Those of you who’ve been with me since I started blogging about exergaming back in 2009 may know that I also ran a few other sites. There was PS3Fitness.com for those who wanted to use the Playstation Move to exercise, XboxFitness.org for those using an Xbox 360 or Xbox One, and of course Nutwiisystem.com for fans of the Wii and Wii U.

Just as I decided to retire the Nutwiisystem name, I’ve also decided to consolidate all my past PS3Fitness.com posts into Gaming.Fit. If you’d like a trip down memory lane, you can browse all my old Wii and PS3 reviews from this site now.

While the exergaming craze that began with the Wii has died out for a while, the concept of “working out without realizing you’re getting a workout” is not dead, not by a longshot.

The biggest thing in the last few years has of course been wearables, thanks to the enormous success of the Fitbit, followed up by smart watches like the Apple Watch (by the way, for those of you keeping score at home, I did buy an Apple Watch but I decided to return it mainly because I didn’t think its short battery life made too much sense for me as a full-time fitness device…I’ll be giving it another shot when Apple Watch 2 launches later this year).

But just round the horizon is brewing a new breed of exergaming. As my last sporadic posts have hinted at, it’s going to be amazing. Check back here from time to time and I’ll be sure to give you the latest!

Well, it’s been a fun ride, but with the recent release of Just Dance 2014 for Playstation 3, we’ve probably seen the last fitness game that’ll ever be coming out for the Playstation 3.

Sony, of course, has been turning all its attention to the PS4, and game developers in general have pretty much followed suit. And even before this, the number of games made exclusive for the Playstation Move seems to have been declining. Sony has announced an improved camera and continued support of the Move controllers for the new PS4, but time will tell if motion gaming catches on with the new system.

Just Dance has been such a hit for Ubisoft that they’ve decided to release it for every platform: the Wii, the Wii U, the Xbox 360, the Xbox One, the PS3, and the PS4. They’ve done a pretty remarkable job of porting it to every platform, so the experience is virtually the same across every one.

On the PS3 version, you start out by calibrating your Move controllers, simply by pointing it at the Playstation Eye camera and pressing the Move button, and your controller will glow blue. If a second player is playing, you can set that controller up the same way (it’ll glow red). It did take me a bit of time to figure out how to go back to 1 player, as the system would constantly force you to keep calibrating the second controller even if you tried to turn it off. After a while I realized all you have to do is put the second controller aside and eventually the system will realize no one’s using it and shut it off.

When you start the game, the opening menu is simple; in the center of the screen is a recommended song you can start dancing to right away. You can also scroll continuously to the right to select specific songs. One nice thing about Just Dance 2014 is that none of the songs themselves are locked–every song is playable from the beginning. Instead, what’s locked are different variations of the choreography that’s available on certain songs. Here are all the different variations:

• Classic – The standard, default choreography, all of which are unlocked from the beginning.
• On Stage – Multiple dancers interacting with each other in a “dance performance”, which are a lot of fun not only for the dancers but also for onlookers.
• Extreme – These are more advanced dance routines, not for beginners.
• Battle – This is a mode where you compete against another player in a “Street Fighter” like battle–the better you dance, the more you’ll increase your life line and decrease your opponent’s.
• Mash-Up – Here, different dance moves (and the original dancers) from other songs and from past versions of Just Dance are pieced together to form a unique dance.
• Sweat – Songs are choreographed with maximum exercise, fitness, and aerobic activity in mind.
• Sweat Mash-Up – A combination of Mash-Up and Sweat modes, these are 5 points to unlock.
• Others – Several songs have very unique choreography. Gwen Stefani’s Rich Girl has a “Chair” dance. Far East Movement’s Turn up the Love has something called “Sumo”. And Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” lets you dance to the Charleston. Each of these are 50 points to unlock.

Dancer Card – You can click the upper right-hand corner to create a “dancer card”. This will allow you to provide your nickname, an avatar (you choose from a set of cute cartoon faces all blinking at you), your country, your gender, and your age. The choices are 0-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, and 40+. Once you set up your dancer card, when you click on it you’ll see at-a-glance your style (how accurate you are), your kCals burned in Sweat Mode, your favorite songs, your average star rating, and your online level.

The Dancing: The dancing itself works pretty much the same as all other Just Dance games. Each song’s choreography is designed for 1-4 different players. If you’re playing with 2 or more players, each player will use his or her Move controller to select a character to follow, and can also choose his or her dancer card so that statistics will be properly tallied.

Each player then holds the Move controller in his or her right hand and follows the on-screen dancer’s moves as if looking in a mirror. What’s nice about playing on a PS3 is that the motion controls are much more precise than on a Wii, but unlike on an Xbox 360 you don’t need to all squeeze into a certain area. When you hit a special move correctly, the Move controller will vibrate in your hands to let you know.

The animation on screen, as usual, is usually done with tongue firmly planted in cheek. For example, here’s a zombie dancing to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”.

I’ve played this game on the Xbox 360 and the Wii U, and for some reason my scores on the PS3 version were much higher than on those  two systems; even my first time through a song I’d easily get 4 or 5 stars. This means that either the motion controls are much more forgiving on this version or that my dancing had improved to the point where I’m infallible. I’ll let you guess which one is the truth 🙂

Other options on the main menu include the following:

Just Sweat – This mode allows you to play several songs in a row for 10, 20, or 40 minute programs. You can also turn on “free mode”, which turns on a calorie counter that tracks you calories for any song in the game.

Shop – As you play the game, you’ll earn points, which are tallied by a yellow “M” throughout the game. You can use these points to “purchase” unlockable content for the game. These include:

• Alternate Choreography. Here’s where you can unlock “On Stage” , “Extreme”, “Sweat” and “Battle Mode” choreography for songs.
• Mash-Ups & Co. Here, you can download Mash-Ups and Sweat Mash-Ups of songs.
• New Songs. Unfortunately you can’t use your points to unlock new songs–you’ll need real money for that. Ubisoft cleverly weaved a list of purchasable songs into this menu so you’ll always be reminded of it when you’re unlocking content. They even offer a free song, Katy Perry’s Roar, for you to learn the download process (when you select a song you’re sent to the Playstation Store to complete your purchase). When you buy a song, you’ll get avatars thrown in for free.

The World Dance Floor option will show up if you’re signed in. A number will show how many dancers are currently online.

This is an interesting online mode where you can literally dance with players from around the world, earn points along the way, and even make friends. The good news is that you’re not personally identifiable, other than the name on your dancer card. There’s a countdown timer to “Happy Hour”, when you can earn extra points you can use to unlock more stuff.

There are a number of activities on the Dance Floor. You can participate in dance offs against other players, you can dance to the same song with everyone in the group and see who’s the best, and you can vote on which song to dance to next. It’s a lot of fun, and it really adds a new dimension to dancing.

Getting online was pretty easy–when it worked. I tried multiple times and kept getting the message “The Ubisoft server is unavailable at this time. Please try again later”. But finally, I was able to get through, just by having signed in already with my Playstation Account. Here’s what a typical World Dance Floor session looks like.

Finally, there’s another online feature called JDTV that consists of videos that other players around the world have uploaded. While this is a cute feature, it’s one I got bored of pretty quickly, as all the dances are strange, stylized “mash ups” of dances the the system does called “Autodance mode”. I would much rather see real and complete performances than these bizarre edits.

But overall, I’m impressed yet again with this latest version of Just Dance. Every time I think the franchise is about the jump the shark, they make enough improvements to impress me yet again. The song list is a great mix of contemporary songs and oldies, there’s enough variation in choreography and collectible items to keep from getting bored, and the new points system to collect and “buy” items to unlock is much simpler to understand than in previous versions.

The highlight, of course, is the new online features that let you compete and play with others around the world. it just adds a new level knowing that others around the globe are playing along with you.

Here’s a complete song list that lists artist, song name, number of dancers, and difficulty level of the classic choreography. They’ve done away with separate rating for difficulty and exertion, and have simplified it to easy, medium, and hard.

