Kinect Sports Game Guide – Beach Volleyball
We already know you’re ruling the roost at Track & Field, but how about Beach Volleyball? A highly competitive sport (especially online) that takes a while to perfect. We often hear “If only there was some sort of Game Guide available that shows you all the tricks of the trade…” so we thought it only right to oblige.
Below you’ll be able to see one of our testers running you through the finer points of Beach Volleyball, while we’ve included some extra written tips for those of you who like text with your videos.
Feb 2011
Kinect Sports World Records for February
Striving to break a world record in Kinect Sports isn’t so easy. First off, some of the current records are ridiculously high (20,348 on Pin Rush blows my mind) and secondly, sprinting like a madman for 15 seconds to find yourself 0.2 seconds off the pace makes multiple attempts a tiring affair.
Nevertheless, some brave folks are still pushing themselves to the limit to add a few extra metres. Why not take a gander at all the current world records below? While you’re at it, you can compare them to your own efforts using our handy Facebook application.
We’ll be updating these records each month, so check back in March to see if you have upset the odds and claimed top spot. This Track & Field Game Guide might just make the difference…
Feb 2011
Kinect Sports Game Guide – Track & Field
So you bought Kinect Sports (thanks by the way) and now you need to know exactly how people are able to perform massively better than you online… well, we’re here to help.
In a series of blog posts/video guides, we’ll be telling you exactly how to beat the crafty computer on champion difficulty, which should also give you a leg up on the highly competitive online community. First up: Track & Field.
Extra insight into each separate event after the jump. Ha ha, after the jump… never mind.
Feb 2011
Top 5 Characters Who Never Made It
- This content was made available in advance to Rare newsletter subscribers. Sign up here!
Most games start off juggling far more content than they can reasonably contain, so they end up shedding ideas, characters and levels along the way as pesky issues like practicality and release dates are taken into consideration. Rare design veteran Mr. Mayles has seen a lot of this sort of thing over the many projects he’s worked on – here are just a handful of examples.
TOP 5 CHARACTERS WHO NEVER MADE IT
According to… Gregg Mayles
1. Devil Bottles (Banjo-Tooie)
Star of a pioneering counter-op mode cut at the last minute due to lack of time for proper testing. Better no mode at all than a potentially game-breaking mode. I still have happy memories of being able to control Old King Coal though…
2. Dr. Krackpot (Grabbed by the Ghoulies)
He did technically make it, but not in the capacity we wanted. We had a big boss-style confrontation planned – then ran out of time, so he was reduced to a bit part in the storybook cut-scenes.
3. Dung Beetle (Viva Piñata)
It plopped on the floor, you picked it up and put it on your plants for super growth. It would have made us childishly happy to get something like that into the game. At least we got a Sweetle in the sequel.
4. Big Belly and Captain Cockeye (Dream)
When the whole project was shelved, Blackeye managed to escape into the world of Banjo but Big Belly and Cockeye (a good guy relation of evil Blackeye, as I recall) weren’t so lucky.
5. Mrs. Pie (It’s Mr. Pants)
One badly-drawn character was clearly enough.
You made it! To the end. Suggestions for future Top 5 lists welcome! Send them our way.
Feb 2011
Mini-Scribes: February 11, 2011
In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul
In Mini-Scribes, they really really ought to know…
Q: Yo. Old-school Banjo fan here. I want jumping, Jiggies, Jinjos. Make the vehicles vanish and all that jazz you’ve been receiving, etc. Yeah, I want a new Banjo game that’s a you-know-what-er. I bet all that sounded like the stuff you get all the time. So I’m not gonna spend this letter bugging you guys about the possibility of a new Banjo platformer, even though I personally think the Xbox needs a traditional platforming mascot.
Rather, I was wondering if you could shed some light on some of those concepts that were being kicked around before the vehicle idea for Nuts & Bolts was decided on. You know, the more traditional follow-up for Tooie. How far in the development process did you guys get with those ideas before they were scrapped? Any fun tidbits you could share about that?
Merry Christmas, assuming you get this before Santa falls down the chimney faster than Banjo the pumpkin. If it’s after the 25th, happy new year. If it’s after that, er, happy Valentine’s Day? Maybe this letter will fall into the void that all those unsold Grabbed by the Ghoulies copies went to.
Gregor Machenspiel
A: Marvellous name. Have you thought about being a supervillain? You could have a machete and a glockenspiel. You could even team up with Eda Torpeda from the last Mini-Scribes to form a crime-fighting duo and/or firm of solicitors. We would seriously consider using Machenspiel & Torpeda for any small claims/vigilante needs.
What was your question again? Oh right. I don’t think it went very far down the brand new traditional platformer route – it wandered briefly down Banjo-Kazooie remake alley and stopped for a sandwich in Banjo vs. Grunty competitive collectathon plaza before thundering onto the motorway of game-altering vehicular twists behind the wheel of a mental flying car with ejector seats and a flamethrower.
Q: Sup Rare,
I have a few things to ask if I may.
1. After Kinect Sports, if you were to create a new IP, what would your preference in genre be?
2. I’ve been playing some games made by a company called Twisted Pixel games and I always get sudden nostalgia when I play. Have you played any of their games and what do you think of them?
3. Will Kinect Sports have an unlockable Banjo costume? I think fans of Rare would enjoy that.
Thanks for listening, and I think it’s great that you’re developing Kinect games.
Jimm
A: 1) That’s a big question, Jim-double-m. We’ve prototyped all manner of stuff over the years, the majority of which you will – melodramatically – never see. Everyone’s got an idea, but these days teams and budgets are so big it all comes down to greenlights and marketability. Plus if we just say “MMORPG” or “3D fighter” it will solidify into fact on the forums in about 45 minutes.
