This DIY Kinect mod adds real-world exercise to 'Super Mario 64'

Forget Ring Fit Adventure for Switch, a developer has shared a video on Reddit demonstrating how he made an exercise mod for Super Mario 64 using Microsoft's defunct Kinect motion controller. The video shows him standing on a mini-trampoline and jumping in the game by jumping in real life. The spinning is probably the best part, and the one most likely to result in injury.

Don't try if you're a klutz – The mod still requires using a Joy-Con to actually walk around in the game, but you can obviously see how this might be a fun way to get some exercise or complete a speed run. Except it might be a nightmare falling off that tiny trampoline, or driving your downstairs neighbor crazy with all the jumping.

Kinect was always ahead of its time – The games that were made for Kinect during its production run were mediocre (except maybe Dance Central), but since its demise, the hacker community has come up with much better ways to use it, like this mod. Kinect is also frequently used in research fields when motion capture is necessary.

Kinect floundered because Microsoft spent too much time on the core technology and not enough time on actually finding creative uses for it. Just imagine this Mario mod today but you're also wearing a VR headset. You might get nauseous while spinning but it would probably be cool. It's too bad Microsoft let it die, stripping Kinect of progressively more functionality as time went on. Thank heavens for the modders, the tinkerers, and the fans.