• One Direction – Kiss You – 4 – Easy
• Lady Gaga – Just Dance – 1 – Hard
• George Michael – Careless Whisper – 2 – Hard
• Kesha – C’mon – 2 – Medium
• David Guetta ft SIA – She Wolf (Falling to Pieces) – 1 – Medium
• The Girly Team – Flashdance-What a Feeling – 1 – Hard
• Disney’s Aladdin – Prince Ali – 4 – Medium
• Daft Punk ft. Pharrel Williams – Get Lucky – 2 – Medium
• Jessie J ft. Big Sean – Wild – 1 – Hard
• PSY – Gentleman – 1 – Medium
• Robin Thicke ft. Pharrel Williams – Blurred Lines – 2 – Easy
• Ray Parker Jr. – Ghostbusters – 4 – Medium
• Gloria Gaynor- I Will Survive – 1 – Easy
• Will.i.am ft. Justin Biener #thatPOWER – 4 – Hard
• Daddy Yankee – Limbo – 2 – Hard
• Ariana Grande ft. Mac Miller – The Way – 2 – Easy
• Nicki Minaj – Pound the Alarm – 4 – Medium
• Frankie Bostello – Love Boat – 1 – Medium
• Olly Mira ft. Flo Rida – Troublemaker – 1 – Easy
• Lady Gaga -Applause – 1 – Medium
• Mick Jackson- Blame it on the Boogie – 4 – Easy
• Imposs ft. Konshens- Feel So Right – 1 – Hard
• Mungo Jerry- In the Summertime – 4 – Easy
• Chris Brown – Fine China – 1 – Medium
• Louis Prima – Just a Gigolo – 2 – Medium
• Rihanna – Where Have You Been – 1 – Hard
• Ricky Martin – Maria – 1 – Hard
• Abba – Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) – 1 – Easy
• Dancing Bros – Moskau – 2 – Hard
• Pitbull ft. Christina Aguilera – Feel This Moment – 1 – Easy
• Wisin and Handel ft. Jennifer Lopez – Follow the Leader -1 – Hard
• Village People – YMCA – 4 – Easy
• Far East Movement ft. Cover Drive – Turn Up the Love – 2 – Hard
• Bob Marley – Could You Be Loved – 2 – Easy
• Nicki Minaj – Starships – 1 – Hard
• Ruts hen Planeten – 99 Luftballons – 2 – Easy
• Robbie Williams – Candy- 2 – Medium
• Katy Perry – I Kissed a Girl – 1 – Medium
• Bog Bog Orkestar – Isidora – 1 – Medium
• Gwen Stefani ft. Eve- Rich Girl – 1 – Easy
• Duck Sauce – It’s You – 1 – Medium
• The Sunlight Shakers – Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In – 2 – Easy
• Sammie – Misunderstood – 1 – Medium
• Sunlight Express – Nitro Bot – 2 – Medium
• Jason Derulo – The Other Side – 1 – Hard
• Ivete Sangalo – Dancando – 1 – Medium
• (Free download) Katy Perry- Roar

Overall, if you’re using the PS3 for fitness, I’d definitely recommend Just Dance 2014. The fact that it’s stood the test of time vs. other games like Everybody Dance and Singstar Dance really shows the quality and sheer simple enjoyment this game provides.

Sadly, this is probably going to be one of the last Playstation 3 fitness games I or anyone else ever reviews. There just aren’t new games being developed for the PS3 as the world gets ready for the PS4. And of course, fitness games themselves have gone a bit out of vogue.

Back in 2012, you might recall I excitedly talked about a new game from Sony Computer Entertainment called Move Fitness. It had been released in Europe and I was eagerly awaiting its arrival in the US.

Funny thing, I didn’t even realize until a few months after the fact that it had been released in the US, albeit as a downloadable title on the Playstation Store (the official launch date was March 26, 2013). Seems that fitness games had gone so out of vogue that Sony didn’t even bother to release it on a disc nor throw a lot of marketing behind it. My guess is that Move Fitness went on the drawing board at a time when games like Wii Fit were raking in money, and by the time it came to fruition the industry started to turn its back on fitness gaming.

What’s sad is that Playstation Move Fitness is great. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the best fitness games I’ve reviewed, and those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a long time know that I’ve literally played every fitness game on the Wii, Xbox, and PS3. Playstation Move Fitness is probably the first game that gets motion controls right. The controls aren’t imprecise like the Wii, nor are they sluggish or bloated like the Kinect. The on-screen character reacts at the same time you do with one-to-one precision.

Something else I like is that this game keeps it simple. It doesn’t try to be all things to all people like Adidas MiCoach or Nike+ for Kinect seem to do. It just sticks to what it does, and does a great job at it.

Okay, enough talk, here’s my review.

The first thing you see when you start the game is the “Sony Computer Entertainment” credit. Right away, this is a good sign. I’ve had nothing but great experiences with SCEA titles, from Sports Champions to MLB: The Show to LittleBigPlanet. Right away, I know the quality is going to be pretty good.

You start by configuring the Move controller for your dominant hand, adjusting the screensize (which will be important to make sure your gameplay is accurate), and selecting your age and gender.

You then choose a “trainer”. It really doesn’t make a difference which one you pick; each one will give identical workouts, so it really depends on whose voice you want to hear and whose picture you want to see giving you instructions. In politically correct fashion, there’s a white dude in a tanktop, a white dudette in a tanktop, an African American (or more likely, a Black British) dude in a tanktop, and an Asian female in a tanktop.

You then choose your unit of measurement–metric or imperial. I don’t think too many people know what the word “Imperial” means anymore, so they probably would have been better giving examples, like “meters vs. feet”.

You then enter your weight. Of course, unlike the Wii the game can’t calculate your weight for you, so you’re on the honor system. You can enter a minimum of 44 pounds and a maximum of 441 pounds, so anyone who’s 442 is out of luck. You then enter your height and click “Create Profile”. You do have the option to connect to the Playstation Network.

The home screen has four options: Workout Programs, Single Exercise, Profile & Info, and Settings & Extras.

Workout Programs are basically tailor-made fitness programs that put together multiple “Single Exercises”. You can schedule workouts on a regular basis, and because of the sheer number of exercises you can choose from it’s unlikely you’ll ever get bored.

When you select Single Exercise, you see a list, in alphabetical order, of every individual exercise that’s featured in the Workout Programs.

I would divide them into three broad categories: Ball and Sports games, Boxing and Punching games, and Cardio and Aerobics games.

When you select an exercise, the first thing you do is calibrate the second Move controller by pointing it at the Playstation Eye and pressing the trigger button. You then stretch out your arms to the widest they will go, and then move your body so that it fits within the camera. One thing I absolutely love about the game is that it’ll accommodate you playing in a small room, a minimum of 5 feet 9 inches and a maximum of 9 feet 9 inches. This is much more forgiving than most Kinect exercise games, where you have to completely clear out all the furniture in your living room.

The main page of the exercise will appear, displaying the best score (and highest amount of calories burned) you’ve gotten on the exercise, the last score and calories burned, and the total score and calories burned added up from all the times you’ve ever played it.

You can turn the tutorial (a few intro screens) on and off. Happily, most of the exercises are so intuitive that you really don’t need them.

You can also select 1-4 players. Unfortunately, they can’t play simultaneously, but you can play one at a time and compare your scores. It’s great if you have a workout buddy.

All the games keep score based on how well you do the exercise; do a good job and you’ll get double scores, and do an outstanding job and the exercise will go into “overdrive” mode, during which time you can get 5x scores.

Here’s a description of each exercise.

Ball and Sports games

Basket – This was the first exercise I played, and it shows the best of the best this game has to offer. You squat down to pick up a basketball, and then stand up, rear back, and throw the basketball into a hoop, using the T button to let go of the ball. I won’t say this is the most realistic basketball game; as long as you throw the basketball with both hands using an arc motion, sufficient force, and the generally correct direction, you’ll have no problems scoring baskets. Bottom line, you do get the same thrill you get playing real basketball, and you squat, stand up, and jump without even thinking about it, which provide great exercise. This is what a fitness game should be–one that’s fun enough that you don’t even notice that you’re getting a workout. 5 out of 5.

Catch – Here, you’re holding up a net with both your hands as a machine shoots balls out at you all over the place. You have to run to the left and to the right and hold your hands in the right place to catch the ball. This is one game where I wish they had 3D support, as it’s tough to really pick up the ball coming at you on a 2D screen. But as long as you watch the red light on the machine (which tells you when the ball is being released) and follow the trajectory of the ball into your glove, you’ll have a lot of fun with this one.  5 out of 5.

Clear – This is another simple but ridiculously fun one. Your trainer is standing on top of a ramp and rolling medicine balls down to you. Your job is to intercept them and roll them back up to him. In a short time, it becomes a lot like that episode of I Love Lucy in the chocolate factory, as you’re running from left to right trying to keep all the balls on the ramp from getting past you. This is another one that’s both fun and realistic in its graphics and physics. 5 out of 5.

Dodge – This is another game where a ball machine is hurling balls at you, but instead of catching them you need to dodge them. Blue shading in front of you will show you the area you need to avoid getting hit. You can move to the left or the right, or you can lean, lunge, and dodge. This one is pretty simple when the balls are slow, but once you get into “overdrive mode”, look out! 5 out of 5.

