Wii's New Fitness-Based Game
Roughly a year after the release of the WiiFit, Nintendo's new offering hopes to improve on the previous incarnation of fitness video games.
Here are some of the features of the new EA Sports Active game.
- Sports Active boasts a wide variety of exercises such as running, dancing, basketball, tennis, boxing, inline skating, and "gym" workouts like bicep curls and lunges.
- Exercises are programmed into a thirty-day challenge based on your personal profile. The target to reach each day is a number of calories burned, not the pounds lost. The idea being, if you make that figure your high score, the weight loss will take care of itself.
- EA Sports Active comes with a resistance band and a leg pouch, where the Nunchuck (the knob-like Wii controller) is placed to measure leg movement. The Wii Fit balance board is supported by some exercises, but not required because of the Nunchuck pouch.
- As you move through lunges, side-jumps, and squats, the sensor bar tracks the changes between the two controllers (Wii Remote held in one hand and the Nunchuk accessory strapped to the front of your thigh). The difference between the two points helps it sense whether you're doing the manoeuvres correctly.
- There are video clips of live instructors performing the moves slowly to give you a sense of how to do them in advance, and animated instructors to guide you and keep you on time during the routines. Your instructor's voice is a constant source of praise and feedback, delivering surprises and kudos when you reach past the set goals.
- Before each workout, the program "predicts" how many calories it thinks you'll burn, and then afterwards displays a graph that shows just how and where in the workout you manage to dip above or below that prediction.
- There is a backdrop of uplifting music with a customizable soundtrack featuring 41 songs spanning Hip Hop, Dance, Electronica, and Alternative Rock. You cannot program your own music.
- A neat little "carrot and stick" feature holds a locked vault of exercises that you unlock by reaching certain goals.
- Each day the routine differs, but always with a program that includes warm-ups and cool down exercises. You have the option of course, to go into the settings and create your own workouts, choosing your favorites and creating your own daily routine.
Will "Wii" Use It?
I'm always in awe of the shear speed of technological advances. I think it's a neat concept that will continue to evolve, and I delight in the irony of an industry that keeps us glued to the couch providing the outlet to get off the couch.
I've said it before and it bears repeating: Anything that gets kids and adults moving is a great thing. My concern is that this (and other activity-based games) will be a novelty that wears off (not unlike traditional attempts at boosting activity).
I would love to see data on how many teens and pre-teens are actually using these games. My guess is that many still haven't bought in - opting instead to just sit and play games such as stealing cars, shooting people, and racing.
The good news is, a newer version of activity-based games indicates there is a demand for it.
Can you see yourself using this to workout? And, if you don't exercise much already, do you think games like these make much difference?
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My wife and I enjoy playing Wii sports together. Like Mike Howard wrote "anything that gets people moving is a great thing". I like it as it gives my wife and I something to do together. Of course in addtion to other "activities"
ReplyI agree, anything that gets people to move is good BUT I prefer that they get out & play & do things like that.. learn to be more active NOT in front of a TV. I don't have a Wii so I am not going to play it. Plus I love my weight room too much!!! The cardio is a necessity & I work it hard but I love my weights!
ReplyI think its a great concept, I live in such a small space that I cant fit nor afford a room full of home gym equipment I think this is a great way to rejuvenate someone whos bored of excericise videos.
ReplySounds like fun!! I too would rather see kids get up and play outside, but at least this is better than nothing. I'm with you Jody, I love my weights too much, so I might do this for fun, but it wouldn't be to replace a workout for me. I do think it sounds like fun for a family to do together though! The Wii is always good for some laughs too!
ReplyI use the Wii Fit regularly right now, so I welcome new workouts for it!
ReplyI picked up this "game" last week and LOVE it. It's much more of a challenge than the Wii Fit, which quickly became boring for me. In addition to the 30-day challenge workouts, there are also a host of other pre-created workouts to target muscle groups, do just cardio, have a longer workout, etc. You can also create custom workouts (if, for example, you wanted a long run, or 30 minutes of cardio dance or boxing). After my first workout I was "gym" sore - it felt like I'd spent an hour with my personal trainer. Now, I can save the money and workout at home. My only gripe was that the included resistance band was a little weak. But I replaced it with a stronger one I already had, so no skin off my nose. I highly recommend EA Sports Active.
ReplyMy Mum has Wii Sport and loves it. She is amazing at Yoga now too.
ReplyWhen we visit her place my son (6) loves playing all the sports. He played baseball in summer and the Wii Baseball really helped to improve his game. :)
He would love to have Wii at home, but if we did I would never get him off it. So sadly no Wii for me!
Hmmm... I gota give props to Nintendo for coming up with this stuff, but personally, I like to specialize in everything that I do in my life. I don't like anything that's "cookie cutter" and this seems like cookie cutter to me.
Here's what I mean> When I want to workout, I hit up the gym, do some Muay Thai or call my friends over, put on some boxing gloves and go at it till we've sweat buckets.
When I want to play some games every now and then, I want to play some GAMES. I can see the wii appeal, but after like a week, it bored the hell outta me. Maybe it's just me. Game on!
ReplyDance dance revolution really worked for me before my PS2 broke :( I think there's a blog article all about DDR somewhere on this site, with hundreds of comments from teens and young adults that loved it and were addicted to it. For me, it was an easy way to start exercising after a lifetime of being inactive. I could do it in the privacy of my own home and more importantly it was addictive and FUN...I was actually addicted to doing cardio. The better I got at the game, the more intense my workouts were. Can't afford a wii yet, but can't wait to try it!
ReplyI have Wii fit, my fitness coach, and EA Active. They are great fun.
My fitness coach is a serious workout with warm-up, targeted training with the option to use exercise equipment that you already own such as a HR monitor, exercise ball, hand weights and step. Every week, there is a fitness assessment.
EA Active can be quite a workout once you get the hang of the position required for the remote and nunchuck to register the movement propery therefore speeding up the transition between the exercises. I use a thicker/heavier resistance band than the one provided in the box, but it offers a great workout. For me though, I find the program focusses too much on providing wariety of exercises and doesn't make you do enough sets of many resistance exercises. Still love it though.
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