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Harley Pasternak workout is coming to Wii and Xbox 360 Kinect

Sue — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:09:57 +0000

Harley’s getting game

According to this press release, Majesco (makers of the very successful Zumba video games) is coming out with Harley Pasternak’s Hollywood Workout for Kinect and Wii this fall. Pasternak is a trainer that has shown up on various chat shows and written some books.

From the description, the game sounds a lot like the Biggest Loser game series: your average everyday workout led by a personality. It’s nice that they say “Wii” and not “Wii U”, the Wii upgrade that will probably be announced next month at E3 and go on sale in time for the holidays, putting the classic Wii out to pasture.

Let’s Dance: multi-platform, multi-player and forget about the price tag

Sue — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:08:44 +0000

Let’s Dance, which was released last year in the UK as Let’s Dance with Mel B, is entering the crowded dance game floor this month in North America. It’s going to come out on Wii, PS3 Move and Kinect, and great news for penny-pinchers, it has a list price of $20 on all three consoles.

Screenshot of Let's Dance for Xbox 360 Kinect

The Kinect version looks like a cross between Just Dance and DanceMasters in that your dancing image can be placed right up there “on stage”. While I don’t see anything about a workout mode, the game’s website describes a “Survival Mode” where you apparently dance nonstop till you drop.

Future successor to Walk It Out: Rebound It Out?

Sue — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:36:49 +0000

ExerGame Lab posted this cool video from a Japanese university, showing a rebounder used in a Walk It Out-style game. The video shows how it works, with infrared sensors under the rebounder picking up the foot movement (possible use for Kinect?) and making the exerciser walk forward, backward or even fly by jumping in the virtual world. Adding the ability to go airborne would be a fantastic upgrade to the game!

Recently-released Kinect active games have dropped to bargain-bin prices

Sue — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:42:30 +0000

Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure for Xbox360 Kinect

I couldn’t help noticing some price cuts on Kinect games recently on Amazon. Self-Defense Training Camp is $16 at this writing, as is Deepak Chopra’s Leela. Power Up Heroes, a fighting game which several reviewers say is also a good workout, is being sold for under $20 by several third-party merchants on Amazon. For Jillian Michaels fans, Jillian’s Fitness Adventure is $20 at the moment.

GameStop also has some Kinect game deals coming up starting April 1, according to a flyer I just picked up: Twister Mania for $10 and Kung-Fu High Impact for $20 interest me the most. I downloaded demos for both games from Xbox Live, and they’re fun, especially Kung-Fu.

Online support for EA Sports Active 2 and NFL Training Camp will end next month

Sue — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:07:16 +0000

EA Sports Active 2 for Wii

EA has announced that they will shut down the online servers for a group of games, including EA Sports Active 2 (on all consoles) and NFL Training Camp (for Wii). That means your online workout stats and workout groups for those games will go to cyber-heaven on April 15.

While EA should get some props for having the first console fitness games to have crucial online support – something I decried the lack of – it’s still dismaying that they’re pulling the plug after only about a year and a half after those games were released. It’s also a consumer issue, since EASA2 and NFL are still on many retail store shelves and still selling for as much as $50. Someone might pick up one of those games on a whim, or as a gift for a football fan who’s wearing a hole in the couch, only to find that the online support promised on the box no longer exists.

On the silver lining side, NFL has been drastically cut to under $15 at Amazon and I expect EASA2 to soon follow suit. I picked up NFL a couple months ago and tried it a couple times, and while it does have some connectivity issues (Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 for Kinect has really spoiled me) it’s still a good workout with plenty of NFL fan flavor. The heart rate monitor and leg controllers are identical for both games, so if you get one of each, you can enjoy multiplayer on both games.

And since it’s the age of social networks, there will still be forums and groups devoted to EASA and NFL even after the built-in support is gone. The EA Sports Active forum is very active, and by all indications, will keep on movin’ after April.

(Via Ars Technica)