PS3 Fitness Game Reviews 4

Review of EA Sports Active 2 for Playstation 3

ALERT: EA Sports Active 2 is currently $30 off at the EA Sports Store. Get it while you can!

On December 14 only, EA Sports Active 2 available at Amazon for $40 off list price. Order before 12/17 to get free shipping before Xmas!! (As of December 17, this deal appears to still be active!)


EA Sports Active 2

Reviewed by PS3Fitness.com on November 29, 2010 .
Summary: The best fitness game for the Wii makes a successful transition to the PS3.

review of ea sports active 2ea sports active ps3 reviewEA Sports Active has long been the king of the hill of fitness games for the Wii, along with its sequel EA Sports Active: More Workouts. But with the advent of the Playstation Move, EA had a decision to make. Should it continue to support the Wii and possibly cede the title of “best fitness game” for the PS3 to another game publisher? Or should it invest a ton of money into making the game work with the radically different Move controller?

EA Sports ended up doing something rather clever with EA Sports Active 2. It created its own controllers. Specifically, you have an arm controller to detect arm motions, a leg controller you strap onto your thigh, and a heart rate monitor that provides you with constant on-screen feedback of your pulse. So instead of awkwardly forcing you to hold a controller in your hand, now you can have full range of motion, grabbing onto the included resistance band (which is much less flimsy than the original Wii version) or even using free weights in your exercises.

One thing I really love about the new EA Sports Active is the innovation it put into the activities. There are over 70 to choose from, ranging from basic exercises to sporting events. As in the original version, most sporting events basically consist of you doing repetitions of exercise movements that approximate the movement that your on-screen character does. What I really like about EA Sports Active 2 is that they’ve incorporated much more interactivity and “video gaming elements” into the activities. For example, in the skateboarding and mountain biking activities, you need to leap at just the right moment to avoid obstacles. In the Basketball event, a cursor will move over the basket, and you need to time your release of the ball correctly to score.

There’s a new 9-week exercise regimen that you can follow. It’s not just a random assortment of exercises each day, it was clearly put together by a real fitness expert. Each day, you work progressively on different fitness goals. There’s a good variety of activities to keep the workouts interesting.

Another great improvement is the ability to work out with (and compete against) someone else, if you purchase a second set of controllers. There’s something about competition that makes exercise go by so much faster. If your Wii is connected to the Internet, you can also challenge your friends (or complete strangers) online or join an online workout group.

If there’s a gripe I have about EA Sports Active 2, it’s that it uses the same kind of “cartoony” graphics that you see on the Wii version. I’ve long hoped that EA Sports would start to incorporate more of the increasingly realistic graphics of its sports titles like Madden NFL into its fitness game, but it looks like that’s still some time away.

Overall, I’d say that EA Sports has made a very smooth transition to the PS3. Ironically, it doesn’t use the Move at all, but ends up providing a much stronger workout than if it did. For serious fitness on the PS3, this is a must-have.

If you have a Wii, read the updated Review of EA Sports Active 2 for the Wii!

Rating:
5 of 5





4 Comments

  • Reply
    doug
    Jul 07, 2011 7:36 am

    Here’s a video demo by the fitness trainer for ea sports active 2
    http://youtu.be/e8w-BNLluMw

  • Reply
    daskreech
    Apr 24, 2012 8:52 pm

    could you do a update for this game on how much it is worth it without the online server’s being available?

  • Reply
    Alexey
    May 04, 2012 7:25 pm

    daskreech :
    could you do a update for this game on how much it is worth it without the online server’s being available?

    +1 – this would be extremely helpful

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