Review: EA Sports: Active (Wii)

Categories: Featured Articles, Games, Nintendo, Reviews, Wii | 2 responses

For many years (as long as I can remember in fact), non-gamers have touted video games as an addictive entertainment medium that made players overweight. I don’t know if it was because I was a gamer, or because I’m not a lemming & actually use my intelligence, but I never agreed with that statement. As far as I’m concerned, the behavior practices of some gamers have nothing to do with their entertainment of choice. I suspect those same individuals would have gained weight regardless if it was games, Internet surfing, watching TV, laying around reading all day, etc… It comes down to the gamer & what they want to do. If they want to be active, they will be. In regards to children gamers, it’s on the parents to cultivate a balanced lifestyle of gaming, outdoor activities, reading, spending quality time with family & friends, etc… Never once have I found a compelling reason to blame gaming or any other medium for bad habits.

With all that in mind, various game developers & publishers have attempted to meet that argument half way. With the Wii, physical activity is nativly supported. It was just up to the developers to come up with compelling activities. Nintendo’s Wii Fit began the craze & other publishers followed suit with their own fitness routines. A few months ago, EA released their product called EA Sports Active. It’s a comprehensive fitness program that covers not only the exercises, but the nutrition side along with activities beyond your TV as well.It has a 30 Day Challenge. Basically they challenge you to dedicate 30 days to changing your lifestyle & getting fit.

When you start out, you create your profile & are greeted with an introduction from Bob Greene (he’s a top trainer in the biz & has the full backing of Oprah Winfrey). Following that, you get to pick the trainer (male or female) & away you go. The first thing you should know: This will not make you skinny or lose weight. To do that, it takes several things, not just the exercises presented here in the software. EA Sports Active is a guide. It will help you track what you eat, what activities you do away from your console & the exercises you with with the software & then give you an overall rating. Keep in mind that it relies on you. You have to be honest with yourself & the information you input into the system. The only thing lying about it does is taint the results. The software doesn’t care if you ate 15 cheeseburgers yesterday nor does it care that you sat in your easy chair for 14 hours yesterday. In fact, it won’t even know if you do the exercises or not. (you just need the correct hand movements & it thinks you are doing what you are supposed to be doing). So make sure that before you start the 30 Day Challenge, you are ready for it. Be prepared to make whatever adjustments you need to make in your diet & be prepared to do other activities beyond your living room. If you don’t address those other aspects of the program, then you’re wasting your time. Lastly, understand that no one is going to make you do anything. You won’t have a real trainer there making you do the routines or harassing you to put the soda down & get a glass of water. You need the strength to do that on your own.

Even though I just ranted about what the software won’t do, you still need to be ready for it. If you honestly do the routines as they are intended, you will feel ‘em. They seem to be easy when they show them to you (you get a video showing how to do each exercise when you do them for the first time), but once you’ve done 10 lunges, your back starts to HURT. There are a tone of different lunges, running, kick ups, kick backs, etc… To make things a bit more interesting, EA has incorporated several sports related exercises into the mix. Inline Skating will have you squatting & jumping. Cardio Dancing will get your heart rate up. Cardio Boxing, Basketball, Tennis, Baseball, & Volleyball will make you use those arms of yours. All told, these were pretty entertaining & a nice break from the bicep curls, lunges & running. Each routine will take about 20 minutes of actual work-out time, so you can easily do it each morning before you get ready for work or school. If you find any of it a bit too taxing (or not taxing enough), there as three difficulty settings so you can adjust the intensity. You can also opt out of certain exercises in case there are some you just cannot do. It also has Balance Board support, so there are even more routines that I didn’t get to experience as I don’t own a Balance Board.

The Wii doesn’t have an across the board incentive system like the Xbox 360’s achievements & the PS3’s Trophies. But that hasn’t stopped each developer from adding it in their games & EA Sports Active doesn’t disappoint. From completing a certain number of routines to running a certain distance to burning off a given amount of calories, there are a ton of goals to shoot for. With the varying degrees of difficulties & the short workout times, I don’t see any reason why every Wii owner doesn’t pick it up & add it to their daily program. It will help, as long as you help yourself. You’ll get just as much out of it as you put in. But that’s pretty much what getting in shape is all about, right? If you don’t want to get in shape, then it won’t matter if you have a gym membership, a personal trainer or EA Sports Active. It all comes down to you. EA Sports is just helping out a bit, making it entertaining in the process.

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