UPDATE: we’re a week from launch and the Web sites of both GameStop and Best Buy still reports that MiCoach is not available for pre-order and in-store pickup. But happily I walked into my local GameStop and they let me pre-order it. I’ll be trying it out and will provide my review here as soon as I can
After what seems like a drought that’s lasted forever, we have a bunch of new PS3 fitness games coming down the pike.
The most imminent is Adidas MiCoach which at long last is being released on July 24. It’s available for preorder at Amazon for $49.99 or for $10 less at GameStop. Oddly there doesn’t seem to be an in-store pickup option for the PS3 version at GameStop…I emailed them to ask why and they first responded with a form response that had nothing to do with my questio. when I replied to that a person responded and said, “yes, micoach for ps3 is available for pre-order.” which of course didn’t answer my question. I’ll keep trying. :p
One of the burning questions I had about MiCoach was whether there’ll be any interaction with existing MiCoach peripherals. Simon Drabble was kind enough to respond on Twitter saying yes, the heart rate monitor will be able to be used in the same by plugging the USB MiCoach Connect to the PS3. He added that all game data will be able to be accessed online at MiCoach’s site so that any workouts done at home on the PS3 will be integrated with workout data done outside the home. In other words, MiCosere seems to be offering many of the features that EA offered and abandoned in Sports Active.
The recent E3 conference brought showed some exciting news for the other platforms with Nike collaborating with Microsoft and Nintendo planning a new version of Wii Fit that includes a pedometer. While it seems at first blush that PS3 owners may be getting the short end of the stick, bottom line is, if 505 Games and Adidas do a good job with MiCoach, chances are they’ll be more successful on the PS3 than on other platforms, being the only (fitness) game in town, which hopefully means there’s a good chance they may take over the helm of the best PS3 fitness game. Time will tell, of course.
The only other potential fitness game I saw come out of E3 for this fall was Sports Champions 2. Seems that they’ve added a lot of sports from the original Wii Sports, including tennis, boxing, golf, and bowling, sports which actually make a lot more sense on the PS3 than on the Kinect because of the importance of precision (Kinect bowling and tennis, for example, can easily be played by monkeys).
4 Comments
Amer
Jul 02, 2012 3:43 pmHey man a great blog. EA Active was a great workout, a bit slow but still worked every muscle of my body. Hopefully Micoach would be faster paced.
Amer
Jul 24, 2012 6:54 pmHi, did you get the game? Looking forward to its review 🙂
steve
Jul 26, 2012 12:19 amSo…I preordered the game at GameStop and showed up on 7/24. They said the game would arrive 7/25. I went again 7/25 and they said the game still wasn’t in but they’d call be when it does come in. It’s now 7/26 and still no call.
I notice that Amazon has a “usually ships in 1-2 weeks” notice on their Web site too, while Best Buy is showing “Sold Out Online” and “Not Available”
Long story short, it seems that 7/24 was the date the game was to be shipped to retailers, but none of them seem to have it yet. Strange, because “launch date” in my head usually means that’s the date it’s in store and ready for pick-up.
The good news is, I’m getting a good workout by briskly walking 15 minutes from my office to the local GameStop every day. So MiCoach is already an effective workout for me 😛
Hopefully I’ll have a nice review soon! 🙂
Amer
Jul 27, 2012 12:30 pmCool thanks for the update. I got impatient and ended up ordering from JR.com. They it is in their stock. I really need to start working out again. I figured even if this game is a slight improvement over EA Active 2, it is worth $40. I already have saved $100s in gym membership fees since I started working out at home. Every once in a while I get in rut and that’s when a new workout game gets me moving again.