Could Kinect’s first dabble in the racing genre be a real Mario Kart rival?
Format: Xbox 360 Dev: BigPark Pub: Microsoft Out: 10/11/10 Players: 1-4, 2-8 online
In terms of video games, the racing genre is a massive market. Successful titles such as the Forza series on Xbox, the massive Gran Turismo series on PlayStation and of course the success of Nintendo’s classic Mario Kart series confirms this. So, inevitably, Kinect had to be launched with a racing title.
Xbox’s first attempt at a Kinect derived racer is Kinect Joy Ride and let’s get straight to the point, if you are looking for a real simulation racer, look elsewhere. Kinect Joy Ride is not going to satisfy aspiring Lewis Hamilton’s. It’s not that type of game.
Instead of being a hardcore focused racer, BigPark have created a game clearly targeted at fans of Mario Kart on Wii. The style of Joy Ride is very similar to its Japanese counterpart and the games are played in practically the same way.
To control Joy Ride, you are required to hold your arms out as if you are holding a steering wheel and turn left and right, depending on where you what to go, and your Avatar driving the car on-screen does the same. You can also perform tricks and drifts via various other movements, such as moving your hips backwards and forwards to drift and shoving your hands forward will provide a speed boost.
The idea of these controls is good in theory and very reminiscent of the rival Wii title, so most should pick this game up easily. However, it’s the controls that also bring Joy Ride down.
They are very slow and not very responsive. It seems to take a few attempts to perform the move you are wish to trigger and this becomes annoying very quickly. In the heat of a race, where you want to do things quickly, the game is lacking and you can’t help but think that the Kinect sensor is not cut out for this. The reason why Mario Kart Wii is so successful is because it’s easy to play and the controls are very responsive when using the Wii Remote.
Couple this with the fact that the overall look of Joy Ride is very disappointing, the lack of real gameplay and undeveloped game modes leaves you feeling that this title has come up way short. The fun factor of it wears off very quickly and you soon realise that Joy Ride just doesn’t cut it, not when we compare it to the great racing titles we are used to. The title really doesn’t do Xbox or Kinect any favours.
Ian Davies
Tags: driving, kinect, kinect joy ride, microsoft, racing
