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Kinect Joy Ride Review (X360)

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By , About.com Guide

Kinect Joy Ride Review (X360) Microsoft
Kart racer Kinect Joy Ride is one of the easiest Kinect launch games to jump in and play and immediately know exactly what to do. You just hold your hands out like you're holding a pretend steering wheel and away you go. You don't even have to brake or accelerate, it does it all for you. Because of this over simplicity, though, Joy Ride also happens to be one of the more shallow and uninteresting launch games. It just isn't fun to play for very long.
Game Details

  • Publisher: Microsoft
  • Developer: BigPark Inc.
  • ESRB Rating: “E" for Everyone
  • Genre: Kart Racing
  • Pros: Super easy to play; custom paint jobs
  • Cons: Menus; not a lot of gameplay depth; gets old about 5 races in

First, a history lesson. Joy Ride was first shown at E3 2009 and was originally meant to be a free to download XBLA game starring Xbox 360 Avatars. It would focus on custom user created content and paid premium DLC. At E3 2010 it was revealed Joy Ride had been turned into a full-priced Kinect launch game.

Kinect Joy Ride offers a fair bit of variety. There are normal race modes, stunt modes, drag races, and more. Smash mode is kind of interesting because you just get to break a bunch of stuff littered around an arena. The battle race mode feels just like a Mario Kart clone, complete with the same sort of weapon set. There are a handful of different environments that courses for each mode are laid out on.

There are a number of vehicles in the game, but none of them really feel any different from the rest. Unlocking new cars just isn't a thrill because there isn't ever a real feeling of advancement. They all feel the same.

One feature I admit I enjoyed way too much was the custom paint option. This lets you paint your car any color you want by holding an object in front of the Kinect camera. I scanned anything I had handy, and it copied the colors perfectly. A bright neon green pack of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky guitar strings, a bright red Stratocaster guitar, a purple and gold Minnesota Vikings blanket, etc. and it worked great.

Microsoft
Kinect Joy Ride supports multiplayer as well for most of the modes. It can keep track of as many as 8 players, but only two can play at once. To switch players, someone new just steps in front of the camera and Kinect will recognize them as a new player.

Gameplay

This would all be awesome if Joy Ride actually played halfway decent, but it doesn't. The controls are easy to figure out - you hold your hands out in front of you to grab the "steering wheel", and turn your hands like you are turning a wheel to make your car turn, lean your body into turns to drift, lean your body while your car is in mid-air to do stunts, and pull the "wheel" towards your body to build up boost and then push it away to use the boost. But it isn't fun! The turning controls are unresponsive and calibration is wonky even though I'm playing with the same setup every other Kinect game worked fine in (which means it is a software problem, not hardware). It also feels odd to not have any speed control. Not that it matters, though, because the tracks are a mile wide and you aren't penalized for driving off road anyway. Each of the various game types are fun to try once or twice, but at that point you have seen pretty much all the actual gameplay the game has to offer. It has the depth of a half-dried rain puddle. It is very easy to pick up and play, but doesn't hold your attention for very long.

The menus are also a bit of a problem in that there are just too many of them. Before and after a race you have no less than 5 screens (on each end) to cycle through. It is pretty ridiculous. I'm also not fond of the way your cursor automatically snaps to menu options. Selecting things with Kinect feels more natural when you actually have to move your hand to select stuff. In Joy Ride your cursor jumps around to whatever you're relatively close to, which just feels awkward if you're used to playing other games where the cursor isn't quite as sticky. A small complaint, sure, but something that is immediately noticeable and never feels quite right.

Graphics

Graphically, Kinect Joy Ride looks okay. Everything is bright and colorful, but very simple in terms of textures.

Sound

The sound is also merely okay. Okay racing sound effects, and okay music. Okay.

Bottom Line

Microsoft
In the end, Kinect Joy Ride kind of feels like it should have stayed a free to download XBLA game. While it does offer a decent number of modes, the core gameplay is too simple and nothing about the presentation indicates this should be a full-priced retail game. I will say it is fun in small doses, and multiplayer can be fun for a while, but it won't hold your attention for long. One additional comment - You actually can play Kinect Joy Ride sitting down rather than standing up all the time. As long as your seat (in my case, my couch) is in the right range (where your body is about 8 feet or so away from the sensor) it recognizes your movements fairly well. Any closer, though, and it was a mess. It worked better standing, but wasn't unplayable while sitting. Kinect Joy Ride isn't broken or terrible, it is just shallow and boring. It is in no way worth $50. Rent it if you are desperate for a new Kinect game, or wait for it to hit $20 or less to buy it.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.

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