EA Sports Active for Wii Fit

Another great fitness game for the Wii Fit is on the horizon. Currently scheduled for May 19, 2009 EA Sports Active will be released for the Nintendo Wii. EA has been much more forth coming with information on this game, and we have many details available than we did for Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout. What we know so far is that this game was developed in collaboration with Oprah’s personal trainer and fitness expert,  Bob Greene. My first thought when I found out that a celebrity fitness expert was working with EA Sports on this game was that it was going to be another Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009. Rest assured, this game doesn’t appear to be a train wreck like Jillian’s game.Many of the new features this game offers makes me confident this game will stand out from it’s competitors.

Customizable Training Routine

Your experience in EA Sports Active will begin with creating a profile, then listening to Bob Greene teach you about the game. Users of the Wii Fit should find this starting routine familiar as  it is similar to many of the exercise games on the market. Bob will teach you about the many interactive exercises that are new to the game, luckily these exercises won’t be just another knock off of the Wii Fit. The training routine can be customized, so you can get the workout you design. One of my biggest complaints about Wii Fit was that you had to return to the main menu to select a new exercise. EA Sports Active will eliminate that with their customizable training routing. You can choose a combination of upper and lower body workouts along with fun, interactive cardio exercises to target specific muscle groups during your customized workout.

Throughout each step of the customized circuit training routine your personal trainer will evaluate your performance and motivate you to work harder. Once you’ve completed each routine your virtual personal trainer will tell you how many calories you burned and give you the option to increase or decrease the intensity of your workout. The 30 Day Challenge mode will allow your virtual trainer to challenge you based on your daily progress. As EA Sports Active tracks your calories burned it will increase the intensity of your 20 minute workouts based on your fitness level. You can even specify your fitness goals and your Virtual Trainer will customize a workout based on your fitness goals. This will be the closest thing a game has ever come to mimicking a real personal trainer.

Accessories: Leg Strap & Resistance Band

As you have probably already gathered, many of the exercise routines on EA Sports Active are compatible with the Wii Balance Board. While this accessory isn’t include with the purchase of the game two other great accessories are. The resistance band can be used to increase the intensity of many of the game’s workouts. Without this accessory exercises such as shoulder presses and curls would be of little fitness value, but with this accessory you will be able to get a great workout. This is one of my favorite features of the game because I wasn’t very satisfied with push-ups on the Wii Fit. I felt like the Balance Board added little to the strength training exercises, so hopefully with the inclusion of the Resistance Band the strength training exercises will be more beneficial.

Another exercise on the Wii Fit that was better in theory than in practice was the Jogging Workout. You were required to place the Wii-mote in your pocket in order to jog. For some people their Mii would run extra fast with little effort, for me I could run as fast as possible and my Mii would take a leisurely stroll. EA Sports Active aims at fixing that by including the Leg Strap with the game which will go around your upper leg and then allow you to inset the Nunchuck into it. Not only will this accessory make jogging easier but EA has announced that it will also be used for cardio boxing, and other exercises like squats. Some images that have been released even indicate that it may be used for games like tennis.

Play With a Friend

The Wii Fit did a lot of the same things right as Wii Sports, however it got the co-op games wrong. The only multi-player mode available on Wii Fit is jogging, and as I mentioned earlier I was less than impressed with the jogging workout. EA Sports Active offers more variety in its cooperation games than Wii Fit, so I’m excited to get my hands on a copy of the game to test out the co-op modes with a friend. Besides doing your normal workout routine with a friend you can play games like tennis which will add motivation to your workout routine.

With the multitude of features packed into EA Sports Active I’m excited to see how it all comes together. With all of the fitness games available for the Nintendo Wii, I’m most excited about this one. The only negative I see about this game is the price tag, but a MSRP of $60.00 still sounds reasonable considering it includes two accessories. I’ve put my name on the Amazon.com pre-order list so I’m sure to have a copy as soon as it comes out. I’ll be sure to post as more information on the game is released.

EA Sports Active