanding of precision, are the Smash events that challenge you to drive around bowl-like arenas destroying statues and other items by crashing into them. It's not particularly challenging, but to achieve high scores, you need to destroy as many of the targets as possible while drifting so that you keep your points multiplier going. Furthermore, you need to keep an eye on the clock that's counting down because once you've destroyed all of the statues, you trigger a ramp and must jump off of it to take down the giant "boss" statue. It's a shame that there are only a few similar Smash arenas in the game because they're fun when you get a good drift going.

The remaining two modes are titled Dash and Trick, and both are odd because they play very differently from everything else in Kinect Joy Ride. Dash events are short time-trial events on tracks that are littered with both obstacles and collectible fan tokens. Speed boosts are every bit important in these events as they are in races, but what's strange is that when you steer your kart, you don't have analog control and can only move left or right one or two lanes at a time. Your car takes corners automatically, so all you need to do is make sure it's in a lane where the only thing it's going to hit are collectibles and boost pads. This method of steering works well enough that it makes you wonder if races could've worked better if they employed a similar system. Trick events are even further removed from the rest of Kinect Joy Ride and see your chosen kart taking to the skies as a plane, which you then wing walk on. Avatar silhouettes appear onscreen prompting you to copy their poses, and you score points for doing so both accurately and quickly. This makes for a nice change of pace, but you're unlikely to spend much time in Trick events because it doesn't take long for them to become repetitive.

Kinect Joy Ride isn't a bad game by any means, but it's also not a good game to release alongside the new Kinect hardware. Rather than showing off what the Kinect is capable of, Kinect Joy Ride is an obvious example of a game that would be better if you could play it with a regular controller. It's fun to see your avatar racing around in a muscle car or an ice cream van, but the sad fact is that he or she invariably appears to be having a better time behind the wheel than you.

View the original article here

Review: Kinect for Xbox 360 "sloppy"

By Shaun Conlin, Evergeek Media

There's no denying that Nintendo took Microsoft by surprise when its comparatively wimpy little Wii became a runaway hit with general consumers, not just gamers. Wii's simple, and somewhat sloppy, motion-sensitive controllers were key to its success.

After some presumed head scratching, Microsoft set about the none-too-small task of one-upping the competition. Taking the controller out of motion-controlled gaming altogether, the Xbox people delivered last week a true evolution of interactive entertainment, one where the player's body waves and flails and prances about - and sometimes speaks - to invoke on-screen actions of the playable character on screen. Awesome idea there, Microsoft.

Wee problem: Kinect is sloppy - just like Wii. So while it's still an evolution, it's a lateral mutation rather than an advance for the species. Further to that analogy, Darwin might suggest it will only keep on living and maybe even thrive if its unique new features don't prove a detriment in the eat or be eaten ecology of videogames.

The good news: It'll probably thrive. Someday.

As of today, Kinect comes off as rushed.

In and of itself, Kinect is a remarkable chunk of technology, a forward-facing, articulating camera and microphone array that's like nothing else out there. Within its elegant, foot-long sub sized housing (a slim, calorie-wise sandwich at that) resides more electronic components than a James Bond wristwatch. We're talking two auto-focusing cameras and an infra-red projector so the thing can "see" in light spectrums beyond mere mortals, scoping out the room size and then monitoring bodies, hands, arms and legs in 3 dimensions of motion therein. Also in the mix: four microphones for voice recognition with noise filtering and positional awareness, plus a double stack of circuit boards apparently born of black magic and cinnamon. It sits atop a motorized stand so the thing can self-adjust its view of the world and even look around a bit.

Jacking Kinect into an Xbox 360 (game console sold separately or as a bundle) is straightforward enough with a conjoined power plug and USB cable connecting AC power with the console and the Kinect sensor in two steps.

All plugged in and fire up, Hal 9000 it is not. Bummer.

