Kinect Joy Ride

Cast your mind back to that awe-inspiring Project Natal 'concept' trailer that Microsoft released when the whole controller-free idea was first revealed. You'll recall there was a bit where the player was in the middle of some sort of racing game, changing gears with one hand, happily powering through corners as his family huddled around cheering him on. It looked, well, joyful, didn't it? Let me be the first to break it to you then: Joy Ride is not that game. And it's not particularly joyful either.

Joy Ride started off as a 'Freemium' kart-style racer destined for the Xbox LIVE Arcade, and I'm thinking that it should have stayed that way. Had this been a normal arcade racer, using a standard controller instead of Kinect, this would have been a pick-up and play kind of game, fun in quick bursts, especially for younger gamers. Instead it was decided that Kinect needed some form of racer in its launch line-up, and this is what we got.

First impressions aren't that bad at all. Developer Big Park has done a good job of making the world of Joy Ride a bright and cheerful one, with a visual style reminiscent of the animated movie Cars. The menus are easy to navigate, and within moments you will have selected your cartoony vehicle, painted it - by holding a colourful object up to the Kinect camera to let it scan the colour - and you're off to select your race type. Besides the standard Pro Race mode, there is a Stunt mode, Battle Race, Dash, Smash, Trick and Xbox LIVE modes to try out.

Stunt mode has you driving around a variety of half-pipe style tracks, launching your car into the air to earn points as you collect floating objects and do tricks. The Battle Race mode is similar to the Pro Race, except that now there are all kinds of crazy weapons and special powers to use against your opponents. Dash is a basic straight race against the clock, while Smash puts you in an arena to, well, smash things for points. The most obscure of these modes has to be Trick, which basically has your Avatar standing out on one of the wings of your car (yes, your vehicle suddenly has wings. Don't ask) as you sail through the air, copying full body poses to earn score multipliers. It's such a departure from the rest of the game, and it's actually fun, especially since you just know that the Kinect camera is taking photos of you which it will embarrass you with later.

Progression through the game involves earning fans by doing well in the various modes, which in turn unlocks more tracks and vehicles as you go along. With so many different gameplay modes and venues to try out, you would think that Joy Ride could keep you entertained for ages, but unfortunately that isn't the case. No amount of unlockable tracks and vehicles - all of which seem to handle exactly the same in any case - could be enough to make up for Joy Ride's biggest shortcoming: the gameplay itself.

To control your vehicle you stick your hands out in front of you as if you were holding a steering wheel, and turn your 'wheel' left and right to steer. No surprises there. What may come as a surprise is that you have no control over your speed whatsoever. The game even tries to make that sound like a good thing, with a pop-up explaining that "You don't have to worry about accelerating and breaking, we'll take care of that for you!", as if we should be grateful that one of the most important parts of the driving experience has been taken away from us. Considering that Kinect is supposed to be all about immersion, it's a sad state of affairs that Joy Ride's control method severely lacks that all-important immersive feeling.

Besides turning your imaginary wheel to steer, you also need to pull your hands back to build up your Boost and then release it by pushing forwards with your hands once charged. When in the air you can control the tricks you do by leaning side to side, forwards or backwards. Drifting around wide corners is taken care of by leaning as you steer. It's actually quite amusing the first few times, especially for onlookers having a laugh at the players expense. It's just such a pity that the controls feel so random, so loose and unfocused. There is just about no way to guide your car smoothly through a sequence of bends without going off the track or bumping into something. You may get lucky occasionally and pull off a few clean sections, but you never really feel like you are in complete control. I found that Kinect got confused sometimes when my hands crossed over each other in a tight corner, as if the camera was struggling to determine which hand was which. There were also times when my car would turn even though my hands were perfectly straight in front of me, or my Boost would charge all by itself without me pulling back.

Had it not been for Joy Ride's very relaxed difficulty setting, I would have been stone last every time, but I'm guessing Big Park made it easy so that the kids that make up this game's target market wouldn't be disheartened and lose interest after a few frustrating losses. Younger gamers will probably get a kick out of many aspects of Joy Ride, because it really seems like a fun place to be, and the music and sound effects are chirpy and fit the visual style perfectly, but the underlying gameplay mechanic needed to spend a lot longer in the tuning garage before being released out onto the roads.

There is a fun little racer here, a vibrant and cheerful romp, but sadly it's the controller-free aspect of it that lets the air out of Joy Ride's tyres. The key to the Kinect experience is that you, the gamer, are meant to be the controller, but Joy Ride proves that it's not enough to just use this new technology, you need to implement it in a way that makes it more fun than it would be without a peripheral of sorts. To illustrate my point, I'll admit that after the millionth failed corner attempt, I tried to use the game's box as a makeshift steering wheel. It didn't work either.

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