Quick! Thanks to the bank holiday weekend it’s practically June already. Let’s get this April Twitter & Facebook round-up ‘live’ on the ‘wire’.

So, last month’s key newsworthy events were our Creative Director hire and launch of the Kinect Sports: Season Two Basketball Challenge Pack, which also took up position at PAX East over the Easter weekend and as a GameStop incentive for Season Two toe-dippers. Elsewhere, the original Kinect Sports reared its head on The Apprentice here in the UK, Season Two manifested in bargainous forms across the ultrawebs and Lionhead’s Fable Heroes roped in musical shenanigans from Rare composers old and new.

It was a month of anniversaries, from SNES to Speccy, informing many of the traditional Rare list appearances (or Ultimate in the case of NowGamer’s Top 30 Spectrum Games). GamesRadar’s Week of Love stuck cartoon hearts on a whole range of systems, with some of our retro stars popping up in lists from N64 to NES. Perfect Dark took potshots at Game Informer’s Essential XBLA List and Guyism’s Video Games Ahead of Their Time, while CVG reserved several Rare-shaped slots in their 100 best videogame themes. Oh, and 1UP looked back at Jet Force Gemini while Achievement Hunter did a similar thing with Viva Piñata. The lists and features didn’t end there, but we’ll spare you further paragraph-distending distress – just a quick nod to Rareware Archives (now Rare Gamer) and their coverage of rabbits, reboots and games within games.

Amidst the rest of the social bustle, Kinect Sports: Season Two got a sport-by-sport YouTube playthrough with its predecessor appearing in the context of lectures, bets, grannies and headbutts; our own Mr. Beanland marked a service milestone while Skynet and phishers alike tried to get one over on us; and the bear and bird apparently opened a restaurant somewhere in the world even as we shared an unrequested Pie Day photo (to accompany a BAFTA/banana combo shot from the Rare hallways). To round off the month, some people got psyched up by the notion of a hypothetical all-star MS fighting game, and we probably didn’t help.

And that was the gist of April. May’s conversational wildflowers are already budding like good ‘uns; you can track the tomfoolery on Twitter or follow the flippancy on Facebook (at Rare or Kinect Sports). Catch you there or right back here in a month.

March, you crazy eccentric fool. What did you have in store for us this year? Never mind the BAFTA and Challenge Pack #2 and Basketball, we covered those in the News rundown. Although we didn’t specifically call out things like designer Shaun flaunting himself in front of the cameras at the Xbox Showcase where Basketball was unveiled, or the Season Two team photoshoot in the Rare grounds when the BAFTA trophies came home. So there’s that.

Other news and events falling into March’s psionic mesh of social media included word of our music team having a hand in the soundtrack to Fable Heroes, Stuff Magazine finding room for Rare in their Best of British issue, an alleged cameo for Kinect Sports in Home and Away, our very own Twycross Sport Relief mile, and licensing issues causing old gold GoldenEye to miss its moment at the Smithsonian. Bah. And two more words for luck: Cat Daddy.

A trio of slots in IGN’s Top 100 Video Game Weapons marked one of our bigger offsite old-school showings in March. Cubed3 also shared the love in its celebratory N64 Month: top soundtracks and best games in general got a shout out. GameTrailers went back further still to celebrate the ambient monkey sounds of DKC in their BackTrack video feature. Meanwhile, after last month’s provocation, Rareware Archives went mental for lists and ended up covering Sinners, Remixes, Schwarzenegger, Reveals and even a three-in-one-day list splurge.

Elsewhere amidst the miscellaneous chatter we dissed the bad habits of wildlife from wasps to rooks, made off with junkfood from strange alien realms (or at least Iceland), kept an eye on NeoGAF’s search for spiritual stablemates to Nuts & Bolts, and even noted down a few more of the standout reactions to Kinect Sports: Season Two on Amazon.

And then the cleaners started hoovering the corridors and we realised we were pretty much done for the month. If you’d care to join us before the next summary, April’s action is underway on Twitter and Facebook (under Rare or Kinect Sports). See you there. Check out how clean our carpets are.

We love February. Who doesn’t love February? Eh? What’s wrong with February? What did February ever do to you?

Right, that’s the intro done, let’s see what happened last month. Challenge Pack #2 and the Kinect Sports: Season Two BAFTA nods aside, it seemed plenty of people were yakking about the game on Twitter in the context of parties, family bonding, Rickrolling, playing it to maverick extremes and declaring it to be the best game of all time, cheers for that one. Sounded like TV’s Dr. Christian was also looking forward to chucking himself down a virtual hill.

