Michael Crider
When Microsoft debuted the Kinect camera accessory on the Xbox 360, it billed it as a revolutionary way to bring your real life motions into your games. That … didn’t happen. But a modder on YouTube got the Kinect working with classic 3D platformer Mario 64, controlling many actions of the portly plumber with motion controls.
After a lot of work on a PC port of the 25-year old game, and bringing in a trampoline, “Super Louis 64” got Mario’s famous triple-jump, punch, spin swing attack, and crouch actions mapped to the Kinect’s body detection. He only added a Joy-Con from the Switch to control Mario’s walking direction, because the Kinect requires you to stay within its camera frame to track its movement.
Louis found the experience exhausting—it turns out Mario jumps a lot! But after a lot of practice and some tweaks to his code, he was able to get through some of the well-known levels and the first encounter with Bowser. Actually making it all the way through the game like this might require an Olympian (or Star Child) physique, but at least we know it’s possible.
