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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

 

[PZT]

reminder that there is a Steel Battalion game for Xbox 360 Kinect published by Capcom and developed by FromSoftware that desperately needs something like this
unplayable controls, possibly a good game underneath

 

[Sonic3320]

reminder that there is a Steel Battalion game for Xbox 360 Kinect published by Capcom and developed by FromSoftware that desperately needs something like this
unplayable controls, possibly a good game underneath

I tried it and I still think it wouldnt be enough, not only the Kinect controls were awful but you have to see everything through a tiny window and a periscope, simulating a tank. I think it would work better if the game was adapted to VR, even though I dont enjoy VR per se.

 

[PZT]

I tried it and I still think it wouldnt be enough, not only the Kinect controls were awful but you have to see everything through a tiny window and a periscope, simulating a tank. I think it would work better if the game was adapted to VR, even though I dont enjoy VR per se.

if the original Steel Battalion is any indication, this is intentional and you're meant to upgrade your periscope

 

[raxadian]

Kinect was bad; barely about five games made good use of it and most of Kinect games would have worked better with a standard controller.

 

[chronoss]

I have always the message of Kinect

Thanks !!!