Alongside all that, plenty of love for Rare’s old-school accomplishments – chiefly in the NeoGAF thread on the Top 50 Nintendo Games, Piki Geek’s love letter to Banjo-Kazooie and the YouTube viral wonder that was Real Life GoldenEye. Top 5 lists from the RA boys this time: Mismatched Couples for Valentine’s Day, and Playable Characters who allegedly shouldn’t have been. We couldn’t possibly comment. What, only two lists? Are they stopping to eat and sleep these days?

We were also sent some Viva Piñata Valentine’s designs (a bit nicer than being sent emails about stabbing), while February stretched itself out to the 29th, another notable day. Other conversational topics throughout the month included Arkangelsk, Perfect Dark characters moonlighting, website visitor locales, ’90s Europopster Haddaway (twice) and the weather (naturally, we’re British), while visual spice was added by an obligatory post-move office window shot and evidence of the wintry front from mainland Europe finally reaching Twycross.

And that, monsieurs et mademoiselles, was February. Février. We’re a week into March and already talking about zombies, monkeys and Aussie soaps, so catch up with us on Twitter or Facebook (Rare or Kinect Sports) if you like the sound of that. And why wouldn’t you? Do you hate March as well? OUTRAGEOUS.

Yeah, let’s get rid of the ‘Twitbook’ tag. It was vaguely amusing the first time. Now, as the white-hot ash begins to settle in the aftermath of January’s robot apocalypse, we… oh right, they decided not to bother in the end. Worth mentioning for consistency though.

January! Month of Midnight Mountain and some other stuff including DeSean Jackson’s End Zone Dance Off, Adrian Lewis’ Season Two Darts drubbing, a Kinect Rose Parade float, a Dueling Banjos charity marathon and a bunch of contract and permanent jobs added to the Rare Careers page. People also seemed to be enjoying the Maple Lakes Golf Pack, posted handy footage of the Midnight Mountain Ski Pack and let the excitement of a hole-in-one get to them a little bit. We witnessed the growth of Kinect Sports into the classroom and, less convincingly, the beginning of a grassroots campaign to set up Blazing Banana as the new Ryu. Why not?

Many other upstanding citizens from the Rare back catalogue stuck their heads over the parapet during January, most notably in Famitsu’s Top 50 Nintendo Games, Game Informer’s GoldenEye Replay and ScrewAttack’s Best Ever Retro Bosses. Rareware Archives apparently found a method of working that didn’t involve stopping to breathe, pumping out Top 5 lists on Party Tracks, Winter Wonderlands, ‘Helpless’ Characters, Motif Melodies, Best DLC and Punishing Bosses.

Less directly applicable topics of conversation this month included the fine work of both Bob Holness and Liam Neeson, while in Rare internal developments – the kind you don’t see in press releases and generic corporate reports – the threat of our possibly lethal fridge was nullified while we made a point of showing off our advanced office transition equipment. Then, as always, there was some mail worth sharing. And more mail. And more… and more.

Here on the site, our latest community poll asked how you most regularly play Kinect Sports: Season Two, trusty old single-player coming out on top with 45% of the vote. Local multiplayer and LIVE multiplayer followed, tailed by Challenge Play and Quick Play. Interesting stuff. New poll up now! Which sport has the best activities? Go on, blurt it out, we won’t pass on names to the designers.

Done for another month! And now you’ve only got a week to find your missus/bloke a Valentine’s present so you’d better get on the case. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook (Rare or Kinect Sports) for more relationship advice (please note: no relationship advice actually given and it’s for the best). Let us know how it went down when we see you next month for the full February round-up.

Twelve months enter, one month leaves! If December had a catchphrase, that’s what it’d be, probably. No shortage of Season Two developments in December, or at least the three quarters of it that Rare HQ was manned in the run-up to the hols. With the Maple Lakes launch, Midnight Mountain tease and a title update on top, our ongoing six-month DLC plan ensured it was all systems go. A Darts contest was underway for our upstanding British countryfolk, while in Paris the future unfolded in ‘Skynet city break for two’ style with Kinect Sports doing its bit for Novotel’s futuristic hotel room experience.

December also rolled out the traditional festive gift guides, along with the chronologically weighty list features you always get at that time of year – like IGN’s Top 100 Video Game Moments and Best 100 Video Games of the 2000s from Complex. Rareware Archives covered British nods and holiday havens in Rare’s games, and at one point GAME started a ‘Xmas game memories’ Twitter thread that brought us misty-eyed comments on Star Fox Adventures, Banjo-Kazooie and DK64.

Festive atmosphere aside, the nuts and bolts of Rare’s social media strategy were comfortingly visible as discussion turned to the weather (multiple times, but at least it was dramatic) along with irregular cross-sections of the Rare inbox and, for some reason, googly eyes (at least twice) which people always associate with us. Couldn’t say why. It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma. With googly eyes, called Enigmos. Who gives you a Jiggy.

