Kinect Sports Rivals is the last game in the Kinect Sports series, and it plays like a machine running out of ideas. Rare developed it. Microsoft Studios published it. It came out in April 2014 for the Xbox One, announced the year before at Microsoft’s E3 2013 press event. The Kinect camera was supposed to be the console’s future. This game shows why it wasn’t.
Trailer, via TheMediaCows.
Bowling, Jetski Racing and Five More Events
The game ships with six sports: bowling, jetski racing, rock climbing, soccer, target shooting, and tennis. That is the whole offer. Each one uses the Kinect motion-sensing camera to track your movements and expressions, and the pitch was accuracy — the camera reads your body so the game can put you inside it.
It does not hold up. A sports package lives or dies on whether the input feels right, and motion tracking is the least reliable way to control a game. Bowling and tennis ask for timing the camera cannot deliver cleanly. Jetski racing and rock climbing are the two events that could only exist on this hardware, which makes them the most interesting and the most frustrating.
Single Player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
Rare covers the modes. Kinect Sports Rivals supports single player, multiplayer, and co-operative play, with a third-person perspective throughout. The structure is built for a living room full of people taking turns.
That is a real strength, and it is also the ceiling. The competition with friends and rivals is the point, and it is the part that works. Play alone and the thinness shows fast.
Where the Six Sports Land
Ranked by what actually works:
- Bowling — the most dependable event, and the closest to the series’ best days.
- Tennis — solid rallies, shaky tracking on the swing.
- Jetski racing — the best showcase for the camera, and the most punishing when it slips.
- Rock climbing — a genuine idea, held back by the same input problems.
- Target shooting — accurate enough, and forgettable.
- Soccer — the weakest of the six, and the one that needed the most precision.
The Numbers Behind the Launch
- Release: April 2014
- Platform: Xbox One
- Developer: Rare
- Publisher: Microsoft Studios
- Sports: 6
- Modes: Single player, multiplayer, co-operative
- Announced: E3 2013
- Score: 6.5/10
The Kinect Problem
Kinect Sports Rivals is the third and final game in its series. That ending was not an accident. The game asks players to trust a camera with every swing, throw, and jump, and the camera is the least trustworthy part of the setup.
The six sports are a reasonable spread. The modes are complete. What is missing is the one thing a sports game cannot do without: control that disappears. Here it never does. You are always aware of the hardware, always adjusting for it, always losing a rally to a misread.
Rare built a fine demonstration of the Kinect. It did not build a fine sports game. Those are different jobs, and the score reflects the gap.
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