Dodgeball – This game is a combination of Dodge (above) and Throw (below). It’s a game a lot like classic dodgeball, where you have to duck from the machine throwing balls at you, while picking up balls in front of you and hurling them at one of five cutout figures. As I’ll mention below, the throwing took a little getting used to, but this one was a lot of fun as well. 5 out of 5.

Pickup – In this game you crouch of pick up a ball, and then you need to crouch, stand up, or jump or stretch upwards to deposit the ball into one of six targets using a forward pass. What’s very cool about this game (which we’ll also mention in some of the boxing games) is that your vantage point changes in the game depending on how you move; stretch or jump upwards and the camera will pan to the top targets; duck downwards, and the camera will pan to the bottom ones. 5 out of 5

Throw – In this game, you need to crouch down to pick up a ball, and then hurl it with either your right hand or your left hand to topple one of five cardboard cutout figures. Figuring out how to aim and throw is a little tricky at first, but after time you’ll get the hang of it.  5 out of 5

Chopping – It wouldn’t be a Move game without swords. This game is a lot like Fruit Ninja and every other slashing sword game you’ve played, but the swords are amazingly precise. Unfortunately, the same 2D vs 3D problem I mentioned above applies here, as it’s very, very difficult to make out the depth of the plates being thrown at you. I ended up just flailing my arms wildly, which perhaps isn’t good samurai technique, but I did get some good cardio out of it. 5 out of 5.

Boxing and Punching Games

Breaking Walls – It wouldn’t be a Move game without boxing either. Unlike on the Wii or Kinect, the boxing on the PS3 is amazing, down to seeing your hands rotate in real-time on screen as you do it in real life. Breaking Walls is a great game where you literally punch out pieces of a call, causing it to shatter and clear. You basically go from pane to pane, rearing up and punching as hard as you can. It’s very realistic and very cathartic on days when you feel like punching the wall but don’t want to clean up the mess. 5 out of 5.

Dummy Targets – Here, you face off against a dummy that looks like he’s made of foam. Targets will light up on his face, chest, and lower left and lower right sides. You need to punch the targets, in some case adjusting your body (again, which automatically adjust the camera angle accordingly). I really like how this encourages not just punching but also squatting and leg movements as well. 5 out of 5.

Dummy Warmup – This is a good exercise to get acclimated to punching the dummy in “Dummy Targets”. There are no targets here, you just get a minute to punch as much as you like out of the foam dummy. The more, faster, and harder you punch the more points you’ll rack up. The attention to details is astounding. As you punch the dummy, you’ll see it move exactly the way it should in real life, even down to the detail of the foam and vinyl on the dummy changing as you hit it. This is another great one to play if you just need to let off some steam. 5 out of 5.

Heavy Bag on Rail – Here you’re hitting a heavy punching bag along a rail. As the bag starts to travel down the curving rail, you’ll need to position your body to keep the bag moving. This one is really realistic and a great workout. 4.5 out of 5.

Heavy Bag Targets – This one is similar to  Dummy Targets, except instead of targets showing up on a dummy they show up on a heavy bag. As with Dummy Targets, as you rotate your body in real life, the camera rotates around the bag on your screen, making for a virtually realistic experience. 5 out of 5.

Heavy Bag Warmup – This one has the same concept as Dummy Warmup. Just wind up and flail away as long as you can until your arms get sore. The heavier and more varied your punches the higher your score. 5 out of 5.

Mitts – Here, you can work on different kinds of punches. Your trainer will hold color-coded mitts up and shout out instructions to throw a left or right uppercut, hook, jab, or cross. You need to punch accordingly. As you get good, you won’t need to wait for the instruction, you’ll just recognize the position of your trainer’s glove and do the right punches. 5 out of 5.

Mitts Combos – Same idea here as Mitts, except the trainer will hold up two gloves in different positions and you have to throw the right combination of punches. 5 out of 5.

Punching Pad – As I played through all of these, I started to realize that most of them seem pretty similar. Punching pad has your trainer in the ring holding up a pad and having you hit targets on it. You need to hit them accurately and with force. The twist here is that your trainer will move to the right or left, so you have to keep up with him. 5 out of 5.

Sparring – This one brings all your boxing training to practice. You’re sparring against your trainer. Targets will appear all over his body which you have to hit with force, and you need to dodge his punches. I wouldn’t say this is as strong as The Fight: Lights Out, but it does the job. 4.5 of 5.

Cardio and Aerobic games

I won’t go through each of these games, as they’re all pretty similar. You do a pretty standard cardio exercises, such as jump squats, jumping jacks, lunges, or twists. Red and blue targets will appear on the screen, which you’ll be expected to pass your hand through as you do the exercise.

I’ll say upfront that for these it’s fairly easy to “cheat” by not doing the complete exercise, but of course since the goal of this game is to get a great workout, that’d be a rather silly thing for someone to do.

Overall, it’s never fun to do a lot of these exercises, but “gamifying” the exercises really does make them a little easier to get through. There’s just something about going into “overdrive mode” that helps motivate you to try a little harder and faster, despite how tired you are.

Here are the exercises. Most are self explanatory, but you can watch the video to see them in action.

Circling Arms
Cross Punching
Jump Squats
Jump Squats Switch
Jumping Jacks
Lunges
Punch Up
Shoulder Press
Triange
Twists

<VIDEO3>

All in all, if Playstation Move Fitness represents the denouement of Playstation Fitness games (and in many ways, this blog), I’d say it’s a good one to end with. It finally brings the worlds of virtual reality, motion controls, and exercise together in a really compelling way. It’s just a shame that the gaming industry doesn’t see fit to really market this category anymore, especially given the epidemic of obesity in the United States and throughout the Western world.

The good news, of course, is that the PS4 will continue to support the Move, and hopefully game developers will continue to push the envelope in developing virtual reality titles that really force you to jump, kick, dodge, lunge, punch, and dance your way to victory and fitness. And don’t worry, I’ll be there covering it 🙂

If you’re interesting in buying Playstation Move Fitness, it’s not available in stores; you can only get it at the Playstation Store on the Playstation Network. In order to buy it, you can purchase a Sony Playstation Network Card at Amazon, and then input the code into the Playstation Store. The game is only $9.99, much less than the $59.99 one might expect if the game were launched in physical form. It’s not the end-all, be-all video game, but what it does, it does very, very well, and easily gets 5 out of 5 stars from me.

The Playstation Move and the Xbox Kinect were both launched with tremendous fanfare. Both motion-control mechanisms were supposed to revolutionize high-end gaming, bringing the active gaming, motion control experience the Wii pioneered to high resolution games. It would usher in a whole new world of virtual reality gaming.

Both Sony and Microsoft took very different approaches to motion gaming. Microsoft opted for motion sensors that detected the whole body’s movements from head to toe, touting a controller-free experience. Sony, on the other hand, basically mimicked the Wii’s use of a handheld controller, offering much more precision than the Wii could deliver.

As someone who’s reviewed a lot of games on both this site and its sister site XboxFitness.Org, I can say that the results on both systems have been largely disappointing. The Kinect has some impressive technology, but developers seem unable or unwilling to create much of anything but lumbering, sluggish games that require way too much playing space.

On the other hand, early games such as The Fight: Lights Out and the original Sports Champions for the Playstation Move were nothing short of extraordinary. High resolution graphics combined with highly accurate motion controls helped you really feel like you were boxing, or playing ping pong, or fighting with swords.

That was in 2010. Now, more than two years later, there haven’t been very many games that seem to really take full advantage of the Move. most game developers that use the Move seem to include it almost as either a gimmick or as an afterthought.

Sports Champions 2 is the first Playstation Move game in a while that’s been worthy of a five-star rating. Just like its predecessor, the developers showcase the Move’s full capabilities. It’s really a shame that other developers can’t follow suit.

The idea behind Sports Champions 2 is simple: think of it as Wii Sports for the Playstation. In fact, four of the sports (Tennis, Bowling, Boxing and Golf) were literally in Wii Sports and were most likely left off of the original Sports Champions because the developers wanted to avoid comparisons or accusations of them being derivative (which they were of course). In addition, they’ve brought back archery (which was also in the original Sports Champions), and added skiing.

You start out by calibrating one or two Move controllers by pointing them at the Playstation Eye one by one and pressing the Move and trigger buttons.

You can jump into playing the sports right away using “Free Play”, or you can select “Cup Mode” to play matches against progressively harder opponents and earn Bronze, Silver, or Gold prizes for completing a certain number of matches (including challenges and “boss matches”) and collecting points for achieving objectives along the way. Finally, you can select “Party Play” to play as a group.

