When the Sonic-themed racing game Sonic Free Riders was released back in 2010, critics reacted negatively to its reliance on often unresponsive and unpredictable motion controls. As a result, it didn't get the best reception at the time and has been somewhat forgotten by pretty much all but the most ardent of Sonic fans.
Now, though, a hacker named Rei-San has released a new patch for the Xbox 360 game, which allows players to use a standard Xbox controller as opposed to having to rely on the imprecise and often frustrating motion controls (thanks @SAAC_News!). This essentially means that there's no better time to give the game another shot, with one of its major drawbacks now having been excised from the release entirely.
As outlined in the launch video uploaded to YouTube, this patch lets you navigate the menus with the D-Pad, play through a fully functional version of the main story mode, and face off against a friend in its multiplayer modes (limited to only 2 players at the moment).
As it's still only version 1.0, there are a couple of known issues and other features that Rei-San wants to improve. Playing on Xbox 360, for instance, still requires you to have a Kinect plugged in, whereas the Xbox 360 emulator Xenia has been found to occasionally soft lock on a black screen. Rei-San is working on removing the Kinect requirement completely for the future, in addition to fixing any crashes or soft locks that occur with Xenia.
If you want to give the patch a go, you can find everything you need (including the download files and instructions on how to patch your game) on the project's GameBanana page. Will you be checking it out? Let us know in the comments!