Category Archives: Game reviews
Free demo of Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout is available on Xbox Live
I just noticed today on Xbox Live Marketplace that there is a free playable demo of The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout available for download, so you better believe I jumped on it! After trying it out, my verdict is: better (and more intense!) than I expected, though not without its flaws.
The demo includes a short cardio workout with Bob Harper. First he warms you up with lunge reaches, then bumps up the intensity with punches and slow kicks, then goes all-out with “standing mountain climbers” (I’ve known them as high knee-ups, where you jog with high knees while punching overhead) before cooling down with downward dog and slow bicycle kicks.
Your silhouette is in the lower right corner of the screen on a virtual pedestal that you stay on, after calibrating the Kinect to a part of the room where you have enough room to flail around. During the exercise, as with Zumba Wii, your shadow is green if you’re doing great, red if you’re not following along correctly. It also tells you on-the-fly how many calories you’re burning, and gives occasional hints like “Arms higher”. It can be a little frustrating at first – by the time I was squatting not too low, not too high but JUST right, the exercise was over. And I have no idea at all how well I did the downward dog. They should have you turn around first, so you can look at the screen between your legs.
But either I’m out of shape, or some of this stuff is as intense as what they make the contestants go through. I was pretty out of breath by the time the mountain-climber segment was done, and it was telling me my knees weren’t high enough! I really liked how the workout made use of total-body, full-range-of-motion moves. Even when done slowly, they get the heart rate up and test your balance. There were a couple of water breaks as well; I felt like I should hold my glass up to their water icon or something, so they knew I was hydrating properly.
I’m not really a fan of “workout” games, but I’m impressed with the demos of Your Shape Fitness Evolved (included on the Kinect Adventures disc) and now BL Ultimate Workout. If you have Xbox Live and Kinect, go get this demo while you can, and grab the Kinect Sports demo too!
Kinect fitness reviews are rolling in
The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout for Xbox 360 Kinect
Now that Kinect fitness launch games Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, EA Sports Active 2, Zumba Fitness and Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout have been out for awhile, and people have had a chance to actually crack them open for Resolution Month, there are some reviews and comparisons coming in.
I like to look to the “real people” reviews on Amazon to get an idea of what games are like in the real world, and so far it looks as if Your Shape is the biggest winner. I’ve only tried the demo included with Kinect Adventures, in which you punch and kick flying cubes, but it seems to work well and I can see myself working out with this game. There are some complaints about lack of variety, but downloadable workouts are offered. Your Shape is also on sale for $34, making it the best buy of the bunch at the moment.
The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout is getting rather mixed reviews. I guess you have to be a fan of the show to “enjoy” it as it were, but I rented the Wii version and wasn’t all that excited about it. TBL tries to be a “total package” with recipes and motivation in addition to workouts, which may appeal to beginners looking for a fitness launching pad. They also offer online play with 2 additional players (Kinect only allows 2 simultaneous players in person).
It looks as if the biggest losers are Zumba Fitness and EA Sports Active 2. They’re both getting lots of complaints about unresponsive controls and general bugginess (game stalling or shutting down). EASA2 is now reduced to $60, which isn’t making the people who shelled out $100 happy campers.
Game Informer, on New Years Day yet, posted a comparison of all but Biggest Loser. It may have been written before EASA2′s bugs came to the forefront, but it’s a good rundown of the different features of each game.
5 fun family exergames that won’t break the bank
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! While you’re digesting turkey and pumpkin pie, you don’t want to get heartburn thinking about either all the money you’ll be spending on kids’ gifts, or all the tedious exercise it’ll take to burn off the holiday feasts. Why not kill two birds with one stone: pick up a bargain-priced exergame that will have the whole family both sweating and smiling. Here are some of my favorites:
Hyper Dash
Wild Planet Hyper Dash. This exergame doesn’t even require a TV screen, and you can play it indoors or outdoors. See my review here. There is a newer version out, Hyper Dash Extreme, which picks up targets with each “hit”.