As with the original Sports Champions, after you finish playing you have the option of taking a “victory photo” of you holding an augmented reality piece of sports equipment. They also added the ability for your to save your photo or post to Facebook.

Bowling is pretty much the same as the Wii Sports game, of course with much higher resolution graphics. The one big difference is when setting up your shot, instead of using arrow keys to position your player, you can press and hold the Move button and actually walk to your left or your right. Other than that, it’s just a matter of holding down the trigger button, making a bowling motion with your arm, and releasing it at the right moment. You can also make the ball spin by twisting your wrists.

Obviously, there’s not much of a workout in this, and in all honesty other than the improved graphics it really doesn’t feel much different than what we were playing on the Wii years ago.

Boxing, on the other hand, is obviously much improved over the “fling your arms wildly” boxing games you find on the Wii and even the Kinect. It uses two Move controllers to let you control both your hands.

The obvious comparison is going to be to The Fight: Lights Out. The graphics in both games are excellent; while The Fight: Lights Out presents a gritty street brawl-type environment, the environment here is more like traditional boxing. Also unlike The Fight, there’s no blood or guts in this one, it’s very family friendly.

Like The Fight, you have pretty precise control over your fighter. You can punch to the head and to the body with jabs, uppercuts, hooks, or quick combinations. You can block punches to your head and to your body by holding the Move controller over either, and you can dodge by using the trigger buttons on either hand. The harder you punch in real life, the harder you punch in the game. As you increase in difficulty, you do need to employ a certain level of strategy, such as being able to anticipate what combinations your opponent will be using, tiring out aggressive opponents with good defense, or even faking out opponents by having them block fake punches before you counter with real ones.

This sport is by far the best fitness activity on the entire disc. You’ll get a pretty good aerobic workout each time and build some pretty good arm muscles.

Archery is pretty much the same sport as in the first Sports Champions; as in that game, you hold two Move controllers, one being the bow and the other being the arrow; you simulate an archer’s shot by “reaching into your quiver of arrows” with your arrow arm and then line up your shot as if loading your arrow and drawing it back on the bow (you can use the Move button to zoom into your target). As with the former game, controls and game play are excellent and very precise.

Sports Champions 2 adds an interesting twist to the game by allowing two people (or one person and the computer) to play on the same field and shoot for the same targets, which doesn’t just include regular targets but also things like balloons. You compete for the highest score.

Again, I wouldn’t exactly call this the most intense fitness activity, but after a few minutes of playing you do end up moving quite a bit. Add some hand weights to your Move controllers and you’ll actually be getting a pretty good arm workout.

Skiing is an interesting new game. You hold your Move controllers like ski poles, but unlike real skiing you don’t move your body to turn, but your Move controllers. To move faster, you sweep your Move controllers as if they were ski poles. To jump, you lift up the Move controllers and make sure they’re angled properly for a smooth landing (you can even do a couple flips if you have some good hang time).

The result is actually a much more realistic experience than I thought it’d be. It certainly doesn’t have the same workout intensity that skiing on Kinect Sports has, where you have to twist and turn and jump with your whole body, but it definitely has much, much more precision than the Xbox; when skiing on the Xbox I never really feel like I’m in control, while with the PS3 the turning and jumping are incredibly precise. Again, not a very intense workout, but a fun game nonetheless.

Golf, again, is much more precise than on other systems in many ways. It’s not necessarily going to help you with your golf swing (whether you use a technically correct swing or just wave your arms, the system will treat the shot the same). But what the game lacks in realism of mechanics, it makes up for in terms of precision and accuracy of your swing; a bar on the screen will show you the strength of your swing from 0% to 100% and your target strength given the ball location and your club, and you need to swing the club with precisely the right force.

Putting is also the closest I’ve felt to the real game on any system, from lining up the shot to using the precise right force to get the ball in the hole.

Finally, tennis is probably the most realistic tennis game I’ve played on any system. Some parts of it are amazingly realistic. Just like with ping pong in the original Sports Champions, when you can move your hand in any direction, tilt it, or twist it, the on-screen racquet will respond with uncanny precision.

This precision carries over to the gameplay as well; unlike Wii Sports or tennis on the Kinect, playing tennis is not just a matter of flicking your wrist wildly with the right timing. The position, angle, and velocity of your swing all matter. What’s more, you can apply things like top spins and lobs very similar to real life.

Granted, when you first start the game it’s not all that realistic, as a trail of your opponent’s returns are displayed to you visually so that you know where it’s going. Plus, shots will tend to land magically within the lines. But as you progress deeper into the game, some of the aids you get early on the in game start to disappear and the game starts to feel more and more like real tennis.

I can’t say you get too much exercise in this one, as you’re really just moving your arm (you can move your body left and right when setting up your serve by pressing the Move button and walking to the left or right, but otherwise the running is done for you automatically). But if “get into the game” by doing a little footwork as you’re playing, you might be surprised at how good a workout you get.

You’ve probably seen a few recurring themes through this review. Every sport is definitely a lot of fun and makes great use of the Move controller to simulate playing the actual sport. I wouldn’t go so far as to call them real simulations or virtual reality experiences, but they definitely are polished games and give you a nice feel for the real thing.

As far as workouts go, I’d say the only real one is the boxing. Tennis and skiing may give you a bit of a workout if while you’re playing the game you’re also moving your feet. As for the rest of the sports, if you use Weighted Training Gloves you can get a pretty decent workout from even those.

It’s tough for me to review this one. From a pure gameplay point of view, it’s easily a 5, one of the best games yet for the Playstation Move. But if I were reviewing it strictly from a fitness perspective, I’d probably give it less. Still, given that it’s one of the only decent motion games to be released for the Playstation Move in the past year or so, I’d say it’s a worthwhile purchase and a good choice to supplement your aging PS3 fitness games.

It’s been a while since I posted a new PS3 fitness game review. It’s certainly not been for want of trying; I’ve been checking the new game release schedule pretty closely for the past few months, but it seems that there are only two Move games that involve any kind of physical exertion this season. The first is Sports Champions 2, which I’ll be reviewing shortly, and the second is Just Dance 4, which I’ll be reviewing now.

Just Dance 4, of course, started on the Wii and continues to be the most popular dance franchise on that platform. For the Xbox 360, Dance Central 3 reigns supreme. For the Playstation 3, last year Sony released Everybody Dance, which I thought was a pretty good game, if the weakest of the three as a showcase for the platform. The fact that there is no 2012 edition leads me to believe that perhaps sales of Everybody Dance weren’t necessarily phenomenal. It’s clear that PS3 developers are focusing more on hardcore games and less on motion control or fitness games. Still, if you are a household who happens to own a PS3, there is still a lot of good exergaming to be done, and the game we’re going to review today is a shining example.

With Just Dance 4, Ubisoft made the good choice of developing it to be virtually identical between platforms. You can learn the moves on a PS3, take those same moves to a friend’s house with an Xbox, and the kids can use what they learned in gym class on a Wii.

When you start the game you’re asked if you want to create a Uplay account. In all honesty, between my Playstation Account and NIntendo account and my Microsoft account and my gazillion other accounts I wasn’t all that enthusiastic of signing up for yet another one. But since it seems that this will be the main way that Ubisoft allows users to access downloadable content, and there might be some interesting bonus content in the future, I figured I’d go ahead and sign up.

The opening menu of Just Dance 4 should be familiar to everyone by now; it consists of two options: Just Dance and Just Sweat. Selecting menu options is a pleasure on the PS3 with the extra big buttons and the precision of the Playstation Move controller. Reports are that the Xbox version suffers greatly because its menus are almost impossible to navigate using the Kinect.

Selecting “Just Dance” lets you go right away to selecting songs. One unique thing about Just Dance 4 is that depending on the song, you’ll get choreography for one, two, or four players. Four player choreography is especially fun if you’re playing with a group of people; each player gets a different and unique part to dance to, and the results are amazing if all four of you do it well and amazingly hilarious if you don’t (which will be the more common occurrence). Here’s a duet of my wife and me dancing to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” (spoiler alert: she wins).

While the PS3 often gets third world status when compared to the popularity of the Wii or the full body motion detection of the Kinect, in this case the PS3 shines in that you get the best of both: because the PS3 Move controller’s motions can be detected both by light trails on the Playstation Eye, as well as through radio signals similar to the traditional Wii controller, players don’t necessarily need to be in camera range to be detected. This means that unlike the Xbox version where four players would have to squeeze to fit inside the camera view of the Kinect camera, on the PS3 version all four players can play, providing all have a PS3 Move controller.

