Are you game to lose weight?

Monthly payment at a good gym: Rs1,500; petrol expense to drive to it: Rs400; stylish gym wear: Rs1,200; being able to wake up late and still manage a good workout at home: priceless!

Electronic Arts’ workout based videogame for Nintendo Wii, EA Sports Active, promises to leave you fitter and healthier — it sure did in our case. The game, which launched a month and a half back in India, takes the concept of ‘workout in front of the TV’ a step ahead of what Nintendo’s own Wii Fit offered.

Start by choosing the kind of workout, clothes, hair, even the skin colour — basically, form an online image of yourself. This organised game is the closest one can get to a reality workout game. The best part is that as the game progresses, the lines between the virtual and the real start to blur. The instructor, male or female, demonstrates the exercises just like an aerobics instructor would.

Despite reluctantly, and with a lot of self-doubt, agreeing to try out this new game, EA Active deserves a thumbs up. Its promise of making you fit in 30 days sure looks like it works. So where’s the catch? As with any workout regimen, it’s your ability to stay disciplined. The game offers the option of working out either alone or in a group — an option gyms don’t offer. Moreover, the instructor cannot see you and you tend to feel less conscious.

The game offers a variety of exercises including spot jogging, squats, lunges, muscle building, and more. The most interesting exercise in this game is, without a doubt, the virtual weight lifting. The kit provides an elastic band which one has to be tied around two resistant bands available in the kit (one for each hand).

One has to step on the elastic bands and pull as instructed (see pic on the left). The effect of the pull is as good as the benefits of lifting weights for building muscles. EA Active can also be used as a warm up for other exercises.     

Technically speaking
The game interface is quite similar to that of Wii Sports, a new gamer is asked to choose between a journal mode and a 30-day challenge. Once you select a mode, you are presented with the option to customise your on-screen avatar. We’re not just referring to assigning a custom name here, but also about putting in your height, weight (in lbs, not kg. So, it helps to calculate in advance) and even setting what clothes your on-screen avatar wears during the workout.

The gameplay is executed with class and finesse, you wonder why Nintendo didn’t think of a quality game like this beforehand. After all, almost all the good titles for Wii were from Nintendo. This game definitely changes that perception and it’s also a showcase of fresh ideas from gaming juggernaut that the EA is. Peter Moore got it right when he said people want to do more than just stretching when they exercise.

Graphics are nothing to write home about but it’s good enough for Wii. What matters is the core gameplay — how a remote and a nunchuk can monitor your body movements — and the game does it well enough. But there are times when you wonder if it was possible to do so without having to use a knee strap. The upcoming natal technology for Xbox 360 which uses cameras to monitor people’s movements just might be the answer.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
In a sentence: Your very own personal instructor for Rs2,999 is worth it.