​

Back in the late Xbox 360 days, during the last years of the console's life span, Microsoft released a new device for the system to capitalize on the whole motion-sensing craze of the time, which the Wii made popular through its IR technology. The new device released for Xbox consoles, which continued into the Xbox One years, was called "Kinect", and it made use of sensor fusion to combine thousands of infrared pinpoints alongside a CMOS sensor to reference the depth of the scene, as well as an RGB camera to infer the skeletal structure and movement of the user, allowing for games to be interacted with by just using the body of the player as the controller itself.

This had its gimmicks of course, with a lot of games during the boom of the Kinect releasing which were only playable through the use of this device. Kinect Adventures was one of the first games released which required the use of the Kinect, with others like Just Dance and some sport games requiring it as well (among many others) ranging from a wide variety of motion actions that the players were required to do in order to play the games, making the player use their hand as a pointer of sorts for menus, to using arms or legs motions to simulate the in-game actions.

One of these titles was the exclusive "Sonic Free Riders", released for the Xbox 360 back in 2010. The game was released to negative reviews, many citing the necessity of the Kinect as the major flaw, with its clunky and unresponsive implementation of the Kinect's quirks into the game making it a turning point in the game's enjoyability, and of course, some people weren't keen on the phisicality aspect required to just play the game. "Sonic Free Riders" had no other way to be controlled but through the Kinect, so some fans of the "Riders" series of the Sonic franchise opted to just skip this title or didn't bother with it.

Fast forward 13 years after the game's release, the game has received an unofficial v1.0 patch made by Rei-san and their development team, which effectively makes the game playable with an Xbox 360 controller, finally making the game "free" of its Kinect requirement!

The patch has two versions, one for real console (which at the moment requires a Kinect device to be connected into the console so the controllers can be used) and one for the Xenia emulator, each requiring their own steps to get the game working, so those interested be sure to check the ReadMe file in detail.

Those interested can check out the patch links below, and for bug reports and/or further releases and developments, Rei-san has a Discord server which people can join to follow up on the project.

Gamebanana Patch Download Link
Google Drive Patch Download Link

 

[Reploid]

Better late, than never

 

[Mike_77712]

what the fuck lol

 

[osaka35]

Excellent. Kinect was amazing for Skyrim, but that was just for the mic. A racing game using it? Big oof.

Pretty neat an unofficial patch works on an actual console, too.

 

[raxadian]

This is awesome, but the game still kinda sucks.

 

[MiiJack]

Hopefully they'll be able to remove the kinect needing to be connected to play in the near future.

 

[fst312]

I forgot this game existed but games like this should have had kinect optional in the first place. Just searched up this game and it’s on more than one system apparently. Just saying that because I’m not sure if there is a difference between sonic riders and sonic free riders besides the Kinect part but still kinect should have been optional. Off topic for a bit here skyward sword should have had a controller option in the first place too.

 

[BraveDragonWolf]

Free Riders is one of the reasons why I thought Sonic Riders 1 was the best one out of the three in terms of gameplay. Zero Gravity was fun I guess but, compared to the first, Sonic Riders 1 was truly addicting because in my opinion, I just liked how you can control your own tricks and how fast traveling speed is compared to Zero Gravity. I never looked into Free Riders because...

your body is a damn controller so it's hard to enjoy or even try to look into what the game has to offer... (But that's just me.)

 

[HarveyHouston]

Well, it's about time!

 

[StrayGuitarist]

I thought for a second this was official and nearly lost my mind. This is, however, UNBELIEVABLY APPRECIATED. I had a friend growing up who was disabled, he didn't have fine control over his legs and walked with crutches, and was always very sad he couldn't play any of the Kinect games. Luckily for him, the Kinect sucked and failed, along with most of the games that supported it.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Now if only this could be done for Wii games - those that don't already support the Classic or GameCube controllers, that is.

For Skyward Sword, it'd allow for easy Harp usage (the several times that worthless instrument needs to be used) along with straight and accurate Beetle flight, and more accurate and intuitive Bow and sword usage.

For Super Mario Galaxy, it'd make the ball-rolling, ray-surfing, and bubble-blowing Stars actually obtainable, along with mapping the spin to a button for actual reliability.

 

[hamohamo]

Also thought this was official which would've been pretty Sega of Sega to do. Still wish this game launched with no Kinect option since this series is what comes up when I think of cool.

 

[eyeliner]

Knowing Microsoft people, they'd love this. People messing around with games, making them jump to a new generation is something I believe they would appreciate.

Someone with that bird website should probably ping them with this and watch their reaction.

 

[x65943]

Now if only this could be done for Wii games - those that don't already support the Classic or GameCube controllers, that is.

