Sonic the Hedgehog and friends are back for more hover board racing action. In Sonic Free Riders for Xbox 360 Kinect, you can jump into the racing action…literally, as you lean, reach, crouch, and jump as if you were on a hoverboard. Just like Sonic!

In this Kinect racing game, you stand like you’re riding on a flying surfboard. Lean left and right to turn and reach your left arm and right arm out to grab rings at your sides. Or raise your arms up to nab rings above you. Your hover board will level up if you collect enough rings. I really had fun making ground kicking motions to make the hover board boost faster!

Just like Mario Kart racing games, you can pick up weapons and power-ups to uses against other racers. For instance, if you grab a soda can, use your right hand like you are shaking up a soda, and when you shake it enough, you’ll be able to ride on the soda can like a rocket! With the bowling ball weapon, move your hand in a bowling motion to take out racers ahead of you!

Sometimes you’ll have to do other motions as well. For instance, if you hop in a mine cart, you’ll have to pump your arms like holding an invisible bar to make the cart roll faster. Two players can even team up and race together like a tag team! Sonic Free Riders has all the gameplay modes found in other racers of its ilk, like a Story Mode, Free Race, Time Trials, etc. You can also customize your board and unlock other goodies and racers.

The only thing I had trouble with was jumping and doing tricks. You’re supposed to be able to crouch down and jump up and spin around in the air to do stunts, but I could never get it to work. Of course, we probably weren’t in the most optimal place to play Kinect either, as we were on a 2nd floor apartment and had to be careful when jumping so as to not disturb the people below. Plus I’m a klutz and being blind in one eye hinders my balance a bit, so I fell down once when trying to jump and spin at the same time!

Kid Factor:

Sonic Riders is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Cartoon Violence. You can bump other racers and slow them down with silly weapons, but that’s it. Reading skill isn’t required as all the instructions have picture cues and spoken voice. But younger gamers might get frustrated at the controls if they have trouble doing it like I did. But kids love Sonic, so they’ll probably enjoy a game where they can do what he does.

Cary’s Kinect Impressions

This was the first time I was able to play Kinect. I don’t have it myself (not enough space in my small house and I don’t want to spend 150 bucks on it anyway), so I went to a good friend’s house who has Kinect so I was able to play and review Sonic Free Riders. I’d like to thank my friend for letting me come over and do that. Anyway, I’m very impressed with the Kinect technology; however, I don’t think Sonic Free Riders is the best demonstration of how well it can work.

First of all, you need LOTS of space to play it. Enough where you can stand a few feet away from the TV with no furniture around you. You’ll need even more space if two players are on at the same time. And if you live on an upper floor apartment or dorm, jumping in games may pose a problem for your downstairs neighbors. So basically you need to have a ballroom for a game area if you want to really enjoy Kinect.

Tags: Game Reviews