As with any Kinect title, you are going to need a ton of room to play Kinect Joy Ride. When you load up the game for the first time it will give you the normal Kinect warnings of stopping when you get tired etc, and nce the game loads you can easily use the Kinect tuner to make sure you have enough virtual space to play in. For singleplayer mode, make sure you have at least 7 to 8 feet or the sensor is going to have a hard time reading you. Thankfully, I have an open living room with about 10 feet of space between my TV and setup was a breeze as it not only scanned me right in but also put in my avatar to race with. Putting a player’s avatar in the game is a great little feature and makes you feel, dare I say, ‘connected’ to the game.
Once the initial setup is over, the Kinect sensor experienced no lag in moving through the menus to navigate your different modes of play. Kinect Joy Ride makes no use of the controller at all and allows you to pause the game using an awkward left hand raised motion until the circle fills. This was easy to do and no lag was experienced – though in frantic pausing situations you might just want to grab the controller to pause. It would have been a neat feature to add voice commands to the menus but that is sorely lacking here. Multiplayer setup was a breeze as your partner just needs to step right next to you for the sensor to scan them in. It picked up my my opponent’s image and logged them right into their profile provided they have one setup on your system. If you are playing multiplayer, you will need at least 10 feet of room or Kinect will go a little wonky on you.
GAMEPLAY:
Kinect Joy Ride has your standard modes of gameplay for a family racing title. As you play through single player races, you unlock different tracks and cars for your avatar to play with. I started with the drift race mode, which was just a classic race style, though most of my single player experience was done playing the Mario Kart-like race mode where you can use weapons to bash your opponents into submission.
The devs made the game really easy to play for almost anyone. Tthere is no need to speed up or slow down as the game does that for you. While it takes some getting used to it makes sense as you use your body to control other actions. Leaning to the left or right will allow the car to drift on turns. Turning is done by holding your arms out like you are driving a car and turning in what direction you want to go. I found that Kinect responded well with little to no lag when turning – but it does take some getting used to. I never got the hang of the drifting portion and ended up barely using it. Kinect Joy Ride is all about being over the top so, of course, there are tricks and speed boosts to be found. When you hit certain markers on the track you can lean back to fill up your boost meter and then shove your arms forward to set it off. As you hit ramps you can move your arms or body in different directions to perform tricks. It was a pretty funny experience to see my avatar flip outside of his little hot rod. Oh and, by the way, Kinect also takes photos of you while you play to show off what a freak you look like playing the game. If you want you can also upload them directly to the Kinect Share website for added embarrassment.
The best mode in Kinect Joy Ride is the half-pipe. Think skateboarding but with avatar driven cars and you are in for a fun time. This is all about doing tricks and racking up points. You can also blast your car into objects like floating cherries to score those extra sweet points. It makes you want to keep playing over and over to beat the high score. Half-pipe is the standout mode in Kinect Joy Ride and is a hell of a lot of fun to play. Multiplayer modes were racing against your friends for bragging rights (and the occasional pose-off) and with enough room can be a fun experience.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND:
The graphics in Kinect Joy Ride are cartoony and a perfect fit for a family racing title. Even with all the Kinect action going on, I did not notice any framerate issues or lag in the game when playing with another person. The environments are over the top and it truly feels like you are inside the world of your avatar. The sound in Joyride is on point with no bugs and it fit well with the game. The music was cartoony and the sound effects, while minimal, were also fitting.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
At the E3 2010 Microsoft Press Conference, we saw that the Forza team is working on some sort of Kinect-enabled title. While Kinect Joy Ride does not give the ultimate racing experience, it offers a glimpse at what we just might see in those future titles. Kinect Joy Ride is a fun game for the family and while the singleplayer races can get a bit boring the half-pipe mode is where it is at. If you own a Kinect system and have the room there is no reason not to take this one for a drive.
