Kinect Sports Rivals could be Xbox One's Mario Kart, says dev

Kinect Sports Rivals could be the Xbox One's version of Wii Sports or Mario Kart for Wii--a game with enduring appeal--Rare Ltd.'s creative director Simon Woodroffe told OXM in a new interview.

"We think--well, we hope--that this is the sort of game that's still one of the first things that anyone who buys an Xbox One gets even two or three years from now," Woodrooffe said. "Sort of like Wii Sports and Mario Kart for the Wii."

Kinect Sports Rivals stands to have a long tail, Woodrooffe said, due in part to its presentation style.

"Our visual aesthetic, our graphics, are quite evergreen, they're not going to date--it's got that sort of Pixar-style look to it," he said. "We're trying to make something that's still relevant to consumers as the audience shifts away from the core early adopters to the mainstream gamers--it's still a relevant experience for them. And of course for them it's even better value because there's more things going on, there's a history there that they can get involved in."

Kinect Sports Rivals is a follow-up to 2010's Kinect Sports for Xbox 360. The game was originally slated to launch this holiday on Xbox One, but was delayed this summer to spring 2014. It features six minigames that require motion control: climbing, wake racing, soccer, bowling, tennis, and target shooting.