Sunday, November 28, 2010

Video game three hundred and thirty seven: Your Shape Fitness

Video game review number three hundred and thirty seven in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "Your Shape Fitness"

I figured it was about time that I try a fitness game for the Kinect, so I got my gym clothes on and booted this one up.

The first thing the game does is take your profile. It measures your arms, legs, torso, etc, etc. It asks you for your weight and then it determines what kind of exercise will be right for you. I picked a cardio program, and it had me doing all sorts of punching and lunging. I hit virtual blocks, I danced along with my instructor..and I stepped on colored circles on the ground around me.

It's kind of amazing how fast I worked up a sweat. I'm sure I could get a much more brutal workout by throwing in a P90X DVD or something, but this is a video game that actually doles out achievements for your gameplay time. Aside from getting into better shape (always a good goal), the progress in game is very tempting.

I did a yoga/tai-chi sort of thing. It was actually pretty cool, and you had to hold poses and breathe and stuff. The camera tracked my line, and the on screen instructor told me to raise or lower my arms, my stance, etc. Because there's instant onscreen feedback when you adjust your position, it feels like the game is REALLY watching you, and that's pretty cool in an exercise game. When I messed up, the game told me so. Same when I did well.

Overall Score? 7.5/10. I've barely scratched the surface of this one, and already I can see myself wanting to go back. I don't think this is one I can beat in a weekend or anything, you need to play it for weeks before you can get all 1000 gamerscore. As a thank you for putting that much time into it, you might even lose a few pounds. Not a bad tradeoff if you ask me.

Achievements? I only got a couple so far, but that's because I only played for around an hour. I'll put more time in and get many more of these.


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