EA Sports Active (Wii)

EA Sports hopes to turn your John Madden body into a Tiger Woods body.
5/26/2009 7:25 PM | 1 Comments | Page 1 of 3

Just as -- for years -- the PSP was known as the console of choice if you were into arcade racers and bad UMD movies, the Nintendo Wii is now the go-to box for those looking to get in shape. While you can get a sweat going just Nunchuk-ing your way through any number of Wii titles, games like Wii Fit, Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009 and Gold's Gym Cardio Workout stress the idea that the console can be used specifically for improving many different facets of your physical condition. EA Sports Active is the latest release that hopes to shed your pounds and tone your body between marathon bouts of Mario Kart Wii. In many ways, it's the most complete workout available for the system -- but is that enough to make you want to use the thing?

Here's my background: In addition to having been a game reviewer since -- seemingly -- the late 1800s, I'm also a fitness writer and author, and have had my own personal training business for close to 10 years. On many levels, I'm very excited that the Wii has helped make "fitness gaming" a legitimate gaming genre. On almost as many levels, though, I'm disappointed by the lack of creativity that goes into a lot of these games. Generally, the reason that someone doesn't exercise is that they don't like to exercise. A "game" that throws a traditional workout at them isn't going to get them to move their body. Even though it's received just so-so reviews, Wii Fit is a fantastic game that gets people to move their bodies -- people that may not have been all that excited about moving them before. Active takes a different approach. It's clearly a workout-in-a-box. Think of it as a slightly more evolved take on Ubisoft's My Fitness Coach.

The disc becomes your personal trainer, and either lets you design your own workouts or puts you through a series of workouts based on your desired exercise intensity level and the type of hardware you have. (Active is compatible with the Wii Balance Board. If you don't have one, though, there are still a zillion available exercises that you can do without it.)

In addition to using the Balance Board, Active also throws its own set of toys into your home gym. Wii Fit was weakest in the upper-body strength-building department: It had you doing some push-ups and that was about it. Active ships with a resistance band that lets you do a lot more movements that target the major muscles of the upper body. Unfortunately, you only get one "band," and it's closer to the type of resistance tool used by physical therapists than the type of resistance tubing used by trainers. It won't provide the level of resistance you really need to work the big muscles of, say, your back. Active gives you tips on how to increase the resistance, but doing so also increases the likelihood of the band snapping -- especially if you're a taller person. To really get the upper-body workout that Active is capable of delivering, you'll need to go out and get a couple of high-quality bands of differing resistances. And while the video clips describing how to do the exercises are relatively thorough, doing the movements while also being aware of the necessary -- and sometimes very unnatural -- hand-positioning of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk can be frustrating. A lot of times, you'll do a whole lot more than the prescribed number of reps solely because you weren't holding the controllers correctly.