Review: Kinect Sports Rivals

Kinect Sports, we meet again.

Rivals marks the third in Rare’s Kinect Sports franchise, forcing gamers to stand up and flail around, all in the name of motion-controlled sports fun. In its first appearance on Xbox One, Kinect Sports Rivals offers gamers the chance to compete solo, in couch co-op or online across six events: bowling, tennis, football, wake racing, target shooting and rock climbing.

For those keeping track at home, three of these sports are rehashes of previous Kinect Sports events; bowling and football featured in the original Kinect Sports, while tennis was a highlight of Kinect Sports: Season Two. To a lesser extent, gamers have already played wake racing as part of the downloadable-at-launch Kinect Sports Rivals Preseason.

This new take on the franchise does away with the challenge-type nature of the game that was so prevalent with Season Two, instead pitting you against titular rivals. In solo mode, you’ll eventually affiliate yourself with one of three in-game teams, fighting against the other two. If that’s not your style, you can play against friends at home or online, constantly trying to best one another. Winning events gives you fans, increased difficulties, coins, and unlocks so you can make yourself look pretty.

Before you do that, you’re given the chance to scan yourself, via Kinect, to customise your in-game Champion. The scanning sequence, voiced by Doctor Who‘s David Tennant, is a fun little experience, though sadly my champion didn’t look all that much like me. My hairdo? Scanned perfectly. My height and body type? That too. The rest of my face just looked a tad too generic for my liking. Considering how much Rare and Microsoft Studios have billed the feature, I was a tad let down. Especially so when I realised I looked exactly like the Wolf Clan’s “expert bowler”, just without a beard and wavy hair.

I won’t even touch on how racist and backwards the Wolf Clan is, by the way. Or, for that matter, the the Viper Clan look like rejects from Dance Central.

The games themselves look and function great for the most part. Wake racing was fun in Preseason and continues to thrill inside the game proper. After many races, however, you tend to see it how it really is: a ‘sport’ where you stand — or even sit — and occasionally lean in one direction. It’s very sedentary.

Once that happens, you notice that trend continuing on into other events. Target shooting feels like the cousin of Duck Hunt, but in the end, you’re simply playing a motion controlled game by waving a single arm about. Bowling and tennis? Same thing; wave one arm and be ‘sporty’. Football is definitely the worst; just like before, you stand in place, kick the ball to yourself, and then repeat. Boring.

I love Kinect as a tool to command by Xbox One via voice, but I’m one of (those few?) gamers who loves it to be active at home. Xbox Fitness is a godsend, as are titles like Just Dance 2014… and what I thought Kinect Sports Rivals would be too. With this selection of games, it’s as if Microsoft went to Rare and said, “Look, we need sports that aren’t going to make people all too active. No one wants to work up a sweat while gaming.”

It’s sad.

Since we’ve had one motion controlled game of bowling after another, it ends up being FAR too easy -– my first four balls in the game resulted in four strikes. Tennis is much the same, with little innovation. Worse still, tennis also tends to be the most frustrating game of the lot, as I could never get the current-gen Kinect to properly track my backhand shots. My AI opponent racked up ace after ace, hitting to my backhand. I had no defence. I also swore a lot.

Rock climbing, thankfully, is a bit more demanding on your body, and is easily the best game of the bunch. Especially in the later courses, you’ll be moving from left to right, jumping to hit your next handholds, and having an absolute blast all the while. It’s the standout game of this collection.

Target shooting can also be quite fun, especially when you’re facing a board full of targets and quickly need to decide if you go for an opponent’s disc, a sequence of shots… or just hit as many as you can. Along with rock climbing, target shooting really shines when you’re up against a friend, each trying to come out on top.

The Kinect Sports Rivals Hub offers a chance to compare your efforts against that of your friends, and to show off photos of your customised Champion. To that effect, in-game currency, earned through participation, allows you to outfit your player with outfits, powers and the like. Personally, I was quite jealous of MMGN’s Gaetano, sporting a Killer Instinct-themed rock climbing frock.

Kinect Sports Rivals is a bit of a mixed bag. For those familiar with the Xbox 360 games, half of this new title consists of events you’ve already played. Honestly, there’s not much improvement with this Xbox One version, as Rare’s always been great at getting Kinect to do exactly what Microsoft has promised. The other three games? Fun, granted, but not to the levels that Kinect Sports: Season Two got to. If you’re not in love with the franchise, it’s probably a pass for now. If you were super excited for this game, best temper your expectations.

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