Here's the thing: most of the Kinect marketing material out there - the TV commercials, the magazine ads, etc. - invariably show a couple or a family of four engaging with Kinect. There's mom and dad and/or their teen and their 'tween bopping around a spacious living room. HDTV and connected Kinect sit on a knee-high entertainment stand against the wall.

As it turns out, that's not just a shiny-happy-people ideal, it's a requirement.

With the understanding that Kinect offers an off-the-couch gaming experience, that you'll need to move the coffee table out of the way is a given. However, while Kinect's instructions indicate that the device needs to sit under or over a flat panel TV within 2 to 6 feet off the floor, our testing environment had Kinect struggling when placed at both the minimum and maximum heights suggested, above a picture- high, wall-mounted TV or below on the 2" high cabinet.

In fairness, our seven-person testing crew range in height from 2'6" to 5'8", and Kinect seems unable to distinguish a toddler from dad's right leg when forced to "see" both, and assumes someone's having one mean conniption. This is also why a family with five kids (ages 2 through 12) won't be appearing in Kinect commercials any time soon.

It took the 7-year-old in the crew to figure out that a stubby tower of MegaBlok's could set the sensor at an ideal (for us) height of 42 inches - just below the wall mounted 46" Sharp Aquos Quattron (sweeet). Other user experiences may vary. It took the 2-year-old 10 seconds to shriek with glee and topple said tower and a dad with cat-like reflexes to grab the sensor before it smashed.

Needless to say, Kinect expects you to dispose of your toddlers or have a roll of duct tape handy. Fair enough. And then there were six.

Next up, the instruction book suggests you stand 6 feet away from the sensor while a second player, if optioned, should stand 8 feet away from the sensor and arm's length from the first player. Good call, considering the YouTube-documented dad-elbows-son-in-face mega hit appearing on day 1 and dozens of "Kinect Fail" videos after that.

So yeah, lots of space needed. Even more than suggested, actually, as Kinect and its instruction booklet don't seem to be on speaking terms. The sensor instead insisted the "good" position for one player was 8 feet away, not 6, and the second player barely "good" at 10 feet away, also known as standing on the couch, where upon Kinect surmises the first player is now on his knees because the second player could not possibly be 7'9".

Assuming the average living room is 12, maybe 14 feet deep, take away roughly 3 feet for the couch and two feet for the entertainment unit, you have 7 to 9 feet of Kinect-friendly space. As dad's back is not what it used to be, our testing scenario left the couch in place and only one person testing at a time.

After a great deal of calibrating and re-acquainting Kinect with its environment and the bodies on hand, playing Kinect games actually turned out to be a lot of fun - with caveats.

As advertised, you use your whole body as the controller; mostly hand gestures for all the basics, plus a the gambit of running on the spot, head bobbing, arm flailing, body swaying and kicking motions in games. And yes, you'll look ridiculous. Kinect will even snap a few photos on-the-fly and embarrass you with them later. Fine. And then there were five, said mom.

Kinect comes bundled with a mini game collection called "Kinect Adventures!" that could have done without the exclamation point. Nevertheless, "Adventures" does offer a solid sample of what Kinect can to your living room: make it a lively place for the family to hang out and watch at least one person, maybe two people make spastic fools of themselves and synchronize the spasms with some rather stunning high def visual up there on the TV. This includes jumping in a river raft (repeatedly), whacking at balls in a 3D breakout kind of thing, dodging obstacles while standing on a conveyor belt, and plugging aquarium leaks with your head.

Sold separately, a game called "Kinectimals" had the 4-year-old girl of the group absolutely gushing with joy as she interacted with a big cat cub, petting it virtually, playing fetch and spinning with it like a ballerina. It didn't bother her that Kinect assumed she was an adult on her knees rather than a little girl standing up, but it did make for a peculiar rendition of jumping-like-a-double amputee. Mind you, this was before we taught Kinect who was who and who and how tall, a brutally cumbersome process.