As January now has its heavy cyborg hand in a vice-like grip on Rare’s shoulder, we’ll break off there. Until next month, you can always hustle wit’ us on Twitter or Facebook (Rare or Kinect Sports) – failing that, we’ll see you back here early next month as we emerge from the bunkers and survey the events of January that led to the robot uprising. Be strong, mankind.

It’s that time again! A little bit past that time if we’re honest, but who’s counting? November was never going to be as maniacal as the Season Two launch month of October, but it still put up some competition in the face of rampant inevitability.

For starters, Season Two was linking up with celebrities and charities all over the place, from Eva Longoria and friends through Soulja & Jonas to Selena Gomez. We successfully launched the love canoe that is Challenge Pack #1 as well, if you didn’t hear about that. Chances are you did if you’re here reading this. Outside the Sports arena, Viva Piñata got some five-year anniversary love with Eurogamer remembering its turbulent launch period, artist Ryan taking the opportunity to flaunt his VP merch stash and our own Trophy Thomas taking time out to have a yak (not a Flapyak) about those rosy days. It was also the third anniversary of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the 10th anniversary of Xbox and roughly the 21st anniversary of Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll on the NES. Retro Gamer plunged back further still to recall the exploits of dear old Jetman. Bwah!

Rare and its bostin’ catalogue made further online appearances on CVG, in its features on 30 great developers in 30 years and best spy games; on IGN, in its Top 25 N64 Games and Holiday Buyer’s Guide; and of course on Rareware Archives, where they were chiefly concerned with scrutinising remakes and eating our characters at Thanksgiving.

Elsewhere we experienced Banjo-Kazooie Halloween cosplay, a lethal fridge, premature Xmas graffiti, some intimidating followers and the excitement of Xbox upgrades. And the possibility of Bond meeting Blast Corps. And some top translated review quotes involving cream and pokers. All perfectly innocent, we expect.

Last but not least: community page poll results! We asked you to name your favourite mascot from the original Kinect Sports, and loveable cardboard buffoon Rapid Robot almost inevitably stormed it with 26% of the vote. A lot of people were rooting for Quick Carrot as well, bringing him/her in second with 19%, jaws ahead of Sporty Shark on 18%. Marathon Mouse, Athletic Alien, Speedy Snowman and Swift Scarecrow followed in that order. Energetic Eye got one vote. One. New poll up now! Tell us how you play Season Two! Get in there!

And that looks like a wrap. Let’s schedule another one of these productive meetings in January to dissect the events of December. In the meantime, why not give yourself the spontaneous Xmas present of following Rare on Twitter or Rare/Kinect Sports on Facebook? Have a good one!

Well, phew. We got the game out on time. It’s all over. Not really, because we’re up to our eyeballs in DLC development (like the scripts I should be working on, which is why I’m writing this at lunchtime, don’t tell anyone), but Kinect Sports: Season Two is out there on the shelves and selling. These are some of the related social media shenanigans during the build-up and launch.

Yes, the launch: first North America, then Asia/Down Under, then Europe. There was a demo, there were at least a couple of TV ads, a ‘vidoc’, launch trailer and the Kinect Sports Network, amongst many other things. The Ice Bar in London hosted a launch party (our own wasn’t half bad either), the ‘Your Kinect’ Experience toured the UK, the game showed up in Sky 1′s Spy alongside its sponsorship of A League of Their Own, and professional alpine athletes Chemmy Alcott and Jenny Jones threw themselves into the mad rush. Meanwhile there was a brief sighting of the game’s Baseball-themed Japanese cover as we dished out tips on using the Kinect Tuner and a reminder of the game’s accompanying free month of Gold. Is that everything? Ye Gods.

It didn’t feel as if there was any time for other things to happen, but Perfect Dark XBLA was Deal of the Week somewhere along the way and we also bid Twisted Pixel welcome to the MS first-party funhouse. Outside, the world rumbled on as before: the Killer Instinct reminiscence came from Games Radar, we saw GamePro get caught up in Viva Piñata, and Rareware Archives positively erupted with lists based on identity crises, long-lasting characters and Halloween.

The weather might have been rubbish, but there was cake; Neal’s contract may have ended, but he never let up on those inspirational Facebook Kinect Sports Stars (one, two, three); our bright ideas may have been debatable, but Twitter continued to teach us new expressions. Oh, and there were demands. For everything. And then a bit more.

No doubt there’ll be more of that malarkey even as the Season Two machine rolls on towards Thanksgiving and Xmas. We’ll keep you posted. If you furiously resent the gap between these round-ups, just skip along and follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook (in Rare Ltd. or Kinect Sports varieties). Quick! Someone’s coming! Get Excel back up!