EA Sports Active

Who said working out couldn't be fun? Originally, Nintendo asked that question this generation with Wii Fit. Now, EA Sports is attacking the growing exercise game genre with EA Sports Active. As the name implies, the game aims to get Wii owners up and moving with the goal of staying fit and maintaining a good exercise regimen.

At the notion of combining fitness and video games, Wii Fit comes to mind immediately. How can EA Sports Active steal the show? Thankfully, the approach of the game makes it a better compliment than a competitor to Wii Fit. It focuses on cardio workouts and upper and lower body strength training to get your heart racing, and not just balance training.

Added bells and whistles to the game like a constantly-running "calories burned" counter during activities, custom workouts, and an element of real-life exercise with an included Nunchuk leg strap and resistance band set this game far apart from Wii Fit.

Ahh... just like real life.

Players are given a good amount of options in their workout routine. Most will jump into the 30-Day Challenge, where working out with EA Sports Active each day for 30 days will yield the best results. In fact, many are reporting actual weight loss during their time with it.

Regardless, each workout ends with the player dripping with sweat, and actually tired from their (often) 20 minute exercise. And that stays true outside of the 30-Day Challenge, as players can also do a large number of preset workouts, or customize their own by selecting from over 20 exercises (broken down into different intensities and variations of the exercise, which greatly inflates that number).

Don't be fooled, as this game is no pioneer in showing how to implement Wii controls into exercise gaming. Some activities work well and use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and sometimes resistance band and Balance Board, usefully in a workout setting. Most activities don't do so well, and sadly most of the actual sports-oriented ones are in this category.

Sports like tennis and baseball have been represented well on the Wii already, but EA seemed to change that by proving that Wii controls can be "unmastered." Swing controls are too touchy to work for the exercise, and Wii Sports tennis pros will likely find themselves missing most of the balls thrown their way. Then, EA added in balance board compatibility for these sports, which makes the experience worse.

In baseball, players raise the Nunchuk in their left hand to catch the ball, while stepping off the board in the direction it is heading. But when stepping off and waiting for it to come, your avatar steps itself back to the neutral position and back, left doing a funky "I'm not going to catch this ball" dance. I found it is expecting players to unnaturally put weight on their foot left on the board, jarring the exercise.

Some games genuinely feel like EA Sports Active is "tricking" you into believing that the Remote and Nunchuk's motion control actually matter. One exercise has you holding both in your hands, while kicking your knee up towards the controllers (like virtually kneeing an enemy in the head), and not using the Balance Board, mind you. The game could only possibly be reading the motion of your hands moving down slightly to reach your knee, but there's nothing to measure your actual workout in this regard. At least when left confused, the game offers tutorials for each exercise.

...Not like those really help, either. The pleasant narration and speechless trainer do well to model each exercise, except not all the demonstrations adequately match up. The video demonstration for the tennis game shows the trainer (the cover model for the game, although you pick a male or female trainer just like Wii Fit) freely swinging both Remote and Nunchuk backwards prior to swinging forwards for the actual hit. And much like Wii Sports' tennis, my avatar was left wildly swinging, hitting everything but the tennis ball. Actually, I attempted to correct the problem, but simply moving my arms into place for a forehand shot, like the video attempted to show, still ended in a failed exercise.

The worst video was for the Alternating High Knee Reverse Lunges exercise, where the trainer clearly intends to have your hands on your hips during the exercise. Of course, my avatar clearly had their arms swinging around instead during the workout, leaving me confused on how to perform the routine. How could I possibly be burning so many calories doing this?

That leads to the final issue. This game absolutely works in burning calories. Perhaps not as many as a "real" workout, but it could be great for those of us that don't exercise whatsoever. However, many activities result in frustration. That frustration quickly translates into more wild and aggressive movements, in order to actually do the exercise well. Some exercises easily double the amount of reps I do, just trying to get the game to read it correctly. No wonder I'm breaking a sweat!

Create your own workout. Custom and preset workouts with varying difficulties are a key to keeping EA Sports Active part of a daily routine.

Break a sweat. The constant workout vibe of the game will leave you winded and dripping with sweat at the end, as it should.

Viva la resistance. The resistance band adds a "real" element to the workout.

Resistance is futile. While it works for the game, the resistance band is fairly low quality.

Doesn't tell you you're fat. No option to weigh yourself leaves you running back to the Wii Fit channel.

Tennis shouldn't exist in this game. Even when timed perfectly, players will find themselves missing targets, or the ball completely, all thanks to design flaws.

Model trainers aren't helpful. During exercises like Alternating High Knee Reverse Lunges or the Tennis game, their motions don't match up with the expressed instructions and often lead to failure.

No Mii for you. Setting up a profile is easier with Mii integration, which Nintendo is always apt to offer. Instead, EA chose to grant players generic, "molded" human avatars with a poor variety in clothing and accessory options.

More like "Imbalanced Board." Nearly every use of the balance board in the game is flawed, and staggers the exercise experience.

The bottom line is: this game will make you break a sweat. The working cardio exercises in the game make a great companion to Wii Fit, which practically justifies the price. The comparisons to Wii Fit are entirely necessary, as this game certainly doesn't revolutionize exercise gaming, and proves that good controls can be broken. Can you lose weight? There's no reason to believe otherwise. However, don't confuse frustration with fitness. Parts of the game seem "loose," or broken. I suppose there's a lot of pain to looking good, isn't there?