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This thread has been linked to the game 'Sonic Free Riders'.
You can chart Sonic Riders success on a sliding scale, assuming the slide started from the bottom and went down below the ground. So I didn’t really hold out much hope for the new Sonic Free Riders on Kinect.
Point and Click
It started off well. The menu system was pretty easy to use, especially considering some of the terrible menus I’ve had to put up with on Kinect so far (don’t get me started on Zumba). Unfortunately, after that it all started to go downhill faster than Sonic after a shiny batch of rings.
Training only served to highlight what a mess the motion sensing hedgehog game was in. While leaning left and right and holding out your hand like a demented traffic policemen seemed to be picked up (most of the time), the jump and spin moves required to perform stunts just puzzled the Kinect sensor and meant that 10 attempts later I was still stuck on the same training level.
Never-ending Story
Quitting out of this in frustration, I went to the main game. The cut scenes were typically Sonic: Eggman is holding a race (again) and Sonic wants to win. Strangely enough, so do all the other characters. Big, Knuckles, Amy, all the usual cast are there, some more annoying than others.
The characters are set in teams of three and you’ll find yourself battling old friends and foes through harder and harder races. The racers have different skills which often mean that some are faster and some are better at cornering.
After a bit of un-necessary banter, the game finally starts and you breathe a sigh of relief.
Round the Bend
Racing isn’t too bad on a basic level. Standing sideways, you lean back and forth to go around corners. As you get faster, though, this becomes more of a problem. Pretty soon you’ll look as if you’ve come back from the pub after one too many pints while trying to stay upright.
Gathering rings is even more problematic. While leaning to steer you then need to hold a hand out to the left or right, but considering that you’re already facing sideways and concentrating on steering it becomes a far more complicated task that it should.
Bad Move
The action is occasionally broken up by various action-based tasks. One such example has you swimming through a water-filled tunnel, requiring you to paddle with your arms. It looks as daft as it sounds and while this might not be a problem in some other games, it just doesn’t seem to fit with Sonic Free Riders game play.
Bonus levels give you an objective to complete, from beating an opponent to making jumps or collecting a certain amount of rings. Some are more difficult than others due to requiring the worst elements of the control scheme.
Looking Spiky
Sonic Free Riders does get something right. It actually looks pretty good on your TV. It’s a small positive point in an otherwise dire game, but at least Sega made an effort to make the tracks and riders look as colourful as possible. While steering is an issue, you’ll never be unsure where to go and the tracks all have a good design.
Game Over
Sonic Free Riders could have been the first really good entry to the series. Instead, it feels like an incomplete mess with bad handling and very little control using Kinect. The colourful graphics don’t make much of an impact against the poor gameplay and control. Maybe one day Sega will get a Sonic Riders game right. This isn’t it.
3/10
Point and Click
It started off well. The menu system was pretty easy to use, especially considering some of the terrible menus I’ve had to put up with on Kinect so far (don’t get me started on Zumba). Unfortunately, after that it all started to go downhill faster than Sonic after a shiny batch of rings.
Training only served to highlight what a mess the motion sensing hedgehog game was in. While leaning left and right and holding out your hand like a demented traffic policemen seemed to be picked up (most of the time), the jump and spin moves required to perform stunts just puzzled the Kinect sensor and meant that 10 attempts later I was still stuck on the same training level.
Never-ending Story
Quitting out of this in frustration, I went to the main game. The cut scenes were typically Sonic: Eggman is holding a race (again) and Sonic wants to win. Strangely enough, so do all the other characters. Big, Knuckles, Amy, all the usual cast are there, some more annoying than others.
The characters are set in teams of three and you’ll find yourself battling old friends and foes through harder and harder races. The racers have different skills which often mean that some are faster and some are better at cornering.
After a bit of un-necessary banter, the game finally starts and you breathe a sigh of relief.
Round the Bend
Racing isn’t too bad on a basic level. Standing sideways, you lean back and forth to go around corners. As you get faster, though, this becomes more of a problem. Pretty soon you’ll look as if you’ve come back from the pub after one too many pints while trying to stay upright.
Gathering rings is even more problematic. While leaning to steer you then need to hold a hand out to the left or right, but considering that you’re already facing sideways and concentrating on steering it becomes a far more complicated task that it should.
Bad Move
The action is occasionally broken up by various action-based tasks. One such example has you swimming through a water-filled tunnel, requiring you to paddle with your arms. It looks as daft as it sounds and while this might not be a problem in some other games, it just doesn’t seem to fit with Sonic Free Riders game play.
Bonus levels give you an objective to complete, from beating an opponent to making jumps or collecting a certain amount of rings. Some are more difficult than others due to requiring the worst elements of the control scheme.
Looking Spiky
Sonic Free Riders does get something right. It actually looks pretty good on your TV. It’s a small positive point in an otherwise dire game, but at least Sega made an effort to make the tracks and riders look as colourful as possible. While steering is an issue, you’ll never be unsure where to go and the tracks all have a good design.
Game Over
Sonic Free Riders could have been the first really good entry to the series. Instead, it feels like an incomplete mess with bad handling and very little control using Kinect. The colourful graphics don’t make much of an impact against the poor gameplay and control. Maybe one day Sega will get a Sonic Riders game right. This isn’t it.
