Preview: Kinect Sports Rivals

Here’s a protip for you Xbox One owners out there, newly poor after dropping your hard-earned cash for your new toy: in addition to being able to play (some of) Killer Instinct for free, you can also download Kinect Sports Rivals Preseason and try out its jet ski level without cost.

You’ll be glad you did.

The jet ski sport lets you play in one-player or a split-screen two-player mode, though only the former will let you qualify for bonuses that can be used in the retail version of Kinect Sports Rivals.

To play, you can sit or stand — and both work fine — with your arms outstretched as if you were holding onto the jet ski’s handlebars. Because Kinect can track your fingers this time around, simply closing your right hand engages the jet ski’s throttle; conversely, opening your hand slows the machine down.

Sharp turns are accomplished by leaning into your turn, and aerobatic tricks are performed by leaning forward or backward after going off a ramp. Successful stunts fill up your speed boost meter, which can be used by saying, “speed boost” or simply stomping your right foot. And, as we’ve constantly been saying with the Xbox One Kinect, tracking is phenomenal.

The jet ski course is made up of three laps around a nautical arena which features sand dunes, jumps, mines and ships that get in your way. Flying out of the course or running into a mine will cause you to explode and be re-loaded onto the course, losing time in the process, while clever racers will drive as close as they can to mines to activate them for a detonation shortly afterward.

Kinect Sports Rivals Preseason is a great tease of what’s to come with the full game, and we can’t wait for it. The only thing the demo’s missing is a taste of the Kinect’s ability to scan you and place you as an avatar in game, but maybe we’ll see the feature introduced in the the lead up to the game’s actual release next year.

If you haven’t given Kinect Sports Rivals Preseason a go yet, make sure you do soon.