The follow up to the highly successful Kinect Sports will be surfing onto Xbox One this April
Kinect Sports Rivals was originally announced as a launch title for the Xbox One last November, but Microsoft and Rare have finally revealed the release date, April 8th in North America, Australia and New Zealand, and April 11th in Europe.
Kinect Sports Rivals hopes to build on the success of the previous iteration, Kinect Sports, which was one of the first titles to really utilise the Kinect hardware for Xbox 360. The Xbox One exclusive includes a whole host of new mini games, including climbing, target shooting and the previously released wake racing, whilst also including new versions of bowling, tennis and soccer (or football for the Europeans reading this!)
Target Shooting is one of the new introductions, and the stylised ‘Champions’ look like they could be a really good representation of the player.
The wake racing portion of the game was previously released as the free title, Kinect Sports Rivals Pre-Season, which launched alongside the Xbox One late last year.
Kinect Sports Rivals includes Champions – stylised, in-game versions of players, to try and completely immerse the player in the game. Also introduced are teams, which each have different values, strengths and weaknesses depending on who the player picks. The decision of which team to join looks set to have a big impact on the game, whether it’s Wolf Clan, Eagle Legion or Viper Network.
Kinect Sports Rivals is the first Xbox One title to prominently feature the Kinect as an integral part of gameplay, and has been built from the ground up for just that reason. The game will make full use of the sensitivity and capabilities of the new Kinect sensor, which is included in any Xbox One console purchased and is an integral part of the next-gen system’s interface.
The new Kinect has the capabilities to recognise weight distribution and heart rate, amongst many other features and these all look set to make Kinect Sports Rivals one of the most responsive and effective movement-based titles ever made.
Kinect Sports Rivals will launch on the 8th of April in Europe and 11th April in North America, Australia and New Zealand. The free trial, Kinect Sports Rivals: Pre-Season is available now for Xbox One.