3/10
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You can chart Sonic Riders success on a sliding scale, assuming the slide started from the bottom and went down below the ground. So I didn’t really hold out much hope for the new Sonic Free Riders on Kinect.
Point and Click
It started off well. The menu system was pretty easy to use, especially considering some of the terrible menus I’ve had to put up with on Kinect so far (don’t get me started on Zumba). Unfortunately, after that it all started to go downhill faster than Sonic after a shiny batch of rings.
Training only served to highlight what a mess the motion sensing hedgehog game was in. While leaning left and right and holding out your hand like a demented traffic policemen seemed to be picked up (most of the time), the jump and spin moves required to perform stunts just puzzled the Kinect sensor and meant that 10 attempts later I was still stuck on the same training level.
Never-ending Story
Quitting out of this in frustration, I went to the main game. The cut scenes were typically Sonic: Eggman is holding a race (again) and Sonic wants to win. Strangely enough, so do all the other characters. Big, Knuckles, Amy, all the usual cast are there, some more annoying than others.
The characters are set in teams of three and you’ll find yourself battling old friends and foes through harder and harder races. The racers have different skills which often mean that some are faster and some are better at cornering.
After a bit of un-necessary banter, the game finally starts and you breathe a sigh of relief.
Round the Bend
Racing isn’t too bad on a basic level. Standing sideways, you lean back and forth to go around corners. As you get faster, though, this becomes more of a problem. Pretty soon you’ll look as if you’ve come back from the pub after one too many pints while trying to stay upright.
Gathering rings is even more problematic. While leaning to steer you then need to hold a hand out to the left or right, but considering that you’re already facing sideways and concentrating on steering it becomes a far more complicated task that it should.
Bad Move
The action is occasionally broken up by various action-based tasks. One such example has you swimming through a water-filled tunnel, requiring you to paddle with your arms. It looks as daft as it sounds and while this might not be a problem in some other games, it just doesn’t seem to fit with Sonic Free Riders game play.
Bonus levels give you an objective to complete, from beating an opponent to making jumps or collecting a certain amount of rings. Some are more difficult than others due to requiring the worst elements of the control scheme.
Looking Spiky
Sonic Free Riders does get something right. It actually looks pretty good on your TV. It’s a small positive point in an otherwise dire game, but at least Sega made an effort to make the tracks and riders look as colourful as possible. While steering is an issue, you’ll never be unsure where to go and the tracks all have a good design.
Game Over
Sonic Free Riders could have been the first really good entry to the series. Instead, it feels like an incomplete mess with bad handling and very little control using Kinect. The colourful graphics don’t make much of an impact against the poor gameplay and control. Maybe one day Sega will get a Sonic Riders game right. This isn’t it.
3/10
Point and Click
It started off well. The menu system was pretty easy to use, especially considering some of the terrible menus I’ve had to put up with on Kinect so far (don’t get me started on Zumba). Unfortunately, after that it all started to go downhill faster than Sonic after a shiny batch of rings.
Training only served to highlight what a mess the motion sensing hedgehog game was in. While leaning left and right and holding out your hand like a demented traffic policemen seemed to be picked up (most of the time), the jump and spin moves required to perform stunts just puzzled the Kinect sensor and meant that 10 attempts later I was still stuck on the same training level.
Never-ending Story
Quitting out of this in frustration, I went to the main game. The cut scenes were typically Sonic: Eggman is holding a race (again) and Sonic wants to win. Strangely enough, so do all the other characters. Big, Knuckles, Amy, all the usual cast are there, some more annoying than others.
The characters are set in teams of three and you’ll find yourself battling old friends and foes through harder and harder races. The racers have different skills which often mean that some are faster and some are better at cornering.
After a bit of un-necessary banter, the game finally starts and you breathe a sigh of relief.
Round the Bend
Racing isn’t too bad on a basic level. Standing sideways, you lean back and forth to go around corners. As you get faster, though, this becomes more of a problem. Pretty soon you’ll look as if you’ve come back from the pub after one too many pints while trying to stay upright.
Gathering rings is even more problematic. While leaning to steer you then need to hold a hand out to the left or right, but considering that you’re already facing sideways and concentrating on steering it becomes a far more complicated task that it should.
Bad Move
The action is occasionally broken up by various action-based tasks. One such example has you swimming through a water-filled tunnel, requiring you to paddle with your arms. It looks as daft as it sounds and while this might not be a problem in some other games, it just doesn’t seem to fit with Sonic Free Riders game play.
Bonus levels give you an objective to complete, from beating an opponent to making jumps or collecting a certain amount of rings. Some are more difficult than others due to requiring the worst elements of the control scheme.
Looking Spiky
Sonic Free Riders does get something right. It actually looks pretty good on your TV. It’s a small positive point in an otherwise dire game, but at least Sega made an effort to make the tracks and riders look as colourful as possible. While steering is an issue, you’ll never be unsure where to go and the tracks all have a good design.
Game Over
Sonic Free Riders could have been the first really good entry to the series. Instead, it feels like an incomplete mess with bad handling and very little control using Kinect. The colourful graphics don’t make much of an impact against the poor gameplay and control. Maybe one day Sega will get a Sonic Riders game right. This isn’t it.
3/10