Also on hand was "Kinect Joy Ride," an effective little "air driver" where you make like you're holding a steering wheel. Not precise enough for Formula One, but silly, wholesome racing fun nonetheless.

"Kinect Sports," meanwhile, offered token similarity with "Wii Sports," but the controller free play of it all did make for an utterly fresh experience - though still a little slipshod at times, more dumb luck than competitive. Kinect bowling, it should be noted, is an absolute standout, the best motion-activating bowling of any platform.

That said, fun as it is, the body-as-controller shtick is currently a sluggish affair more often than not - the same sort of laggy, hit and miss exactitude as the good ol' Wii. Much better looking mind you, and spooky cool with the controller-free control concept. But slow to behold, no doubt about it.

In fairness, Kinect never promised a suite of neurosurgery and small appliance repair games. Not yet, anyway. Still, rushed to market, no question. Kinect needed another year of tuning, tweaking, and debugging, certainly. Of course, one could argue that there was market share in the waiting, Wii's sales are slumping, opportunity knocks, the next new thing is needed now and Kinect is certainly "it," get it out there. Polish it up on the fly, because everyone's Internet connected and patches and firmware updates are relatively easy. That's the now and the future of Kinect: pretty great family fun for those with the space or the patience to set it up now, great gobs of controller-free potential to be realized in a year or two. Or so Darwin would indicate.

Copyright Evergeek Media 2010.

View the original article here

Kinect Joy Ride Review [Xbox 360]

This motion-controlled racer is fun, but it'd undoubtedly be better if you could play it with a regular controller.

Kinect Joy Ride is a colorful racing game that has a lot of good things going for it. It lets you play as your Xbox Live avatar and choose from a number of good-looking rides; its imaginative environments are host to several different event types, in addition to regular races; and it can be played with friends both locally or online. Sadly, though, almost every aspect of the game falls short of its full potential because you're forced to play with motion controls that, while uncomplicated, are imperfect at best.

All of the events support two players simultaneously on the same console.

You don't need to concern yourself with accelerating or braking in Kinect Joy Ride, but you are responsible for steering, performing tricks, using weapons, and charging up and triggering speed boosts. To steer, you stretch your arms out in front of you as if you're holding a steering wheel. The Kinect has no problems recognizing your attempts to turn left and right, though it's difficult to make subtle adjustments when drifting around corners or attempting to collect tokens on the track, for example. Worse still, attempts to charge up your all-important boost by pulling both of your arms back don't always register. Activating boosts by thrusting your arms forward works more reliably, but that doesn't count for much if you're having trouble charging them beforehand. Weapons and other power-ups--which only come into play in Battle Race mode--are activated by holding one of your hands out to the side. That works just fine, but because steering is already problematic, it can be a little worrisome to take one of your hands off of the invisible wheel.

Despite the problems with its controls, Kinect Joy Ride is rarely frustrating. There are times when a missed boost opportunity might cost you a position in a race, but the game does a good job of rewarding you regardless of whether you finish on the podium or are last across the line. Every time you finish an event, you gain fans, and as your fan base grows, you unlock new rides and events. You make progress regardless of how poorly you do, and you're free to repeat events that you particularly enjoy and can ignore any that you don't like. It's unfortunate that the differences between the numerous vehicles you can drive are only aesthetic, but it's at least fun to show off your latest unlocks in online races.

Pro Race and Battle Race are the only modes that can be played online, where they support up to eight players simultaneously. Races are contested on tracks that incorporate plenty of shortcuts, numerous boost pads, and--more often than not--some opportunities to get big air and then perform flips and rolls by leaning as if you're shifting a significant amount of weight in your kart. Stunts earn you additional fans, and although there's no other tangible reward for performing them in the middle of a race, there's also never any danger of you failing to land one and losing time as a result. AI opponents do a good job of keeping both offline and underpopulated online races challenging, and even if you manage to finish first, there's some replay value to be had attempting to beat bronze, silver, and gold medal times for every event. Battle Races aren't as much fun as Pro Races. There are only six different power-ups, and none of them are particularly satisfying to use because they don't require any skill. Falling foul of one that freezes all of your wheels or having opponents simply teleport ahead of you just isn't much fun either.

