Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day is Active Life Extreme Challenge
As I wrote in my review of Active Life Extreme Challenge, it’s not the best game, certainly not better than its predecessor, Active Life Outdoor Challenge.
As I wrote in my review of Active Life Extreme Challenge, it’s not the best game, certainly not better than its predecessor, Active Life Outdoor Challenge.
Reviewer: Nutwiisystem
January 13, 2010
The exercise game from Ubisoft I had most been anticipating this year was Your Shape. As you can see from the review of Your Shape on the blog, I was less than impressed. Apparently, Ubisoft felt that in order to compete with EA and its Resistance Bands and Nunchuk Leg Strap and Nintendo with its Balance Board and MotionPlus, it had to introduce its own peripheral. So, it valiantly tried to introduce a Webcam which did a horrible job of tracking movement.
Ironically, the best exercise game of the year so far is by Ubisoft, but the only controller it uses is one, count ’em, one Wii remote. And it’s not an exercise game at all. It’s called Just Dance, and it’s a winner. I placed an order for the game after Dianska mentioned it in the comments section of the best Wii Fitness Games page, and I’ve been particularly looking forward to it after reading positive comments from Partingsorrow and Mindy.
I admit, I wasn’t expecting much when I first heard about Just Dance a few months ago. I figured it’d be just like another one of those games like Dancing with the Stars and High School Musical where you see characters on screen dancing, but all you’re doing is waving your remote to match the visual cues on the screen. Ho Hum.
The first thing that struck me when I popped the game into the Wii was that these were fun songs from every era. They’re all family-friendly, and there’s something in the track list for everyone, from baby boomers to Gen X’ers to Gen Y’ers. Here’s the entire track list. Most of the songs are not covers, but original tracks from the original singers.
The second thing that impressed me was that this game features actual dance moves to the songs. In other words, not only are you playing the game, you’re learning actual dance steps. You’ll learn the “Mashed Potato” that was all the rage in the 1960’s to Dee Dee Sharp’s “Mashed Potato Time”. You’ll learn the bestd disco moves of the 70’s with songs like “That’s the Way I Like It”. And my personal dream come true–you can make your own “Hammer Time” with “U Can’t Touch This” (parachute pants not included). You can’t do Dance Dance Revolution steps at a wedding (ahem, not that I’ve tried), but you can bust these moves.
Admittedly, the one thing I was skeptical about when I first saw the game was that it only used one Wii remote. That’s it. No nunchuk, no double Wii remotes, no MotionPlus, no balance board, no camera. They went for a decidedly simpler approach. For using one Wii remote, the controls are pretty accurate as far as detecting whether you’re dancing correctly or not. For each move, you’ll be given a grade of “Great”, “Okay” and “X”.
Now, I won’t lie and say the controls are the most precise in the world. There’ll be plenty of times you’ll be doing the moves precisely, but the Wii will tell you you’re not. But where this game triumphs is that even though the controls may be off, the game is so fun that you really don’t care. You’re not really “scolded” for getting an “X”. This is a refreshing change from other games like Your Shape or Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatim, where I swear I want to put my fist through the TV each time Jenny McCarthy or Jillian Michaels yells at me when they should be yelling at the people who programmed them.
And you also find that the more you practice the moves and “feel the music”, the better your scores become. You may never get to 100%, but you learn to take 60% to 70% “Great” or “Okay” as a major accomplishment. Here are some hints to improve your changes:
The game is simple. You choose a song, and then after a countdown from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, you’ll see a silhouetted character on your screen doing the dance moves. The character is generally dressed appropriately for the song: a disco dude will lead you through “That’s the Way I Like It”, a cowgirl will do a two-step to “Cotton Eye Joe”, and a dog (yes, a dog) will dance to “Who Let the Dogs Out”. You basically just have to do the mirror image of the character’s moves.
Oh yes, the exercise value. With virtually every song, I ended it panting because I was out of breath. Now granted, because it only uses the Wii remote, you could probably “cheat” by flicking your wrists at the right points. But why would you want to? It’s a blast to learn the real dance moves, it’s hugely entertaining when moving your whole body the way it’s supposed to be done.
To sum up, Just Dance is an instant classic “exercise game that’s not called an exercise game”. And even though I was constantly out of breath, I invariably still wanted to try it again and again until I got it right. To me, that’s the sign of a great exercise game.
Every day, Amazon features what it calls its “Video Game Deal of the Day”. Today (January 7, 2010), the deal of the day is the original EA Sports Active for only $39.77 (a discount of $20.22), a pretty good price for this one.
While not as good as its successor, EA Sports Active: More Workouts, this one does include the accessories (the resistance band and the leg strap) which are needed for both the EA Sports Active Titles.
In case you haven’t seen it, at long last the list of Top 10 Wii Fitness games is updated. Hop on over and see who the new king of the hill is 🙂
In the coming few weeks, keep an eye out for reviews on Ubisoft’s Just Dance and Konami’s Walk It Out!