Kinectimals adding bears

Last year's Kinectimals allowed players to enjoy all the cuteness of baby tigers, leopards, and other big cats with none of the danger to life and limb. Microsoft is expanding on that idea, as today it announced an expansion that would serve the same need for those who love the idea of playing with bear cubs but hate the idea of being savagely mauled.

Set for release this fall, Kinectimals Now with Bears will be available as a $50 stand-alone retail game or a $15 downloadable add-on for the original game. As the name suggests, the expansion's big attraction are the ursine additions, including a black bear, grizzly bear, polar bear, panda bear, and more. The game will also feature a new guide and a new plot in which the player and a cub explore Bear Island in the footsteps of a famous explorer in search of buried treasure.

A combination of pet simulator and minigame collection, the original Kinectimals let players adopt and care for a variety of different big cat cubs like tigers, leopards, and so forth. Using the Kinect camera, players could play with the pets, teach them tricks, and perform a number of more unlikely activities like racing them around obstacle courses on remote control cars.

For more on the original Kinectimals, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.