Stunt mode, on the other hand, offers an enjoyable challenge and--because it doesn't demand precise controls--is one of the better event types on offer. Your goal is to rack up as many points as possible on courses that resemble either a gigantic halfpipe or multiple halfpipes connected by loop-the-loops and the like. Using well-timed speed boosts, it's possible to get insane amounts of air, and as you perform stunts, you can also score points by collecting items like bells and cherries that are hanging in midair. There's something very satisfying about launching your chosen ride high into the air and then, as you lean in different directions, watching your avatar clinging to it for dear life as you perform barrel rolls and backflips.

Similarly satisfying, though more demanding of precision, are the Smash events that challenge you to drive around bowl-like arenas destroying statues and other items by crashing into them. It's not particularly challenging, but to achieve high scores, you need to destroy as many of the targets as possible while drifting so that you keep your points multiplier going. Furthermore, you need to keep an eye on the clock that's counting down because once you've destroyed all of the statues, you trigger a ramp and must jump off of it to take down the giant "boss" statue. It's a shame that there are only a few similar Smash arenas in the game because they're fun when you get a good drift going.

The remaining two modes are titled Dash and Trick, and both are odd because they play very differently from everything else in Kinect Joy Ride. Dash events are short time-trial events on tracks that are littered with both obstacles and collectible fan tokens. Speed boosts are every bit important in these events as they are in races, but what's strange is that when you steer your kart, you don't have analog control and can only move left or right one or two lanes at a time. Your car takes corners automatically, so all you need to do is make sure it's in a lane where the only thing it's going to hit are collectibles and boost pads. This method of steering works well enough that it makes you wonder if races could've worked better if they employed a similar system. Trick events are even further removed from the rest of Kinect Joy Ride and see your chosen kart taking to the skies as a plane, which you then wing walk on. Avatar silhouettes appear onscreen prompting you to copy their poses, and you score points for doing so both accurately and quickly. This makes for a nice change of pace, but you're unlikely to spend much time in Trick events because it doesn't take long for them to become repetitive.

Kinect Joy Ride isn't a bad game by any means, but it's also not a good game to release alongside the new Kinect hardware. Rather than showing off what the Kinect is capable of, Kinect Joy Ride is an obvious example of a game that would be better if you could play it with a regular controller. It's fun to see your avatar racing around in a muscle car or an ice cream van, but the sad fact is that he or she invariably appears to be having a better time behind the wheel than you.

View the original article here

Kinect Joy Ride Review [Xbox 360]

This motion-controlled racer is fun, but it'd undoubtedly be better if you could play it with a regular controller.

Kinect Joy Ride is a colorful racing game that has a lot of good things going for it. It lets you play as your Xbox Live avatar and choose from a number of good-looking rides; its imaginative environments are host to several different event types, in addition to regular races; and it can be played with friends both locally or online. Sadly, though, almost every aspect of the game falls short of its full potential because you're forced to play with motion controls that, while uncomplicated, are imperfect at best.

All of the events support two players simultaneously on the same console.

You don't need to concern yourself with accelerating or braking in Kinect Joy Ride, but you are responsible for steering, performing tricks, using weapons, and charging up and triggering speed boosts. To steer, you stretch your arms out in front of you as if you're holding a steering wheel. The Kinect has no problems recognizing your attempts to turn left and right, though it's difficult to make subtle adjustments when drifting around corners or attempting to collect tokens on the track, for example. Worse still, attempts to charge up your all-important boost by pulling both of your arms back don't always register. Activating boosts by thrusting your arms forward works more reliably, but that doesn't count for much if you're having trouble charging them beforehand. Weapons and other power-ups--which only come into play in Battle Race mode--are activated by holding one of your hands out to the side. That works just fine, but because steering is already problematic, it can be a little worrisome to take one of your hands off of the invisible wheel.