The playlist for Just Dance 4 consists of a surprising number of licensed tracks from some of the hottest pop stars. There’s also a good selection of oldies and songs from multiple genres, so there’s a good chance that everyone in your group playing will find a song that appeals to him or her:

Asereje (The Ketchup Song) – Las Ketchup – Duo – 1 of 3
Beauty and a Beat – Justin Bieber featuring Nicki Minaj – Solo – 3 of 3
Beware Of The Boys (Mundian To Bach Ke) – Panjabi MC – Quartet – 2 of 3
Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen – Solo – 1 of 3
Can’t Take My Eyes Off You – Boys Town Gang – Duo – 1 of 3
Crazy Little Thing – Anja – Solo – 3 of 3
Crucified – Army of Lovers – Quartet – 3 of 3
Disturbia – Rihanna – Solo – 3 of 3
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love – Dancing Bros. – Duo – 2 of 3
Good Feeling – Flo Rida – Solo – 2 of 3
Good Girl – Carrie Underwood – Solo – 1 of 3
Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)” – Blu Cantrell – Solo – 1 of 3
Hot For Me – A.K.A – Solo – 2 of 3
I Like It – The Blackout Allstars – Duo – 3 of 3
(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life – Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes – Duet – 3 of 3
Istanbul – They Might Be Giants – Quartet – 1 of 3
Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley – Quartet – 1 of 3
Livin’ la Vida Loca” – Ricky Martin – Solo – 3 of 3
Love You Like A Love Song – Selena Gomez and the Scene – Solo – 1 of 3
Make The Party (Don’t Stop) – Bunny Beatz – Solo – 2 of 3
Maneater – Nelly Furtado – Solo – 2 of 3
Mas Que Nada – Sergio Mendes featuring The Black Eyed Peas – Solo – 1 of 3
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera – Solo – 2 of 3
Mr. Saxobeat – Alexandra Stan – Solo – 1 of 3
Oh No! – Marina and The Diamonds – Solo – 3 of 3
On The Floor – Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull – 1 of 3
Oops!… I Did It Again” – The Girly Team – Quartet – 2 of 3
Rock N’Roll (Will Take You To The Mountain) – Skrillex – Solo – 2 of 3
Rock Lobster – The B-52′s – Duo – 2 of 3
Run The Show – Kat DeLuna featuring Busta Rhymes – Duo – 3 of 3
So What – Pink – Solo – 1 of 3
Some Catchin’ Up To Do- Sammy – Solo – 1 of 3
Super Bass – Nicki Minaj – Solo – 3 of 3
Superstition – Stevie Wonder – Solo – 1 of 3
The Final Countdown – Europe – Duo – 3 of 3
Time Warp” – Halloween Thrills – Quartet – 3 of 3
Tribal Dance – 2 Unlimited – Duo – 3 of 3
Umbrella – Rihanna featuring Jay-Z – Solo – 1 of 3
We No Speak Americano – Hit The Electro Beat – Solo – 2 of 3
What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction – Quartet – 1 of 3
Wild Wild West – Will Smith – Quartet – 3 of 3
You’re The First, The Last, My Everything” – Barry White – Quartet – 1 of 3

Gameplay is pretty much the same as always: you dance by mirroring the moves of an on-screen counterpart. The more precise your dance is, the more points  and stars you’ll get and the more positive on-screen feedback you’ll get. Pictographs will scroll along the bottom of the screen to cue you on upcoming moves. Unlike the Kinect, the Wii and Ps3 versions of the game only detect your right hand, which is holding the controller. In a sense, you’re on the “honor system” to move the rest of your body the right way, but after a lot of experimentation I found that to get the highest scores it’s a lot easier just to dance the correct moves with your whole body than to try to figure out how to game the system by moving your right hand in the right way.

Something new to Just Dance 4 is “Battle Mode”, where you can play against another player (or against the computer). You start by choosing a character that corresponds to a song. Then, you basically compete in a dance-off. It’s an interesting twist on fighting games like Street Fighter, where the player that dances the most precise dance steps will score “hits” on the other. Whoever has the most life left at the end of a round wins that round and their song will be imposed on the next round.

Overall, Just Dance 4 is by far the best dance game for the Playstation 3, and among the best fitness games of any kind. Highly recommended.

As a kid, the Olympics were always a big thing in our house. I faintly remember Nadia in 1976, I remember screaming in the family room during the 1980 Hockey Finals, and of course there was the 1984 Olympics where somehow the absence of the Soviet bloc didn’t quite make the impact I think the Soviets wanted it to.

Of course, during those years I learned to love video games as well. An I’ve been a big fan of Olympic video games since I first played Microsoft’s Olympic Decathlon on the Apple II in 1982 and Summer Games in 1984. While not all of us can be Olympic athletes, at least we can get a taste of the thrill of victory, et. al.

Olympic games have been hit or miss since then. They’ve generally come down to a competition to see who can wiggle their joystick quicker or whose thumbs can move the quickest. Which is why I was very eager to try out London 2012 by Sega for the PS3.

When you start up London 2012, you get treated to a nice video montage that shows off the graphics. One very nice thing about this game is that it’s officially licensed with the International Olympic Committee, meaning that you’ll see all the official logos, sights, and sounds of the real Olympics. They’ve recreated a number of venues in London with uncanny realism.

I wouldn’t say that most of the graphics are exactly photorealistic, but they’re definitely nicer than any Olympic game that’s preceded it. And if you’re lucky enough to have a 3D display, you can view all the action in 3D.

There are a staggering number of events in London 2012. It doesn’t have every sport of the Olympics, of course, but there’s definitely a very good mix of events. Here’s the full list:

Track:

• Men’s 100m
• Men’s 110m hurdles
• Men’s 200m
• Men’s 400m
• Women’s 400m

Field:

• Men’s Discus Throw
• Men’s High Jump
• Women’s High Jump
• Men’s Long Jump
• Men’s Triple Jump
• Men’s Javelin Throw
• Men’s Shot Put

Swimming:

• Men’s 50m Freestyle
• Women’s 50m Freestyle
• Men’s 100m Freestyle
• Women’s 100m Freestyle
• Men’s 100m Breaststroke
• Women’s 100m Breaststroke
• Men’s 100m Butterfly
• Women’s 100m Butterfly
• Men’s 100m Backstroke
• Women’s 100m Backstroke

Diving:

• Men’s 3m Springboard
• Women’s 3m Springboard
• Men’s 10m Platform
• Women’s 10m Platform
• Men’s synchronized 3m Springboard
• Women’s synchronized 3m Springboard
• Men’s synchronized 10m Platform
• Women’s synchronized 10m Platform

Shooting:

• Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol
• Men’s skeet
• Women’s skeet

Archery

• Men’s archery individual
• Women’s archery individual
• Men’s archery team
• Women’s archery team

Gymnastics

• Men’s trampoline
• Men’s vault
• Women’s vault

Other sports

• Men’s Keirin (a.k.a. cycling)
• Men’s K1 Kayak single
• Men’s Single Sculls
• Men’s Table Tennis
• Men’s Weightlifting over 105kg
• Women’s Beach Volleyball

Now while this game is advertised to have Move support, one thing to bear in mind is that only a subset of games really use the Move. I’ll cover those in depth below. But the vast majority of games, as well as the main story mode, use the Dualshock Controller. As with most previous Olympic video games, it comes down to who can manipulate their controller the best.

Each event lets you view a tutorial on how to play. For most events, it’s mainly a game of timing. For example, in the swimming competition, you press “X” to dive, mash “X” to get your initial momentum, pull back on the “L” and “R” joysticks to do your strokes, press “O” to turn, and press “X” to lunge.

Similarly, for the running activities, you press “X” to start, mash “X” with the right cadence to keep your runner going, and lunge using the “L” joystick at the end.

Overall the controls were pretty intuitive and easy to learn, but did feel a bit dated.

There are a couple different game modes. “Olympic Games” is more or less the “story mode” which lets you play 20 events over several days against CPU opponents at easy, medium, or hard level. You choose which country you’ll be competing for, and you can even customize athletes on your team (unfortunately it looks like all the names are made up; it probably would have been cost-prohibitive to get approval for actual names and likenesses). Then, you choose two events from a short list of events on each day to compete. Your goal, of course, is to win as many medals as possible. As with the real Olympics, you need to qualify first and then if you make it, compete for the medal.

There’s “Events Play” mode, where you can select a group of events to play against the CPU, against other players, or paired up with other players on the same national team.

With “Party Play”, you can jump right into a number of activities that are most suitable for multiple players, including javelin, trampoline, kayak , keirin, skeet, table tennis, and 100m.

