Kinect Sports Rivals

Kinect Sports Rivals is a great leap forward for the series but it still shows the shortcomings of the Kinect technology.

Kinect Sports Rivals isn’t the Kinect’s killer app, but it comes closer than anything else I’ve played. The various games, aside from soccer, feel great to play and offer more control than I expected. And even though the challenge grows in later levels, I felt like I was able to maneuver through them without fighting the controls.

It's just disappointing that the game doesn't have that much depth, and with few exceptions, its only successes are things that have already been done before with different technology.

Kinect Sports Rivals isn’t going to sell anyone on an Xbox One, or even Kinect for that matter, but it is definitely the best use of the device to date. For those looking for a fun way to get active with their new $500 machine, this is the best example of it yet.

There are still moments when you can't know for sure if an individual failure is down to your own skill rather than the sensor itself. But for everyone else KSR represents a new high point for the genre, proving it can work as much more than just a passing gimmick. A huge leap in the right direction, then, but it's got a way to go before it's entirely frustration-free.

The motion sensing works, with a few exceptions, and the events are wrapped up in some beautiful presentation. Microsoft finally has a decent excuse for Xbox One’s all-seeing eye.

Innovative and interesting, but it lacks precision when trying to recognize our movements. It's still a good try, but sometimes frustrating and uninspired.

If you have a family who likes getting together and play games like this, go ahead and pull the trigger -- all other curious parties should wait for a sale to compensate for the weak activities.

While not everything works as advertised, and much of the experience is drowned in annoying forced story arcs, Kinect Sports Rivals does deliver a fun and challenging experience for everyone.

KSR is better and deeper than most motion controlled games that I have played, especially of the family/sports compilation variety. However, it's still light on content and just doesn't have a great deal of staying power or replay value you would hope for.

It feels like a lot of a sizzle for such a small piece of steak. If this had been packed in with the Xbox One to demonstrate the new Kinect, it would seem like a nice extra. As a standalone game, it's just not compelling.

Kinect Sports Rivals isn’t quite the revolution in motion-controlled sports gaming that we might have hoped for.

It’ll make a great rental for when you have friends over, but it’s hard to recommend for anything beyond that.

As a pack-in for the console, this would have been far easier to forgive, but at full price and with no proper multiplayer, it’s a tough sell. Rare’s game looks stunning and is enjoyably tame, but lacks in true winner’s grit and star quality. Maybe next season.

If you give it an opportunity, you'll find in Kinect Sports Rivals a fun game, very suitable to be played with friends.

Kinect Sports Rivals is not the title to showcase the truth potential of next-gen motion gaming. Many of its core activities are dull or trivial, and only the Jet ski has the complexity to convince on the long run.

In a motion control game it is simple; control is paramount. When Kinect 2.0 behaves, Rare’s creation can be plenty of fun, especially in a social setting. But its lack of consistency breeds a sense of distrust in players, and with that the fun fades. It seems that flawless hands-free motion control applicable to a variety of living room environments continues to remain just out of our reach.

For me Kinect Sports Rivals is a passable Kinect game that does little to nothing to push Kinect game experiences forward. If anything it might do the exact opposite.

Kinect Sports Rivals is a well-constructed game with an enjoyable structure and smartly integrated multiplayer. But it's already looking dated as it continues to struggle against the limitations of its chosen interface.

While Kinect Sports Rivals amuses and impresses in spots, the overall package fails to show significant improvement in the realm of motion gaming, making for an ultimately discouraging early showcase for Kinect 2.0.

Kinect Sports Rivals can be fun at times, but Rare assumes that Kinect works perfectly and increases the challenge accordingly, not knowing that the devise is still a bit slow. The result then turns into frustration and exhaustion. Add that to the lengthy loading screens, dull story and reiterative NPC sequences, and you end up with an experience that will only entertain for a few hours at most.

The tech largely works and the games range from great to average. It's certainly not amazing and lacks longevity, but it's still a good indication of the Kinect goodness to come.

Kinect is still a solution in search of a problem, and while this is an impressive tech demo it’s a largely uninteresting video game experience.

It's a package that rivals the very best party games for volume, so ultimately when the whistle blows and the action is go, there's plenty of fun to be had with Kinect Sports Rivals.

Kinect Sports Rivals feels like it's halfway there. But I spent too much time fighting the game, rather than feeling empowered by it, and the game's inconsistent controls and eye-rolling dialogue kill its momentum.

Yes, party games can be a bit grating, but Kinect Sports always managed a good mix where you could play seriously or play for laughs. Rivals does not have this same variety and, while it controls well, there is a definite loss of personality.

Despite the clear efforts and a few undeniable merits (most of all the facial scan tech), Kinect Sports Rivals fails right where it should have shone: the use of the new Kinect doesn't seem that groundbreaking at all, and the title is by no means a point of no return in motion controlled gaming. With shallow gameplay and the overall lack of fun, the result can't be that exciting.

While Kinect Sports Rivals adequately demonstrates the improvements made to the latest model of Kinect, uninspired gameplay lets the overall package down.

You can squeeze a little bit of fun out of Kinect Sports Rivals.

Those looking for a breezy party game to show off their new machine will find a game with flaws and frustrations that cannot be ignored.

As a full retail release more than five months after the Xbox One's release, Kinect Sports Rivals is a tough pill to swallow. It's essentially ten dollars per mini-game and only about half of them are worth replaying, after you fully prepare your living room of course.

Rivals’ biggest problem is that its chances of success are inexorably bound to the performance of the device around which it is designed.

Kinect itself might be a more powerful device that before. But without developers that harness its potential, the games for it will not make any progress for yet another generation.

Kinect Sports Rivals is an inconsistent collection that will get you up off the couch and moving around for a bit of mild fun, but that's about the best you can say for it.