Despite the problems with its controls, Kinect Joy Ride is rarely frustrating. There are times when a missed boost opportunity might cost you a position in a race, but the game does a good job of rewarding you regardless of whether you finish on the podium or are last across the line. Every time you finish an event, you gain fans, and as your fan base grows, you unlock new rides and events. You make progress regardless of how poorly you do, and you're free to repeat events that you particularly enjoy and can ignore any that you don't like. It's unfortunate that the differences between the numerous vehicles you can drive are only aesthetic, but it's at least fun to show off your latest unlocks in online races.

Pro Race and Battle Race are the only modes that can be played online, where they support up to eight players simultaneously. Races are contested on tracks that incorporate plenty of shortcuts, numerous boost pads, and--more often than not--some opportunities to get big air and then perform flips and rolls by leaning as if you're shifting a significant amount of weight in your kart. Stunts earn you additional fans, and although there's no other tangible reward for performing them in the middle of a race, there's also never any danger of you failing to land one and losing time as a result. AI opponents do a good job of keeping both offline and underpopulated online races challenging, and even if you manage to finish first, there's some replay value to be had attempting to beat bronze, silver, and gold medal times for every event. Battle Races aren't as much fun as Pro Races. There are only six different power-ups, and none of them are particularly satisfying to use because they don't require any skill. Falling foul of one that freezes all of your wheels or having opponents simply teleport ahead of you just isn't much fun either.

Stunt mode, on the other hand, offers an enjoyable challenge and--because it doesn't demand precise controls--is one of the better event types on offer. Your goal is to rack up as many points as possible on courses that resemble either a gigantic halfpipe or multiple halfpipes connected by loop-the-loops and the like. Using well-timed speed boosts, it's possible to get insane amounts of air, and as you perform stunts, you can also score points by collecting items like bells and cherries that are hanging in midair. There's something very satisfying about launching your chosen ride high into the air and then, as you lean in different directions, watching your avatar clinging to it for dear life as you perform barrel rolls and backflips.

Similarly satisfying, though more demanding of precision, are the Smash events that challenge you to drive around bowl-like arenas destroying statues and other items by crashing into them. It's not particularly challenging, but to achieve high scores, you need to destroy as many of the targets as possible while drifting so that you keep your points multiplier going. Furthermore, you need to keep an eye on the clock that's counting down because once you've destroyed all of the statues, you trigger a ramp and must jump off of it to take down the giant "boss" statue. It's a shame that there are only a few similar Smash arenas in the game because they're fun when you get a good drift going.

The remaining two modes are titled Dash and Trick, and both are odd because they play very differently from everything else in Kinect Joy Ride. Dash events are short time-trial events on tracks that are littered with both obstacles and collectible fan tokens. Speed boosts are every bit important in these events as they are in races, but what's strange is that when you steer your kart, you don't have analog control and can only move left or right one or two lanes at a time. Your car takes corners automatically, so all you need to do is make sure it's in a lane where the only thing it's going to hit are collectibles and boost pads. This method of steering works well enough that it makes you wonder if races could've worked better if they employed a similar system. Trick events are even further removed from the rest of Kinect Joy Ride and see your chosen kart taking to the skies as a plane, which you then wing walk on. Avatar silhouettes appear onscreen prompting you to copy their poses, and you score points for doing so both accurately and quickly. This makes for a nice change of pace, but you're unlikely to spend much time in Trick events because it doesn't take long for them to become repetitive.

Kinect Joy Ride isn't a bad game by any means, but it's also not a good game to release alongside the new Kinect hardware. Rather than showing off what the Kinect is capable of, Kinect Joy Ride is an obvious example of a game that would be better if you could play it with a regular controller. It's fun to see your avatar racing around in a muscle car or an ice cream van, but the sad fact is that he or she invariably appears to be having a better time behind the wheel than you.

View the original article here