Kinect Sports: Season Two Launchfest

Done! It's out there! Slightly less than a year after the original Kinect Sports bumped, kicked, rallied and partied its way out of our hands and into the wider world, its sequel does the same. Except with less of all that and more of the terminology associated with Golf, Tennis, Baseball, Darts, Skiing and American Football.

Season Two comes from an even bigger group of hands due to the assistance of our fellow devs at BigPark, and between us we've gone all-out to stretch the single-player and multiplayer experiences as far as we possibly can. Rookie, Pro and Champion difficulty levels make a crucial difference to the challenge, Kinect tracking is sharper and more versatile, separate activities put a new spin on the sports to keep things fresh, we've added a built-in calorie counter, and making progress allows you to win over fans and unlock batches of goodies including an all-new suite of achievements. Naturally you'll still be able to Show Off and Share your videos via the effervescent hub of showmanship that is kinectshare.com.

Voice control is a big addition to Season Two, letting you race through the menus to set up your game by just saying what you see on-screen, then hike the ball, change your club, call an objection and a whole lot more within the sports themselves (xbox.com will be able to provide more info on voice control availability in your part of the world). The biggest bonus to the all-conquering multiplayer side of things is Challenge Play, which lets you pick your strongest suit and set a challenge score for a friend to beat in their own time. And of course all six sports support simultaneous competitive and/or co-operative multiplayer matches, both locally and over Xbox LIVE.

There's a demo available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace if you want to dip your toes into Golf and Tennis before taking the plunge, and the super-smooth Kinect Sports: Season Two Avatar Marketplace collection also launches today. If you haven't already done so, check out the Kinect Sports Network on xbox.com for plenty more game footage in a comedy sports channel setting. The official launch trailer for the game can be viewed on our YouTube channel here:

Kinect Sports: Season Two Launch Trailer

So if you enjoyed the original Kinect Sports (which, by the way, 7-14 year olds can currently shout about in the BAFTA Kids' Vote 2011), Season Two is another serving of motion-controlled family euphoria that just happens to be a sports game too. Even more polished, intuitive and feature-packed than last time around, we doubt you'll be disappointed. Feel free to let us know how you get on via Twitter, the Kinect Sports Facebook page or by dropping us a line. And rest assured we're not done with Season Two yet...