Wii Fitness Review

EA Sports Active Review

Wii Fitness Reviews — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:32:40 +0000

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

EA Sports Active Balance Board Support

Wii Fitness Reviews — Sun, 17 May 2009 06:37:12 +0000

Being a faithful reader of Wii Fitness Review, you know the full list of games included in EA Sports Active and you know which have balance board support.

But we’ve snagged the video below which shows how the boxing, tennis, volleyball, basketball, inline skating and baseball games actually use the balance board. Check out EA Sports Active’s balance board support:

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

EA Sports Active Expansion Packs

Wii Fitness Reviews — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:45:00 +0000

EA Games sees more than just a one-off seller in their EA Sports Active game, in fact, CEO Peter Moore says he sees the product as an entire platform on which to base expansion packs and accessories.

These EA Sports Active Expansion packs will target specific areas of the body one may wish to tone, such as a “Abs Expansion Pack” as well as expansion packs targeted towards specific games, like football, tennis or baseball.

Moore also said that upcoming EA Sports games would include Wii MotionPlus support, but it is unclear whether EA Active Sports would be one of them.

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

Is EA Sports Active Just For Women?

Wii Fitness Reviews — Sat, 16 May 2009 08:13:19 +0000

I’ve seen questions around the ‘net about EA Sports Active ad targeting. The FAQ on the game’s dedicated website even asks, “Can men use EA Sports Active?”

Short answer is, “Of course!”

But the long answer is… Sorta. When it comes down to it, the game IS being marketed towards women admits Draftcb, the advertising company responsible for the “I’m Active” campaign that launched nationally on May 11.

“In developing this campaign, we found that despite a desire to get in shape, female Wii owners have a tendency to put themselves and their fitness goals at the bottom of their ‘To Do’ list. This campaign speaks to all women, reminding every one of us that fitness is an important aspect of overall well being,” said Cricket Wardein, SVP, account director at Draftfcb San Francisco.

I do like the advertising, but the “clever” angle of marketing a video game towards women seems a bit simplistic. Female Wii owners don’t work out as much as they’d like because they put everyone else first? I’m not buying it - the fact is, most folks (myself included) don’t really like working out. It’s work! Sure, once you get in a routine it’s more enjoyable, but to start off, exercise is just hard!

That being said, women or man, a bit of fun during our workout should be well received that that’s why I’m looking forward to the release of EA Sports Active.

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

Alesha Dixon & Victoria Pendleton Try EA Sports Active on the Wii

Games / Modules In EA Sports Active

Wii Fitness Reviews — Fri, 15 May 2009 05:30:46 +0000

This is the full list of games included in EA Sports Active. Six of them use the Wii Balance board.

Cardio Boxing (Hope it’s better than the Wii Fit boxing game!)
Basic Dance (Uh-oh, sounds like it requires coordination - maybe I’ll pass?)
Tennis
Inline Skating
Kick-Ups
Cardio Dance (It gets more complicated than Basic Dance?!!)
Kickbox (Cool!)
Batting
Volleyball (This sounds like a fun one)
Basketball
Pitching and Catching
Serve (A drink? Serve what?)
Run
Walk
Jump
High Steps
Lateral Raises
Lunge
Reps Side Lunge
Squat/Calf
Lunge Jump
Squat Jump
Punch Target
Fast Dance (Fast dance + basic dance + cardio dance?!)
Punch Bag

That’s a A TON of variety, and it should be enough to keep anyone from getting bored. I’m really looking forward to the volleyball and the kickboxing and punch bag games. In case you hadn’t noticed, dance isn’t my thing!

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

Using the Wii Balance Board With EA Sports Active

Wii Fitness Reviews — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:04:34 +0000

Thank goodness EA Sports Active makes use of the Wii balance board! That’s one thing I missed most from My Fitness Coach’s lackluster balance board support.

Here’s how you can use the Wii Balance Board with EA Active Sports:

Tennis: Lunges with forhand and backhand
Volleyball: Lunges added to setting and bumping
Cardio Boxing: Knee components & kicking in heavy bag routine
Baseball: Lunging while catching the ball
Inline Skating: Balance component wherein you lif your leg to move over obstacles
Basketball: Lunging while passing the ball

So of the 25 components of EA Spors Active, 6 use the Wii’s Balance Board. I’d like to see more, but then again, with the leg strap and resistance band, you’re getting tons of feedback from the game and perhaps the balance board is redundant.

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

Alesha Dixon & Victoria Pendleton Try EA Sports Active on the Wii

Wii Fitness Reviews — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:50:17 +0000

EA Games isn’t just ramping up the launch of EA Sports Active here in the US, they’re making sure it gets airtime in the UK too by bringing celebrities on board.

British Olympic cyclist, Victoria Pendleton and pop singer Alesha Dixon are both given a chance to work challenge each other with with multiplayer features of EA Sports Active, much like Allison Sweeney and Ellen Degereres did earlier (but this is less impromptu).

They share a race, aerobic workout, boxing, strength training, tennis, inline skating and after it’s all said an done, Victoria beats Alesha by 2.3 calories burned during the 10 minute workout.

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

Allison Sweeney Works Out With EA Sports Active on “Ellen”

Wii Fitness Reviews — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:56:55 +0000

Allison Sweeney, Days of our Lives star and Biggest Loser hostess took some time out of her schedule to make an appearance on Ellen and demo EA Sports Active. The cool thing here is that Allison just had a baby and says to Ellen that she’s been using EA Sports Active to lose the baby weight - no personal trainer, just Allison and her Wii, and she looks great!

Allison Sweeney and Ellen run a race, then do a boxing challenge and EA Sports Active counts each person’s calories burned (Allison beats Ellen by 0.1 calories!). Watch below:

Fun way to compete while working out and bring the family in to one’s workout, and another cool peek at the EA Sports Active interface.

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

EA Sports Active Commercial

Wii Fitness Reviews — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:39:02 +0000

Very cool commercial for EA Sports Active wherein you can see the thigh band that holds the Wii nunchuck, the resistance band one uses with the regular Wii remote and in combo with the nunchuck, as well as the various kinds of exercises you can do with the game.

Included in EA Sports Active are tennis, boxing, stretching, running, strength training according to this video commercial below:

Click to order EA Sports Active from Amazon.com

How To Exercise With EA Sports Active

Wii Fitness Reviews — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:44:42 +0000

Here are some tips on working out most effectively with EA Sports Active:

Use your whole body when doing the movements
Bend your knees during tennis to get more out of your tennis stroke
In the basketball game, jump as high as you possibly can
Drop your body as low as possible before jumping off the inline skating ramps

When you do these things, you’ll rasie your heart rate and get a more intense workout from EA Sports Active.

To make it even harder, shorten the resistance band below your feet. You can also watch the training tutorals included in the game to make every workout your best!