Microsoft BigPark Studios has revealed the sequel to one of the Xbox 360 Kinect launch titles, ‘Kinect Joy Ride’. The big news is that ‘Joy Ride Turbo’ will be a standard controller game, all Kinect support appears to have been removed.
The original game, also by Microsoft BigPark Game Studios, wasn’t so well received with critics and gamers complaining that kart-racing didn’t feel natural via the Kinect control system. It seemed like the control method had been shoe-horned into an inappropriate gaming genre, just to bolster the Kinect hardware launch. Even the official MSN blog review of Kinect Joy Ride expressed this feeling: “The game basics are this - you hold your hands out in front of you and grip the air as if you were gripping a steering wheel… The problem is, standing there gripping nothing but air during this game feels really strange. I suddenly miss the feedback that a handheld controller offers… it left me feeling disconnected from what I was doing and disinterested in hitting the racetrack again.” In effect it the Kinect only control scheme seems to have hobbled the original game and made it less playable and fun.
The new game ‘Joy Ride Turbo’ will be released via Xbox Live Arcade “soon”. As well as traditional joy pad control style play the new game has the following features:
- Up to 8 competitors in a race (4 player split screen and 8 player online Xbox Live)
- Rockets, mines, dynamite and more to disrupt your fellow racers
- Unlockable upgraded vehicles
- 3 play modes; Battle, Pro and Time Trial
- A new Stunt Park to show off your driving skills; jumping off cliffs, being shot from a canon, performing tricks and stunts.
Below is a video of the original Kinect enabled Kinect Joy Ride to refresh your memories of that game and controllling a racing kart via Kinect. The new game will be similar in look, style and its fun approach to racing but utilising a joy pad this time around.