For Skyward Sword, it'd allow for easy Harp usage (the several times that worthless instrument needs to be used) along with straight and accurate Beetle flight, and more accurate and intuitive Bow and sword usage.

For Super Mario Galaxy, it'd make the ball-rolling, ray-surfing, and bubble-blowing Stars actually obtainable, along with mapping the spin to a button for actual reliability.

Look into the SS switch rerelease

Already fixed

Not sure but perhaps they also fixed those aspects in the Mario Galaxy release for switch

 

[Sonic3320]

Hopefully they'll be able to remove the kinect needing to be connected to play in the near future.

i think it can be easily patched. Dance Central already has a patch to remove the Kinect check so it can work on emulators. Granted, the emulator itself doesnt recognize the Kinect but at least it makes modding the game easier.

I find this game funny because it is a carbon copy of Eyetoy Antigrav on the PS2. The difference is, aside the awful lighting and clothing requirements for the Eyetoy, the PS2 game with a 320p camera works way better than this one that use a camera with higher resolution and body mapping (the eyetoy, like the PS Camera, recognize motion using pixel patterns, if you dont stand out the game doesnt work).

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

They may have remove the motion controls but its still can't see black people.

 

[raxadian]

I think the first Sonic Riders is the best one, I actually played that one. However I do not understand why they made two games more, did they think this was going to be Sega version of Mario Kart or something?

ow if only this could be done for Wii games

It can be done in emulators, and you can use a usb controller in a hacked Wii although they are still working on some things and I haven't tested it myself.

 

[Deleted member 608654]

​

Back in the late Xbox 360 days, during the last years of the console's life span, Microsoft released a new device for the system to capitalize on the whole motion-sensing craze of the time, which the Wii made popular through its IR technology. The new device released for Xbox consoles, which continued into the Xbox One years, was called "Kinect", and it made use of sensor fusion to combine thousands of infrared pinpoints alongside a CMOS sensor to reference the depth of the scene, as well as an RGB camera to infer the skeletal structure and movement of the user, allowing for games to be interacted with by just using the body of the player as the controller itself.

This had its gimmicks of course, with a lot of games during the boom of the Kinect releasing which were only playable through the use of this device. Kinect Adventures was one of the first games released which required the use of the Kinect, with others like Just Dance and some sport games requiring it as well (among many others) ranging from a wide variety of motion actions that the players were required to do in order to play the games, making the player use their hand as a pointer of sorts for menus, to using arms or legs motions to simulate the in-game actions.

One of these titles was the exclusive "Sonic Free Riders", released for the Xbox 360 back in 2010. The game was released to negative reviews, many citing the necessity of the Kinect as the major flaw, with its clunky and unresponsive implementation of the Kinect's quirks into the game making it a turning point in the game's enjoyability, and of course, some people weren't keen on the phisicality aspect required to just play the game. "Sonic Free Riders" had no other way to be controlled but through the Kinect, so some fans of the "Riders" series of the Sonic franchise opted to just skip this title or didn't bother with it.

Fast forward 13 years after the game's release, the game has received an unofficial v1.0 patch made by Rei-san and their development team, which effectively makes the game playable with an Xbox 360 controller, finally making the game "free" of its Kinect requirement!

The patch has two versions, one for real console (which at the moment requires a Kinect device to be connected into the console so the controllers can be used) and one for the Xenia emulator, each requiring their own steps to get the game working, so those interested be sure to check the ReadMe file in detail.

Those interested can check out the patch links below, and for bug reports and/or further releases and developments, Rei-san has a Discord server which people can join to follow up on the project.

Gamebanana Patch Download Link
Google Drive Patch Download Link

Kinect was forgettable, got it Christmas 2011, novelty wore off quickly and by the time 2013 came along I was tired of it.

 

[driverdis]

Hopefully they'll be able to remove the kinect needing to be connected to play in the near future.

Even if they can’t, it should be possible to spoof it with a DashLaunch patch or DashLaunch plugin if anyone would bother to make a patch or plugin. Maybe this Sonic patch would be enough for someone to bother to write a patch or plugin for it. Until this patch game out, there was zero reason to spoof a Kinect on 360.

 

[Jayro]

Now do Tony Hawk RIDE.

Post automatically merged: Jul 20, 2023

Even if they can’t, it should be possible to spoof it with a DashLaunch patch or DashLaunch plugin if anyone would bother to make a patch or plugin. Maybe this Sonic patch would be enough for someone to bother to write a patch or plugin for it. Until this patch game out, there was zero reason to spoof a Kinect on 360.

It might be able to be emulated with some kind of USB device like an Arduino.