Having previously experienced the Kinect Sports Rivals demo, I knew something of what to expect in this full release of the first real “Kinect 2.0” motion game. I've only played the retail version for a short while, but what's here does seem to pick up where the demo left off — that is to say, there's some surprisingly good stuff, some acceptable stuff and some bad stuff.

The first thing that was cool about KSR is the intro process. It's here that your “champion” is shaped out of little blobs that make up your athlete's DNA. It's a neat visual trick as the game brings you to life, first by asking about your gender and age and then by actually scanning your face. There was a bit of error in that the game thought I had glasses on when I didn't, but the final form of my face wasn't too bad. It detected the right hair colour, got my beard style right and provided a face that somewhat approximated my own — in a stylized way, of course. I was probably doing the calibration in a setting with not enough light (my condo), but it was enough to make the initial character creation work.

After that, the concept of KSR is that you're on an island which has various “sports gangs” who are tyring to recruit up-and-coming talent. You start by learning the first couple of sports and going from there. Eventually you can branch out and play the Rivals mode against other online players, or you can just do “quick play” matches from the get-go. Everything is presented in a decidedly Rare style, with bright colours and exaggerated caricatures.
 

As I said in the demo, the biggest question for most will be: does the game actually work with the Kinect? So far, I'd have to say that the events themselves do work — some better than others — and none of them are outright broken. In fact, I'd say they all have one or two aspects that are sort of creative or charming in a stupid kind of way, and on that merit, KSR earns some credit.

I've tried all six sports now, and I'd say wake racing and bowling work the best. As in the demo, wake racing has you extending your hands ala riding a motorbike, and you close your right fist to hit the throttle. You steer the virtual handlebars to turn your bike, and opening your fist slows down. It's neat that power-ups can be activated by stomping or shouting, and this particular minigame does work sitting down as well. On the whole, the wake racing is actually fairly responsive once you learn its nuances. I must admit that I had less frustrating turning scenarios than in the demo.

Similarly, bowling provides a reasonably accurate simulation for up to four players. You can put spin on the ball, and there's a satisfying velocity on the shots. This isn't to say that there isn't some jank when lining up your shot, but the game does work, even if there is a tiny bit of a nudging and guiding going on beneath the surface. Bowling in KSR would actually make for a good party game since it can be totally hands-free, with people approaching the screen upon their turn.
 

As for the other sports, they all have their charms and shortcomings, it would seem. Target shooting is fun in that you're battling the other player (CPU or human), and you have to outgun them by shooting the correct targets faster. You point your finger and paint the targets, which works well in the limited way they've designed it. There is some dodging in this game, too, as your opponent can hit you with counter-attacks. The visual cues for this mode aren't the best, though, since the play area is often changing targets and requirements.

Mountain climbing uses both of your hands to reach up a climbing wall and grab onto the next handhold. You can actually contort your body in lots of interesting ways in order to climb up, but I did find this mode needed lots of space. My Kinect lost me several times in this one when I tried to extend or get too close (or too far).
 

Tennis is probably the most janky of the bunch, and yet there's a certain simplicity in the way you serve (throw ball up with free hand, swing with other) and put spin on shots. Your character certainly animates poorly on serves and other transitions, but then the shooting actually kind of works. Just the same, it's quite entertaining to have one-to-one movement on your avatar at all times, meaning you can taunt, jump, dance and be stupid before and during shots, which has its own merits.

As for soccer, it's a perfect example of the limitations of the Kinect, as you're basically playing foosball (no movement of players). You start by kicking the ball out as your goalie and then consecutively pass or volley the ball to players until you shoot at the other net. The goalie may save it, reversing the process. Now you'll have to make a save, which requires diving to one side to swat the ball. All of this worked, in a way, but it did seem like the targets for saves required tons of space — more than I had available. While the limited concept seems functional, it still struck me as the shallowest out of all the games.

Outlook

I'm interested to try the online features of Kinect Sports Rivals and get further into the career mode to discover how challenging the CPU gets. On the one hand, it's refreshing to see that none of the events are an outright disaster (with a couple being relatively fun). On the other, most of the events limit their scope so much to make them mere diversions. We'll see how it all shakes out in the full review.