Crossboard 7

Inconsistent and erratic controls turn this somewhat promising racer into an average one...

With the initial batch of Kinect titles out there doing their thing, it seems clear that developers are still up until the early hours of the morning trying to come up with successful ways of implementing this exciting new technology. One hurdle must be finding an elegant solution for the problem of controlling acceleration and braking in racing games, a prime example being Big Park Studios' Joy Ride, which solves this little issue by simply taking speed control away from the player altogether. Like Sonic Free Ride before it, Konami's Crossboard 7 has a far more natural solution to the problem; allowing the forces of gravity to do the work. This results in a motion controlled racing game which, while still flawed in numerous respects, at least makes you feel directly involved in the process of hurtling down a mountainside on a hoverboard.

Known in the US as Adrenalin Misfits, Crossboard 7 is an all-terrain hoverboard racer set in a bright and cheerful game world. If you're wondering what happened to Crossboard 1 through 6, don't panic, you haven't missed an entire game franchise. This is in fact the first Crossboard title, so I'm assuming the 7 refers to the seven game modes available. Or perhaps the seven exotic environments which play host to the hoverboarding action. Either way, the core concept of Crossboard 7 is simple: guide your crossboard down a twisting path across snow, lava, sand and so on, bust a few "sick" tricks along the way, and do your best to cross the finish line before your opponents do.

When you aren't gunning it down a treacherous slope, you'll be spending your time taking part in trick-based events, long distance jumps, half-pipe sessions and other events with names like "Balloon Buster" which are as minigame-like as they sound. Overall there is quite a wide variety of game modes, even if the core gameplay which drives it all remains the same throughout. Sadly, even with all these events to take part in, it's really only the straightforward races which will hold your interest for a significant length of time. Others, especially the trick events and half pipe, are too inconsistent and finicky to be fun for more than half an hour. Still, there are plenty of different race types and fun locations to try, over 50 (slightly) different Crossboards and a number of characters to unlock, and since the game starts off locked up pretty tight there is plenty of game here to keep casual gamers entertained for a while.

Casual gamers? That's right. Crossboard 7 is definitely better suited to the casual gamer, especially the younger crowd who will enjoy the bright landscapes and cartoon characters, and will probably be less offended by the games' often dodgy controls. Serious gamers, on the other hand, tend to be less forgiving and expect more from their games. For those weary gamers, the clumsy controls here will soon prove too much to bare. It's not that the controlling your Crossboarder is a painful experience, it's just frustratingly inconsistent, so much so that success in some game modes start to feel more about luck than skill.

It's a pretty straight forward affair getting your character from A to B, with a fair amount of leaning from side to side to carve left and right and leaning forward to gain momentum downhill. Jump in the air to launch your character off a ramp, extend your arms to glide for maximum distance, and twist left and right and raise your front foot to do air tricks, and that's just about it. On the surface it seems to work well, but the longer you play the more the cracks begin to show. Leaning further is supposed to make your character turn harder, but the turning mechanic lacks subtlety and is terribly inaccurate. You never really know how far to lean to keep a neat racing line through the corners, and sometimes the most diminutive body movement will have your boarder swerving violently into a wall, while other times you need to lean to the point where you are just about toppling over to get the same result. It's never particularly difficult to finish a race, or even to win most of the time, but the cumbersome controls make it challenging to do so with any level of grace and precision. Instead you end up bumping your way down the track like a multicoloured pinball.

Trying to rack up serious points on the trick stages, especially the half pipe event, is also an uphill battle due to the defective controls. Once up in the air, it becomes a process of trial and error as you spin around and generally make a fool of yourself to pull off some unspectacular moves. Landing successfully seems to be taken care of for you, further dumbing down the already simplistic action. Once you've completed an event there is very little to compel you to ever try it again, so more hardcore gamers may find this game becomes boring before long. If you are unable to overlook these issues, be prepared to be severely frustrated.

On the plus side, the overall presentation of Crossboard 7 is quirky and lighthearted, with colourful characters and lively environments which may not be up to the standards set by Rare's Kinect efforts so far but are still cheerful enough to keep the young ones glued to the screen. Don't look too closely though, because the texture quality and character models don't stand up well to careful examination, so it's best to keep moving. Menu screens and so on are vibrant and easy to navigate, never leaving you bewildered as to where to go next. Menu navigation may be of little concern for standard controller-based games, but with Kinect a bad navigation system can be beyond aggravating. Fortunately, Crossboard 7 does well in this regard. Instead of the usual "hover your hand over the icon until it selects" mechanic which we see often in Kinect games, but which doesn't always work properly, here navigation is not tied to a floating on screen cursor, but instead uses arm positions to select menu options. Lift your right arm straight up to select a button, hold it out to the side to scroll to the next icon and so on. It works really well, and is the one thing that Crossboard 7 can be proud of.

The tunes which accompany your crossboarding are nothing to write home about, so let's just say that they do enough to fill the empty spaces with music which doesn't offend. Sound effects are equally nontoxic but inconsequential, but are a little sparse. More boisterous effects and a more thumping soundtrack would have done well to up the excitement levels. There isn't much voice work to worry about, except for the ever present voice of your guide, a green wolf-like creature cursed with a tiresome 'surfer dude' vibe which will soon start to annoy unless you yourself speak like that. Bro.

To get maximum enjoyment from what is a generally uninspired racer, your best bet is to get stuck in with the split screen multiplayer mode. All the events from the single-player mode are available, with the Kinect camera picking up the movements of two players just as well as it does for one, and it can be quite a laugh to flail around frantically along with another gamer as you race for the finish. Since the core gameplay here is the same as it is for lone gamers the same flaws carry over to the multiplayer too, but Crossboard 7 is definitely more entertaining to play with a friend, even if it's just for a while.

Crossboard 7 may not be the most exhilarating release we've seen for Kinect so far, and yes, it is riddled with gameplay issues, the most obvious of these being the unreliable control system, but this is also far from the worst title we've seen for Microsoft's new hardware. The characters are unremarkable, but if you don't like them you can always use your Avatar instead, while the courses and venues are pleasant enough to look at. If the developers had spent more time fine tuning the control system this game would have been an above average racer for the younger generation. Unfortunately I can't look past the discordant and unstable controls that blemish an otherwise mildly entertaining racer. It's not unplayable, but it could have been so much better. You also need to take into consideration the target market here, because even though I struggled to find reason to play this for more than a few hours, kids and casual gamers may find this enjoyable enough to make it worth the purchase price. More... discerning gamers may find, as I did, that Crossboard 7 is a very apt title, in that after an hour or so it left me both cross and bored.

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