“Online Play” is a mode where you can actually compete against others on the PSN Network. You can compete in random events, a custom event, or even take place in a tournament against friends or random players. When I tried “Quick Play” the number of players to compete against were pretty sparse (it took a few minutes for the system to find someone for me to compete against), but that should change as more copies of the game are sold. What’s cool about this is that because the game is sold all around the world, chances are the players are really from countries they represent.

When speaking of the game solely in terms of using the Dualshock controller, it’s fun enough, but really not much different than every Olympic game that preceded it back. That said, the graphics and realism alone put this in a class of its own.

I’ll spend the rest of the  time talking about the portion of the game that had Move support.

The part of the game I was personally most interested in was the games that had Move support. Sadly, Move support is really relegated to one part of the game called “Motion Play Party” mode, where you can play a subset of events against up to 3 other players with the Move or against the CPU. The events supported are:

• 25m rapid fire pistol
• Archery individual
• Archery blitz
• Javelin throw
• Javelin target
• Kayak slalom
• Kayak super sprint
• Keirin
• Keirin battle
• Skeet
• Skeet attack
• Table tennis
• 100m

There are also “Party Challenges” for 2 or more players where you need to compete in certain events to unlock further challenges. I would recommend learning the sports in Motion Play Party mode first.

The first Move event I tried was the 100m. 1-4 players can compete. You basically run in place with the Move controller in your hand and then lunge towards the finish line by throwing your arms back. This one actually felt a lot more natural than the awkward button mashing on the controller, and it acutally provided a pretty good workout. But it was admittedly tempting to cheat by just shaking the Move controller like a drumstick or a baton (which works better than just running in place).

They also have an event called keirin (I had to look it up on Wikipedia…it’s basically cycling on a track). This one was an ill-conceived one for the Move. The graphics and the realism are pretty good, but it’s just not a great use of the Move controller. They have you holding it sideways to steer a la Mario Kart, and accelerating by mashing the Move button. Problem is, your left hand is covering up the glowing ball on the Move controller so the system is constantly losing contact, and it’s awkward for your thumb to reach the Move button. Ironically, this would have been a lot stronger using the Dualshock controller (which has an internal gyrometer that would do just as well for steering) rather than the move.

I had high hopes for the kayaking event. I assumed that you’d be able to hold your Move controller sideways, or even hold two Move controllers, and use it like a real paddle. But instead, they have you swiping your Move controller down and to the left to paddle right and down and to the right to paddle left, almost as if you’re rowing a rowboat with one hand. It’s definitely not a natural paddling motion. I got a decent workout to my right biceps, but mainly because I kept flailing in every direction trying to figure out the controls. Perhaps if you figure out the motion controls to this one it might be fun, but it was too frustrating for me to want to try.

Table tennis was moderately fun, but don’t expect anything even close to Sports Champions. Remember the “ooh, ahh” at how realistic Sports Champions felt the first time you rotated the Move controller in your hand and and saw the paddle rotate as precisely on the screen? There’s none of that here. For that matter, most of the controls are unrealistic and unnatural. I tried playing using “real ping pong” strategies, but the CPU would clobber me. It’s only when I started doing bizarre things such as moving the paddle straight up for topspin and moving the paddle straight down for backspin (without even trying to aim or spin the ball) that I started getting competitive against the CPU. This is a major step backwards from the standard set in Sports Champions.

Where the Move excelled in this game were in the “shooting” and “throwing” games. Pistol shooting, for example, was extremely realistic and precise, something the Move is head and shoulders better at than the Kinect or the Wii.

Similarly, I found the archery to be comparable to Sports Champions, maybe a little bit better. As with Sports Champions you can use one or two Move controllers; using two is definitely the way to go. Unlike Sports champions you don’t have to make the motion to grab an arrow from your back, which I always found a little awkward in that game.

The unrealistic thing is that you can shoot random targets during the competition to get bonus points, multipliers, and extended times, although I have to say that did add to the fun and challenge. No matter how much I tried, one of the CPU players kept beating me, so if you want to win against the CPU, you need to rack up a big lead early and master hitting all the special targets in the last round.

The javelin throw was also quite realistic. You hold the Move controller like a javelin (with the glowing ball facing forward). You don’t need to run, but you do need to time your throw perfectly; the force, angle, and straightness of your throw will determine how far it goes.

I played a couple games in 3D, and the 3D effect really does a lot to enhance the game play, from seeing the depth of vision in archery to the first-person view through the kerin track at breakneck speed. If you have a 3D display, the 3D really takes the already excellent graphics to the next level and adds to the realism of the game.

Overall I’d give this game a 4 of 5 stars. It’s a solid title that any fan of the Olympics can enjoy. I’m not sure of its replay value after the Olympics are over, and aside from one or two Move games it really doesn’t have much for someone looking for PS3 Fitness. But from a fun perspective it’ll be a great game to take off the shelf and play with family and friends during the Olympics and probably for a few months after.

Of all the sports that make sense for motion controls, tennis perhaps makes the most sense. After all, the way you grip a Wii remote or a PS3 Move controller is a lot like the way you grip a tennis racquet. And newer motion controls can detect everything from the angle you’re holding the controller to the amount of force you use to the intricate movements your wrists make during play.

I’ve been waiting for a tennis game that has the same “coolness” factor as Sports Champions Ping Pong, where you rotate your wrists and literally see your on-screen racquet rotate as well. Unfortunately, Grand Slam Tennis 2 isn’t quite there. But it’s a wholly enjoyable game that makes pretty good use of the Move controllers. I won’t say you’ll necessarily get a spectacular workout from it, but you’ll certainly burn more calories than you would sitting on the couch munching on potato chips.

Opening Menu

The opening menu has quite a number of options. One thing I found right away was that navigating using the Move controller was extremely clunky. And don’t get me started on screens that require keyboard input. I strongly recommend using the Dualshock controller for navigating menus.

Here are the options:

• Play Now: your options are Singles and Doubles
• Game Modes: the options are Career, ESPN Grand Slam Classics, and Tournament
• Training: the options are Tennis School and Practice Court
• Online: options here are Online Play Now, Grand Slam Corner, Online Tournament, Leaderboards, and My Tennis Online
• Creation Zone: options here are Create Player and Share a Pro
• My Tennis: options include Settings, Save/Load/Delete, Profile Management, and EA Sports Extras

Play Now / Controller Selection

With Play Now you can just right into a singles or doubles match. If you plan on having two players, be sure at least two controllers (either Move or Dualshock) are turned on.

When you select Singles, you’ll be sent to a scrollable list of current tennis stars, from current players like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Serena Williams to old-time players like John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, and Chris Evert.

You assign a controller by dragging it to the player you want. You have a lot of options regarding which controllers to use. If you want to have the system do the running and volleying for you, all you have to do is drag just the Move controller alone to the player you want. I’d definitely recommend this when you’re just beginning.

If you want to control the running via the Dualshock or the Move Navigation controller, just drag the Move controller and one of those controllers to the player. One slightly odd thing is that once you drag a Move controller and a Navigation controller to the same player, the two are linked together from that point on, and the only way to “unlink” them is to shut one of the controllers off.

Gameplay with the Move Controls

I’ve got good things and bad things to say about the gameplay itself on the Move. On the good side, there are a a staggering number of different shots you can make based just on how you swing the controller and press the buttons. Most of them feel pretty close to the real thing. For example, the most basic shot, the flat shot, is done by starting and finishing the swing at the same height, swinging horizontally to the ground. You can theoretically aim your shots the way you time your shots, position your racquet, and twist your wrist as you make shots. You slice by moving the Move controller from high to low) and you do topspin by (which happens when you move the Move controller from low to high

There’s an excellent part of the game called “Tennis School” that has written instructions on how to make each shot, and runs you through drills to test how well you understand them.

The problem is, as you progress through the game the motion controls are way, way too finicky. It took me about two dozen tries to get out of the most basic “flat shot” class in “tennis school” because it kept interpreting my “flat shot” as either a  slice or a topspin. This is presumably because I didn’t move my controller in an absolutely perfect 180 degree line. Worse, when I tried to aim shots, it really felt like it was hit or miss. I felt that most of my time during these tutorials was spent trying to learn how to compensate for the idiosyncrasies of the controls, rather than learning intuitive controls.

Ironically, as pickily precise as EA Sports made some of the Move controls, you really don’t feel like you have full control of your player throughout the game. Despite the game’s claims to the contrary, whether I swing with full force or tap the controller, the system seems to arbitrarily decide how strong my shot is. When my opponent approaches the net and I hit a lob, more often than not no matter where I try to aim it, it’ll end up in a place where she can smash it. And when I approach the net myself, if I try to tap the ball in front of the net, invariably the system will decide that I want to stroke the ball–usually ending up right in front of my opponent.

