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.

Back here, our most recent community poll asked how you 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 Quick Play and Challenge 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!