Track & Field Challenge
Track & Field Challenge. I found this mat game at Five Below for only $5. Based on the classic arcade game Track & Field, T&FC is plug-and-play, no console needed – just add batteries and plug it into your TV. It contains 10 different minigames that involve running and jumping on the mat, can be played by 2 players simultaneously (some games allow 4 players taking turns) and even counts calories based on your weight.
10 Minute Solution reviews are less than hot
Ever since the Jillian Michaels 2009 fiasco, my advice has been to wait for reviews before buying a video game, unless it’s from a tried-and-true series that you know you’re going to like (it’s pretty much a given that I’ll buy anything We Cheer, and a lot of folks are looking forward to the next Walk It Out). Games usually aren’t cheap – even a “bargain” 20 bucks is a lot compared to most DVDs and books – and often aren’t returnable.
But I do salute the people who are willing to stick their necks and wallets out to give the rest of us an early warning. Such is the case, unfortunately, with 10 Minute Solution for Wii. This game was released 2 weeks ago, and since it licenses a workout video series that is popular in retail stores and familiar with many home exercisers, I thought there would be reviews, either by consumers on Amazon, or on those other lucky blogs that get these games for free. (Hint hint nudge nudge!)
Instead, days of complete silence went by, which is never a good sign. Finally a few reviews trickled onto Amazon, and sure enough, people were disappointed. They cited that the moves were slow, music was bad, controllers were unresponsive, and they just didn’t get that great of a workout.
This DVD has more punch for your bucks
Outside of Amazon, Sara of My Basement Gym wrote a very detailed review of 10 Minute Solution. She describes all the different activities, and concludes by saying there are much better choices available, such as Golds Gym Cardio Workout, EA Sports Active, and EA Sports Active More Workouts. According to Sara, even the DVD on which this game was based, 10 Minute Solution Knockout Body Kit which comes with weighted gloves, is a better workout buy than the Wii game. It goes to show, sometimes no interactivity is better than bad interactivity.
A PS2 dance game + mat for under $5
If you’ve read much of this blog, you know I love a good deal, and right now a lot of those deals are on Playstation 2 console games. The decade-old console may be going out to pasture (even though they’re still making new games for it) but it still has the best DDR games, in my opinion, and several dance game knockoffs were released for it right before the Wii stole much of the home exergaming spotlight.
One knockoff is High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance, a dance-mat game loosely fashioned after DDR and featuring songs from the popular Disney Channel series. (Don’t confuse it with the Wii HSM game, which does not use a mat.) I picked this up from Amazon at the incredible price of $4.08, and at this writing, the bundle’s price is only $3.63. Yes, bundle – the game comes with a four-arrow dance mat that can be also be used with DDR or In The Groove. The mat is a little thinner than the standard Konami mat, but for under $5, how can you complain?
And the game itself is actually not bad at all. It’s based on the Disney Channel franchise of tween-aimed movies and music about a high school where kids sing and dance everywhere, like in Fame. As in DDR, you step on a mat to cues set to the beat of a song, but here you watch for bubbles gliding out of the center of a ring of four bars, arranged like the arrows on the mat. There are also jump and “freeze” steps, and while there’s no training mode aside from a very easy tutorial, the beginning mode is easy enough for anyone to get used to the gameplay whether you’re a DDR player or not. Two players can play, in either versus or cooperative modes.
Many of the songs are catchy and danceable, if you can stand tween pop, and since this is Disney, no worries about inappropriate lyrics. And there are a couple of neat features: one is the Super Star mode, which is similar to the Star Power in Guitar Hero. Once a meter fills up with consecutive steps, a star in the corner starts blinking, and if you jump on the X and O spots simultaneously, you get double points for a few seconds. The other cool thing is the ability to create your own avatar, either male or female, give it any name and watch it dance in the background.
There’s no workout mode or edit mode or doubles mode (just a few “fan” extras like personality quizzes and a “yearbook”) but geez, a dance mat plus game for the price of a frappachino! If you’re even slightly interested, jump on it with both feet.