In many ways, Virtua Tennis 4‘s implementation of Move controls felt much, much more natural than Grand Slam Tennis 2’s . But sadly, use of the Move in Virtual Tennis is limited to a “demo” mode.

After changing the genre with Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii, I would have hoped EA Sports would have made Move controls which are truly intuitive, so much so that you don’t really need a “tutorial” (if you say it can’t be done, just look at Sports Champions table tennis again). But they seem to have fallen short.

The Tennis

As for the tennis simulation itself, that’s another story. I was absolutely blown away by the realism of the game. That EA has obtained licensing for all the top stars in tennis, as well as all the top venues, was a coup. This especially goes for Wimbledon, which is notoriously picky about licensing.

EA Sports did a decent job in capturing the individual players’ mannerisms, although one complaint is that no matter who the player is, they seem to like to serve and volley (and again, the fact that lobs don’t work the way they should makes this doubly aggravating). But if you can get past this, the sights and sounds of the venues are outstanding, from the red clay of Roland Garros to the green grass of Wimbledon to the hard courts of Queens and Australia.

Multiplayer Mode

One of the funnest ways to enjoy this game is to play with a friend. Here’s a match that Lisa and I played:

Notice that one rally went on for five minutes. This is because difficulty was set to “Beginner”, which essentially turned the game into a glorified game of Wii Sports Tennis, where all you had to do was hit the ball with the right timing. Switching the difficulty to Pro made the game a little shorter.

Career Mode

Career mode is an interesting simulation over 10 years where you start as the 100th ranked player in the world and work your way to #1 and trying to win a Grand Slam. Each “year” you’ll play two lead up event prior to each of the four Grand Slam Tournaments. During this time you’ll gain points for achieving various career objectives  (for example, defeating Nadal at the French Open will get you 500 points, winning 5 Wimbledon titles will get you 500 points, and so on). You’ll also have objectives for each year (such as achieving 25 aces, winning a match at Australia Court 15, etc.)

For each tournament, you can choose short (1 set of 3 games), medium (3 sets of 3 games), or long (5 sets of 6 games). The tournaments start out easy and get progressively harder. Here’s my character competing in one of the easier tournaments in the purple courts of Dubai:

ESPN Grand Slam Classics

My absolute favorite feature in the game is ESPN Grand Slam Classics. This is a series of reenactments of the greatest tennis matches in history, and an intriguing series of scenarios called “fantasy”. In each of the matches, you start play in the pivotal set, and can play as either of the players.

You start with the 2000s, and unlock events as you work towards the all-time great and fantasy matches.

2000s:

• January 2003 Australian Open Final between Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
• July 2004 Wimbledon Final between Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams
• June 2007 French Open Final between Justine Henin and Ana Ivanovic
• January 2008 Australian Open Final between Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Novak Djovokic
• September 2008 US Open Semi Final between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal

1990s:

• July 1990 Wimbledon Final between Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg
• September 1990 US Open Semi Final between John McEnroe and Pete Sampras
• July 1991 Wimbledon Final between Michael Stich and Boris Becker
• September 1992 US Open Final between Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras
• July 1995 Wimbledon Final between Pete Sampras and Boris Becker

1980s:

• September 1980 US Open Final between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg
• June 1985 French Open Final between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova
• January 1987 Australian Open between Pat Cash and Stefan Edberg
• July 1989 Wimbledon Semi Final between Stefan Edberg and John McEnroe
• July 1989 Wimbledon Final between Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg

All-Time:

• July 1980 Wimbledon Final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe
• September 1984 US Open Final between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert
• July 2001 Wimbledon 4th Round Match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras
• July 2005 Wimbledon Final between Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams
• July 2008 Wimbledon Final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer

Fantasy:

• Australian Open match between Chris Evert and Serena Williams
• French Open match between Rafael Nadal and Bjorn Borg
• Wimbledon match between Andy Roddick and Boris Becker
• Wimbledon match between Venus Williams and Martina Navratilova
• US Open match between John McEnroe and Roger Federer

Here’s me playing as Andy Murray against Rafael Nadal:

Online Account Setup

One sour part of the game was setting up online play. I had an existing EA Sports online account that I’d set up with the Wii. But when you start out the game, it forces you to sign into your PSN account. And there’s no way to link your PSN account and an old EA Sports account.

Making matters much worse, the language they use throughout the game is aggravatingly confusing. When I go Online > My Tennis Online > Online Settings > EA Account Management, it lists my “EA Account Email Address” as my PSN account address. Worse, when I try changing my email address to my existing EA Sports account, I get the message “Unable to update your account info at this time. Please try again later.” Problem is, I tried again for days but always got the same message. It’s at this point that I realized that this error message was deliberately misleading–they simply don’t allow you to update the address, no matter which one you enter.

Once it’s set up, you can play against other players around the world.

Conclusion

Overall, I’d rate this game 4 out of 5 stars. I was disappointed that after all these months, the Move controls on this game (or in fact, any game) still haven’t come close to the original promise shown with Sports Champions. On the other hand, the simulation and the nods to tennis history make this one of the best tennis games for any system. I’d say it’s worth buying if you’re a tennis fan; if not, it’s yet another one to wait to arrive on the discount rack.

The success of Just Dance franchise have spawned a dizzying number of “copycat” games that use motion controls to let you do “real dance moves”. This holiday season alone there have been more than 20 different games across the three major platforms. It’s enough to give anyone dance game fatigue.

The latest entrant into the morass is Get Up and Dance by O-Games. That’s right, the same company that brought you that fun game Jewel Time Deluxe and John Daly’s ProStroke Golf. Not to be confused with Bejeweled or Tiger Woods PGA Golf. No really, they’re completely different.

All sarcasm aside, throughout Get Up and Dance you can see the resemblance to Just Dance. You select songs to dance to from a “cover flow” interface and see icons which represent the number of dancers, complexity of the song, and “cardio points” representing the intensity of the song.

• Hollywood – Marina and the Diamonds (2 stars, 2065 cardio points)
• One Week – Barenaked Ladies (3 stars, 1242 cardio points)
• Boom Shack-a-Lak – Apache Indian (1 star, 818 cardio points)
• Push It – Salt-N-Pepa (1 star, 675 cardio points)
• Me, Myself, and I – De La Soul (1 star, 950 cardio points)
• Where’s Your Head At? – Basement Jaxx (2 stars, 2416 cardio points)
• Poison – Nicole Scherzinger (3 stars, 1186 cardio points)
• I Like to Move It – Reel 2 Real Feat. The Mad Stuntman (2 stars, 1241 cardio points, fitness choreography available)
• Bulletproof – La Roux (2 stars, 1019 cardio points)
• Common People – Pulp (2 stars, 1651 cardio points)
• Kickstars – Example (2 stars, 1436 cardio points, fitness choreography available)
• Come on Girl – Taio Cruz (2 stars, 1126 cardio points)
• Down with the Trumpets – Rizzie Kicks (2 stars, 939 cardio points)
• Badman Riddim (Jump) – Vato Gonzolez Feat. Foreign Beggars (3 stars, 1396 cardio points, fitness choreography available)
• Saturday Night – Elton John (2 stars, 1848 cardio points)
• Ooh Ahh…Just a Little Bit – Gina G. (2 stars, 828 cardio points, fitness choreography available)
• Mr. Saxobeat – Alexandra Stan (3 stars, 1876 cardio points)
• Unorthodox – Wretch 32 Feat. Example (2 stars, 1101 cardio points)
• Achy Breaky Heart – Billy Ray Cyrus (1 star, 732 cardio points, up to 2 dancers, fitness choreography available)
• I Only Want To Be With You – Dusty Springfield (1 star, 1116 cardio points, lead & backing)
• Don’t Cha – Pussycat Dolls (1-2 stars, 2097 cardio points, lead & backing)
• Dancing on the Ceiling (1 star, 2003 cardio points, lead & backing)
• Don’t Upset the Rhythm – The Noisettes (2 stars, 1289 cardio points, lead & backing)
• Hot Stuff – Donna Summer (2 stars, 1343 cardio points, lead & backing)
• The Promise – Girls Aloud (2 stars, 1054 cardio points, lead & backing)
• I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You (2-3 stars, 1873 cardio points, lead & backing)
• We No Speak Americano – Yolanda B Cool Vs D Cup (3 stars, 1818 cardio points, lead & backing)
• Nobody’s Perfect – Jessie J (2 stars, 631 cardio points)
• If We Ever Meet Again – Timbaland Feat Katy Perry (2-3 stars, 2031 cardio points, lead & backing)
• What You Waiting For – Gwen Stefani (3 stars, 1512 cardio points, lead & backing)

At first I thought there were a lot more songs, but that’s because in the cover flow interface they repeat several titles in a fairly confusing way. Each song lets you choose a short version (about 1-3 minutes long) or a long version (about 3-5 minutes long).

