Kinect Sports Rivals launching April 8 on Xbox One

Kinect Sports Rivals will launch exclusively for Xbox One on April 8 in North America, Australia and New Zealand and on April 11 in Europe, developer Rare and Microsoft announced today.

Kinect Sports Rivals utilizes the Xbox One's Kinect peripheral to set players in virtual sports competitions, including wave racing, rock climbing and target shooting challenges. Players can also participate in classic Kinect Sports games from previous iterations of the franchise, such as soccer, bowling and tennis.

Players can also create in-game avatars, called Champions, and customize their look, tailoring them to suit their style before bringing them into challenges. They will also be given the choice to join one of three in-game teams, each with its own unique equipment, abilities and leading captain character: the Wolf Clan led by Vargu, Blake's Eagle Legion and the Viper Network led by Zara. Each team will issue its own set of missions and provide its own brand of motivation and competition tips to players.

Kinect Sports Rivals is available for pre-order at select retailers and through Xbox.com. The game is currently available to test as a Preseason demo, in which players can compete in an online global competition in its wave racing minigame. This competition ends Feb. 28. Check out our preview impressions of the title from Gamescom 2013 here.