I mentioned a couple of weeks back that we have decided to join the xbox brigade in an effort to stop junior launching wii-motes into the TV. I have to admit I've been quite enjoying Your Shape - Fitness Evolved. Despite the fact the xbox system doesn't have a linked in measuring system (like the wii-fit balance board) it has been quite compelling in other ways.
In fact for a bloke, the cardio-boxing exercises are great. None of that namby-pamby step aerobics if you please, this is serious get-your-heart-pumping stuff and the only thing missing is a small Japanese bloke shouting "wax-on, wax-off". Here we see the potential of kinect for podge-busting. Yes who would have thought getting in shape could actually be enjoyable and a little bit... macho?
Obviously this is a great starting point and I look forward to further developments along these lines. Why "Get fit with Mel B" when you could... get fit punching Mel B? Where does it go from here though? In a recent Gadget Show challenge, Jason Bradbury had a special training dummy built to learn martial arts (specifically Wing Chun). Will we ever get to the stage where you could learn these skills via a games console? It could spark a whole new revolution in gaming. Not only do you get to beat up the baddies but you genuinely learn a martial art along the way and no doubt an in-game trainer could give advice on diet and warn of the perils of drinking too much fizzy juice.
Back to the present though and this week also saw the launch of some extra training programs for YSFE. At 560 Microsoft points for the pair (another cardio-boxing and another toning program) you can't help but think that maybe this is not the best value for money. The 560 points equate to about £4.76 which is hard to justify for something which looks like more of the same. I would have liked to see completely different training programs for anything over a couple of hundred points. Since the release date is so close to the original title, you can't help feeling that these were just not quite ready for the initial release date. Have a look at the differences between wii-fit and wii-fit plus to see how it should be done.The associated web-site is good and I am enjoying setting calorie burning goals although it doesn't always seem to be as up-to-date with my scores as I would like.
According to the wii-fit I have gone from 11.5 stone to 10.75-ish in a few weeks. I was so shocked that I had to retake the body test 3 times (twice in the buff to rule out errors in my clothes weight). The question is... have I found a way to adopt a new lifestyle or is this just a fad that will lose it's appeal in a few weeks? There is no doubt that some of the exercises are a chore and the biggest problem is the inability to create your own program of exercises. Having done several of the 'Mens Health' fat loss sessions I am beginning to worry about my knees. I'm not quite sure where the fat is that requires the split-jumps to remove it. I remain skeptical that it's doing anything for my stomach or abs though. This is where a routine constructor would have been good, giving you options for building your own routines and the possibility of swapping such knee-destroying activities with something a bit more stomach-centric.
I will have to return to this topic at some point in the future but one month on, it does look like YSFE was a good buy.