Up to four players can dance at a time. All will dance to the same choreography unless there are lead & backing tracks, in which case all players will dance to one of two routines. Each dancer can also select or create a profile to keep track of their scores (there are four default profile names called “Boogie”, “Bouncy”, “Jitterbug”, and “Vogue”–the user interface is so confusing that it took me a while to figure out what these were…at first I thought they were difficulty levels or dance styles. Instead of being cute I wish they could have stuck with the more intuitive “Player 1”, “Player 2”).

Each player presses the Move button and the glowing orb will glow in a different color.

When you get to the dance screen the interface again is eerily reminiscent of Just Dance. You have to mirror the dance moves of a dancer on the page, which happens to be a glowing white silhouetted figure dressed in bright colorful clothes. There were only things I noticed that prevented this from looking like a complete ripoff of Just Dance.

First, the icons representing your moves are displayed scrolling down vertically on the left of the screen for lead tracks (on the right of the screen for backing tracks). I found this a lot less easy to follow than the cues on Just Dance, but after a while I got used to it.

Secondly, the actual full-screen music video of the song by the original artist is playing in the background of the screen. This I found terribly distracting. While you’re trying to focus on your own dancer’s movements, the video in the back is constantly in motion. As a result, you don’t really enjoy the video, and it becomes a chore to try to focus on your dancer’s moves. I much prefer the approach taken by the PS3 Everybody Dance, where the video is playing in a self-contained box on the page which you can turn on and off.

Finally, the choreography. To be honest, I found it a bit lackluster. It didn’t have the technical complexity of a Dance Central 2 nor even the fun and quirky personality of Just Dance 3. In both those games, it was clear that a professional choreographer had designed the dance moves in the spirit and style of the original artist. In this case, you go through to motions of jumping and moving your hands up and down and in circles, but in many cases the moves seems generic and uninspired.

As derivative and lackluster as the gameplay is, there are a handful of improvements over Just Dance. I do like that they show the “time elapsed and time remaining” on the top of the screen, something useful for workouts that I wish Just Dance would have as an option you could turn on and off. I also like that they give you the option of using two controllers–one in each hand–which can help get your scoring and get you more immersed in the dancing, although it’s certainly not mandatory. I also like how you can break down your accuracy in different parts of the song and go to “Rehearse” mode to practice any given section.

The game does have a lot of interesting options for multi-player play under the “Get Up and Party” mode. There’s “Team Classic”, where two teams of up to four can compete head-to-head to see who can get the best score. “Last Man Standing” is an interesting game where two teams of up to two players each can do a “dance off” to see who dances the best. “Tug of War” is a fun variation of this, where the stronger team will win a virtual tug-of-rope game the more accurately they dance.

There’s also a “Shape Up” mode. After you set your profile, you can select one of five levels ranging from Beginner to Intense, which basically dictate how many songs you’ll dance to each workout session. There are some specially choreographed songs that play more like aerobic routines than dance routines, which can help maximize your workout. When you play the songs, you’re not graded based on how accurately you move; instead, you’ll see a counter of “cardio points” which just go up every time you move your controller. Of course, you’re on the “honor system” to do it right–you can rack up thousands of cardio points by just sitting on the couch and spinning your hands, of course there’s no point in doing that. A graph will show you your progress from week to week.

There’s also a mode called “Get Up and Dance Group” which is basically like a “career mode” where you and some friends can go through a series of “talent competitions”. It may be fun for kids to play this mode so they can pretend they’re competing on reality shows, but other than that it’s nothing special.

At the end of the day, I’m guessing the primary purchasers of this game will be people who want to save a little money (the retail price of the game is $10 less than Just Dance, although street prices make them about equal right now), and grandmas who see the title “Get Up and Dance” on the shelf and assume it’s Just Dance. Having said that, I would put the production quality of the game a hair above shovelware. I would say it’s a worthwhile purchase if you happen to like any of the songs in the playlist, or if you play in groups and have played Just Dance so much you need a little change of pace. But other than that, in a world with fifty gazillion and one dance titles out there, there’s really nothing too special about this one. 3.5 of 5 stars.

Ubisoft released Just Dance 3 for the Wii and the Xbox back in October 2011, but noticeably absent was a version for the Playstation 3, which didn’t get released until two months later. Those of you who’ve read my rather detailed reviews for the Wii and Xbox versions know that I’m a big fan of this series and have been since the first version came out for the Wii two years ago. The pop music soundtrack has a little of something for everyone, the motion detection is decent, and the choreography is easy-to-follow and a lot of fun. It’s one of the best party games out there.

The best way I can describe Just Dance 3 for the Playstation is that it’s a direct port of the Wii version, nothing more, nothing less. As a result it’s not a bad game, but you can’t help but feel that it could have and should have been so much more.

As with the Wii version, when you start the game you get a pleasantly simple home screen which consists of three menu options: Just Dance, Just Sweat, and Options. Menu navigation is seamless using the Playstation Move controller.

Choosing “Just Dance” lets you select individual songs to dance to or lets you select different playlists that group songs together by style or genre. As with the other versions, as you play you can collect “Mojo Points” to unlock new playing modes, new songs, etc.

Turning on “Just Sweat” mode lets you choose a free session where you can start working out to any song or playlist, or a 7-Day Challenge section with three options of increasing intensity which are roughly the equivalent of walking, running, or swimming 30 minutes a day. As with the other versions, you collect “sweat points” as you dance to different songs. Like the Wii version, you’re basically on the “honor system”. If you just move your hands, you can get a high score. But to get real exercise (and have real fun) you should be putting your whole body into the dancing.

The choreography, graphics, and animations are literally identical to what you’ll see on the Wii and the Xbox. The only noticeable difference I saw was that some details are a little sharper in the PS3 version.

As with the Wii version, you hold a single Move controller in your right hand and mirror the on-screen character’s moves. The motion detection is decent, although not quite to the precision and detail of a game like Dance Central 2 on the Xbox or even Everybody Dance on the PS3. This is by design; while those games stress more complex dance instruction and technical accuracy, Just Dance was clearly designed to be a fun party game first and foremost.

As on the other platforms, all songs are marked with icons that designate their technical complexity and their workout intensity. All the songs can be played by 1 to 4 people, each with their own Move controller. In most of the songs all players dance the same steps, but there are a handful of songs that are cleverly choreographed for two players and four players to dance a full routine with each dancer having his or her own independent steps; these are a ton of fun to play in groups where up to four players can dance and the rest of the group can enjoy an entertaining performance. On the Xbox version multiplayer mode can get awkward, as all four players have to squeeze within the Kinect’s camera view. The PS3 developers wisely designed the game so that if the Move controllers happen to go outside the range of the Playstation Eye camera, the internal accelerometers of the Move controllers will still detect motion (much like a Wii Remote). While this may detract slightly from scoring accuracy, ultimately it makes multiplayer play a lot more fun as players don’t necessarily need to worry about squeezing into a tiny space.

While the port of the Wii functionality was near flawless, I have to admit I was disappointed that they decided to leave it at that. Given the capabilities of the PS3, it could have been so much more. For example, the choreography mode that was developed for the Xbox version is noticeably missing from the PS3 version (a shame given that Sony already demonstrated with Everybody Dance that it could be done and done extremely well on the PS3). Something else in the Xbox version that’s missing from the PS3 version is the ability to see your own video image and compare it to the on-screen character’s movements. Surprisingly, there isn’t even an option for downloadable content, something even the Wii version has.

In addition to the aforementioned omissions, I would have loved to see them push the envelope forward with a “record your performance” feature and the ability to share on social networks, both things which the PS3 is fully capable of. But there’s nothing like that here.

I’d say that Just Dance 3 is ideal for PS3 owners who happen to have friends or relatives who already have Just Dance 3 on the Xbox or Wii. You’ll be able to practice on your PS3 and not miss a beat (literally) when you play the same songs on their systems. Furthermore, if you have a child whose school uses Just Dance 3 in gym classes, this would be a great way for him or her to get a little practice at home. And of course, the fact that it’s casual makes it a lot of fun for families and friends to play together at parties.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for the best dance game on the PS3 and don’t have any ties to Just Dance on other platforms, I’d have to give the edge to Everybody Dance, which does a much better job of maximizing the use of the PS3 Move and the Playstation Eye camera, as well as overall better graphics.