
Ultimately, Kinect Sports Rivals will produce some good times, but it's far from a killer app. None of the modes take too long to play-10 frames of bowling is the largest investment of time you’ll make-so if your Xbox One is in a large, centrally located place and some people are over, Rivals definitely offers some bang for your buck. Bowling is the easiest game to play for newcomers, but the Target Shooting and Wake Racing also work well in that setting. Of course, you can avoid the storyline altogether and just jump right in to play with friends and family, which is welcome.

Thankfully, winning events generates currency that allows for a terrific amount of character customization and upgrades, which helps you distinguish yourself and move up the ranks. The fact that they’re unskippable (even when repeated) is even more grating. And while the narrative does a nice job structurally of navigating through everything you can do, the cutscenes and characters quickly become annoying.

Rare included a story mode of sorts to properly orient and train you in each of the events-and to provide a sense of progression.