2) Most of us here are keen gamers – personally I played a lot of ‘Splosion Man (we referred to it on Twitter back in the day as “kind of like DKC for people who’d rather blow stuff up than befriend an ostrich”) until being stopped short by my own bumbling gamer rage. Comic Jumper has also provided many of what the kids call ‘lols’.
3) Haven’t heard anything, and that’d better not happen before a Mr. Pants costume anyway.
Feb 2011
Banjo’s Original Tinkers
When Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts arrived back in November 2008, the hope was that it would inspire a new generation of fans to get creative. And although many were content to use the building tools to topple Thomas’ challenges and send Grunty packing, others weren’t going to stop there.
Over the past three years, the community over at Banjo-Kazooie.com (and beyond) have come up with some truly staggering innovations. We’ve picked out some of our favourites that have become milestones in the history of Mumbo’s Motors and left many people wondering, “How did they do that?” It’s amazing what you can achieve with a few nuts, bolts and a sprinkling of voodoo magic.
1. Plasma Engine
Eekumbokum! Even Da Vinci himself would have been proud of the plasma engine – a spring-driven device for powering helicopter blades.
This brainchild of SpaghettiYeti27 did away with the need to carry tons of fuel and offered the kind of mobility not seen in other vehicles. It took the community several weeks to figure out exactly how he’d done it, with many struggling to create a replica that wouldn’t self-destruct mid-flight. Another problem that took some time to fix was that the vehicle couldn’t land once it had taken off. This was eventually solved by using a magnetic tow-bar to disengage the propeller.
2. Walkers
When The Hell Raider came up with the idea of creating a fully functioning walker, it ignited one of the biggest races in Banjo-Kazooie history. BroPrincess’ ‘The Stepper’ was among the first to hit the forums, using jets facing downward to lift each leg, propellers to make them step down and tow-bars to give the legs flexibility. The result was extremely impressive and set the formula for numerous other mech-type vehicles, many of which were armed to the teeth. Here’s how to make your own.
Feb 2011
January Twitbook Madness
Now sifting through posts from Twitter and TWO Facebook profiles (Rare and Kinect Sports) to bring you our biggest/best/quirkiest social media updates of the month.
Sports first: wha g’wan? Well, in addition to the demo, stats and achievement guides we’ve been boisterously yowling about elsewhere, there were several chart position reports (such as this one and this one), an MS exec announcing tidy sales, and award nominations including an IAA shortlisting for Casual Game of the Year, a Game People nod for Family Game of the Year, and the Best Home Exergame 2010 gong in The Exergame Network Awards. Exergame?
Other worthwhile mentions occurred in CVG’s article on the UK motion control charge and the TVG Kinect buyers’ guide, as the Sports Game With Fame contest got competitors Linford Christie and Mark Lewis-Francis tweeting. Meanwhile, a simple query regarding Rare’s best Paddle Panic score quickly turned into one man’s obsession. A fellow fan was filmed getting excited at bowling 300, while Engadget China held their own uncoordinated Sports showdown and Microsoft set up the game in a shopping centre for punters to flail at with varying degrees of self-awareness.
From videos to pictures: Rare’s inaugural basketball match against Frontier landed us this trophy, our web agency Nzime brought us a nice present and we were startled by the dimensions of the newest addition to the Rare fridge. It was also a simple cake photo that kicked off the January Rare/Sega Twitter Cake Game Collaboration, leading to such quality pitches as these and these. Project status: unconfirmed.
Recent fan artistry brought to our notice included an alarming vision of Mumbo Jumbo and an old-school Sabre Wulf scarf; we were also impressed by one collector’s Japanese Rare N64 haul. Speaking of which, Blast Corps nostalgia reared its head more than once throughout the month, along with something similar for KI. We wrestled with moral dilemmas and odd smells, saw Rare animator (and Voice of Leafos) Louise get herself interviewed, and stumped up prizes for an Xbox UK forum contest which, if you’re extremely fast, may still be open. The fun never stops. Remember to keep tabs on our Twitter and Facebook pages (Rare/Sports) for full-on live shenanigans!
Feb 2011
On the B of the Bang
Could you beat a real Olympic athlete at the Sprint in Kinect Sports? Last weekend, British track and field legends Linford Christie and Mark Lewis-Francis were put to the test against members of the public, and it really was a day to remember. This was all part of Xbox LIVE’s latest ‘Game With Fame’ event, where competition winners get to rub shoulders with the stars of sports, films and music.
In the latest contest, all our hopefuls had to do was post pictures of themselves in athletic poses. Charles Read from London was the ultimate winner, earning extra effort points for getting dressed up for the occasion, while Sarah Randon‘s garden-based javelin throw took the runner-up spot.
Charles was invited to Xbox HQ in London to game with Linford and Mark, while Sarah took part in a Kinect video chat over Xbox LIVE. Both winners also received a 4GB Xbox 360 console with Kinect.
Linford did what every good athlete should do before an event, seeking out some top coaching tips from those in the know. “I really need help with the running on the Kinect. Is there a technique to it?” he asked Sports fans via Twitter. Things turned out pretty well for the runner once he’d been told to “keep your knees up”, clocking up a Personal Best of 08.03, narrowly beating Mark’s 08.53.
If you’re a Sports veteran, chances are you’ll have gone a bit quicker than that – so now you can officially say you’re faster than a real Olympic runner (at least in avatar form). There’ll be more chances to win a Kinect in the coming weeks as Flora Hearts and superstar swimmer Sharron Davies are giving away 750 on their Facebook page. Best of luck!
Feb 2011
