Negative Gamer Review: EA Sports Active (Wii) Week Three

When I booted up EA Sports Active on Saturday, a message popped up to inform me that I was now unable to complete the 30 Day Challenge in under 30 days. Offered the choice between restarting the whole thing again, or continuing in the knowledge I was a failure, I opted for the latter.

You see, I’ve only managed to workout with EA Sports three times this week. That’s about an hour and a half of “play” time. If I was reviewing a normal game, this would be slacking off, and Wardrox would probably shout at me.

EA Sports Active is a bit different though. You’re meant to be able to fit the workouts in to your weekly routine, and if that isn’t happening then something is wrong with the game. When I come home tired from work, I find that the last thing I want to do is listen to the eternally cheerful trainer forcing me to exercise.

And stretch, and bend, and snap – the disc, that is

There just isn’t enough variety in the routines to keep me coming back, as I complained last week. It feels like half the time I’m just doing some form of lunge. The full list consists of alternating lunges, alternating side lunges, alternating side lunges with toe touches, alternating knee high reverse lunges with toe touches, and jump lunges. It’s like I’m stuck in the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. Only, you know, not funny.

The thing is, EA Sports Active actually works. I feel fitter, I’m building muscle, and I’m losing weight. An equivalent training programme at a gym would cost me hundreds of pounds, but I picked up EA Sports Active for under forty quid. Maybe it doesn’t matter that I’m not enjoying it then, but I wish I was.

I actually played Wii Sports for the first time in literally years this weekend. As a friend and I played a few quick rounds of tennis and boxing I found myself working up a sweat – but more importantly, I was having fun.

The tennis game in EA Sports Active is terrible, as it gives no indication of how to aim properly at the targets, making it a rather frustrating experience. Wii Sports tennis on the other hand is still one of the best implementations of Wii controls around. If Nintendo got it right in 2006 with a tech demo, why haven’t EA managed to create a fun fitness game three years later?

A few other points worth mentioning:

• I managed to hold a squat for the full 60 seconds required. Considering this almost caused me to pass out, it would have been nice to have gotten a trophy. Generally, the trophy system could have used a little more imagination.
• Given the prevalence of lunges, I would have liked to be able to swap out certain exercises for alternatives. You can build your own custom workouts, but these don’t count towards the 30 Day Challenge.
• Three weeks in, I’m still being given tutorial videos. I think by this point I probably know that the nunchuk goes in the leg pouch, so why does it insist on repeatedly telling me?

I’ve technically got six workout sessions remaining in the 30 Day Challenge. If I stick to the recommend schedule of two days exercise, one days rest, it will take me over a week to finish. As such, the final Negative Gamer review will probably be a bit later than next Monday, but I promise it will be a number-fest: hours played, calories burned, weight lost, and of course, the all-important final score.