Kinect Sports Gems Rare Retrospective

Making their home in Kinect Central on the Xbox 360 dashboard, Kinect Sports Gems are the brand new, friction-free way to play some of the most fun activities in Kinect Sports history alongside pure, unfettered slices of the main events themselves. Better yet, they can be picked up individually for just 240 MSP apiece starting from November 20th. But that’s not all we wanted to do with the Gems format.

If you’ve spent any time with the activities and mini games included in both Kinect Sports titles and their downloadable content packs, you’ll know that there are plenty of hidden treasures to be found. So when it came to offering Kinect content in a new and instantly accessible way, we looked at what we’d achieved so far and realised how well the best of those games would work as standalone experiences.

Each event adapted into the Kinect Sports Gems series has been streamlined to allow superfast access to the action with instant setup and easy jump-in, jump-out gameplay. A brand new mission structure provides dozens of bite-sized aims to complete and in-game ranks to attain, while offline photo leaderboards shared across all profiles on a console increase the fun of competing against friends and family. And, of course, there are achievements to be earned for a total of 50 gamerscore per title.

If you’re eager to give this new format a trial run, or you’ve never experienced Kinect Sports before and your curiosity is piqued, good news: one of the Kinect Sports Gems will always be playable for free! You’ll be able to check out the current title on promotion in the Kinect Central area of the dashboard. All available events will cycle on a weekly basis, though the 240 MSP paid versions will be required to save leaderboards, mission progress and achievements unlocked.

Xbox LIVE account holders (both Gold and Free) will be able to purchase or try out the first wave of Kinect Sports Gems – Ski Race, Darts Vs Zombies and 3 Point Contest (Basketball) – from November 20th. Further waves are set to follow over the next few months, taking the total of available Gems into double figures. Sound like an intriguing idea? Get in the game starting from today!