EA Sports Active Review
The biggest challenge many Wii Fit owners face is that once you’re used to the device, it takes a ridiculously long amount of time to scroll through the games and actually get a workout. There’s no continuous play mode that’ll move you from one workout to the next - i.e. squats to lunges to sit ups - instead, you have to go to the menu for each, load it, do the reps, then find your next routine. For someone who’s just getting started, it’s ok, but as you become more familiar with the workouts it sort of leaves you in la-la land with no set routine and lots of interruption between workouts.
EA Sports Active promises to change that by providing continuous play workouts that’ll actually get you moving and get your heart pumping, and has solidified that claim by bringing on Bob Greene, Oprah’s personal trainer and creator of the Best Life Diet, as a partner in the game’s development. EA Games is quick to correct anyone in even calling it a game - they prefer to refer to EA Sports Active as a platform, a virtual home fitness product or even as an “personal trainer in a box.”
The “games” included in EA Sports Active are as follows:
Cardio Boxing, Basic Dance, Tennis, Inline Skating, Kick-Ups, Cardio Dance, Kickbox, Batting, Volleyball, Basketball, Pitching and Catching, Serve, Run, Walk, Jump, High Steps, Lateral Raises, Lunge, Reps Side Lunge, Squat/Calf, Lunge Jump, Squat Jump, Punch Target, Fast Dance and Punch Bag.
Of those, the Tennis, Volleyball, Cardio Boxing, Baseball, Inline Skating and Basketball components of EA Sports Active have Wii balance board support. The balance board isn’t required, it just let’s you do extras (like lunge for the ball in tennis).
In your package you’ll get the game itself, the resistance band and the nunchuck leg strap (pictured above). The resistance band goes above and beyond what one was able to do with Wii Fit because, well, you have resistance. So you can work out harder and the variety of exercises is expanded. With the nunchuck leg strap, EA Active Sports is actually able to guage your leg movement instead of just hand movement from holding the Wii remote, and you get much better feedback from the game as a result. And you on-screen character actually moves in tandem with you - which might not help you burn more calories, but it makes the whole process become much more interactive.
When you start the game, you’ll be greeted by Bob Greene and walked through setting up your profile, entering in age, weight, height, fitness goals, etc. so the game can accurately gauge the amount of calories you burn during your workouts. (That’s right, EA Sports Active actually tells you how many calories you’re burning!).
There’s a calendar feature so you can track your progress with in-game workouts as well as add in exercise you do in real life, should you be that motivated.
After the initial set up, you’re given your workout options:
30 Day Challenge Mode: consists of 30 days of 20 minute workouts tailored to your fitness level. The workouts change each day to ensure boredom doesn’t set in and of course, your calories, intensity and progress are documented throughout so you can see how far you’ve come at the end, complete with graphs.
Pre-determined Routines: These 20 minute workout routines have been developed by Bob Greene and other fitness and weight loss experts so you can plug in and workout with a focus on the area of your body (or multiple areas) you want to target the most. There are routines centered around cardio and strength training (upper and lower body), and they can be linked together to form circuit training routines.
You always receive tons of feedback from your personal trainer so you know when to kick it up a notch and you can also change the exercise intensity for a more challenging workout.
Custom Workouts: If you’re a fitness guru yourself - or just want to concentrate on a particular activity more than the pre-determined routines allow for, you can customize your own workouts as much as you’d like. Flabby thighs? Lots of inline skating lunges should do the trick.
EA Sports Active also has a well developed multiplayer or co-operative mode, where you and a friend or family member are able to challenge each other. The game actually takes into account the current fitness stats of each player to determine who’s the winner - it might not be who ran the farthest, for example, but rather who burned the most calories based on their current fitness level. Great for playing with your kids, you won’t necessarily always be the winner!
With so many options and gameplay modes, plus the (finally!) availability of a continuous play mode so you can actually complete a 20 minute workout in 20 minutes, and the promise of EA Sports Active “Expansion Packs,” EA Sports Active is my top recommendation in the “Wii as a fitness device” category.
Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com
Release date: May 19, 2009
ASIN: B001MBUGLY
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