EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer Wii Review
EA Sports Active is the attempt by the world’s largest publisher of sports games, to try and rival the absurdly popular Wii Fit. Although it doesn’t come packaged with a Balance Board, it can be bought for half the price of Nintendo’s effort and is presented with all the slickness that we’ve come to expect from Electronic Arts.
Active doesn’t use Mii’s, and instead tries for a visual style that approximates reality. So after picking a hairstyle, skin colour, clothes, build and a face, you’ll end up with an avatar that looks nothing like you, but is good enough to function as a representation of your exercise-focused self.
You’ll also be asked to enter your age, weight and height so that the game can attempt to tailor the workouts to your fitness level. Once your personal details have been recorded you can choose either a male or female trainer. This really only impacts who will be demonstrating the various exercises, and whether the frequent words of encouragement are shouted at you by a man or woman. Both of them clearly haven’t realised that if there’s one facial expression any normal person never has while they’re exercising, it’s a huge grin…
Looking past the unsettling smiles though, and the numerous videos of a real person performing the actions that the player must copy are really helpful. The game keeps a record of which activities you’ve already done and plays a skippable tutorial video automatically if it’s your first time at a new exercise. These videos can quickly and easily be re-watched at any time, even in the middle of workout.
Although you can choose to do individual activities, the fact that they are real exercises and not minigames-in-disguise renders this a bit pointless. The main ‘mode’ in EA Sports Active is the 30 Day Challenge, which as it sounds sets you a workout program spread over a month that gradually increases in variety and challenge.
Each day you’re given a summary of the kind of exercises you’ll be doing, and you can select from a Low, Medium or High intensity workout depending on how active you’re feeling. You’re then shown a list of the exercises you’ll be doing, at which point you can remove any that you don’t want to be included. Then you’ll be shown a graph of the calories that the game predicts you’ll be burning, and told how long the workout will take if you end up watching all of the tutorial videos.
These features are all very handy and well thought-out, allowing the player to quickly and easily tailor-make a workout to their precise needs, as well as assisting the busy gamer in fitting a workout into their hectic schedule. However, if you desire, there is also the option to select from many preset workouts, and to create and save your own custom workouts by combining any number of exercises, of any intensity, in any order.
The exercises themselves are aided by the two peripherals that come packaged with EA Sports Active; a resistance band that adds some challenge to bicep curls and shoulder presses, and a leg strap that holds the nunchuk for tracking lower body movements. It takes a little practice to stand on the right parts of the resistance band so that the arm exercises aren’t too easy and too hard, and I nearly managed to break it when working out a bit too enthusiastically. Dedicated EA Sports gamers should probably consider buying a separate resistance band on eBay for a couple of quid.
The leg strap works better, and actually can help improve your exercise techniques in some respects, for example by making sure that you pause at the low point of your squats for long enough. The motion sensing has also been implemented to a good standard, as even if you failed to follow the tutorials, the game will tell you exactly where your fat arse is going wrong (although not in those words).
In addition to the more traditional exercises like squats, lunges, side-to-side jumps and knee crunches, EA Sports Active also does include some more sports activities such as tennis, boxing, baseball, basketball, volleyball, dancing and even inline skating. Although these challenges do keep score of how well you’re doing, even if you miss every ball you aren’t considered a failure as you’re still burning calories.
EA Sports active also helps you consider making changes to your lifestyle outside of the game by asking you to fill out ‘surveys’ to record your other activities each day. These are optional, but working out each day only grants you a Bronze medal, and any gamer worth his salt will tick a few boxes to gain an equally valueless Gold medal instead.
Some of the advice in the Lifestyle survey is dubious, such as eating 5-6 small meals a day rather than the normal three, or drinking eight glasses of water a day. But eating less fast food and more vegetables, getting a good eight hours of sleep a night and spending less time sitting in front of a screen are all pretty unarguably good tips to live healthier.
The game also encourages you to set you own personal long and short-term goals, which are then tracked. These are in three categories, burn a certain number of Calories in a set timescale, workout a particular number of hours in set time, and workout a certain number of times a chosen time. Working towards goals that you have set yourself really gives you a sense of how well you’re doing.
The only concession to actual gaming is a selection of unlockable trophies for a whole range of achievements such as reaching a personal goal, burning 10,000 calories in total, running 25 laps and throwing 400 punches. Most PS3 and 360 gamers will welcome these virtual accolades.
If you buy EA Sports Active expecting a FUN game, you’ll be disappointed despite the overuse of that word in all of the marketing, promotional and instructional material. If you buy it looking for a product that can actually help you get some exercise, lose some weight and even change your lifestyle then this is probably the best such product on the market right now.
Watch out Nintendo, EA is hot on your heels!
Developer:
EA Canada
Publisher:
EA Sports
Genre:
Fitness
Players:
1-2
Age rating:
3+
20 comments ↓
Marco
May 31st, 2009
Nice!
Maggie
June 4th, 2009
This thing’s been getting amazing reviews all over the place. It looks great and the Wii fitness website has tons of good info. I think I’m gonna go ahead and get my own!
Doncaster Photography
June 6th, 2009
Hi….
EA Active is just superb. I’ve had it a week and combining this with ab work, (ab wheel 3×30 and side plank raises for core strength) ive lost 2 inch off my waist…
I’m recovering from L4 & L4 disk prolapse.
Really good, and yes FUN way to keep fit in your own home.
Highly reccomend it.
Josette_from_France
June 15th, 2009
ahem… it’s not dubious to drink eight glasses of water a day. The recommendations for a “normal” person are 1.5L of water a day, which is 8 glasses.
And it’s even more (min. 2L) when you’re on a diet.
Seth
June 15th, 2009
I wouldn’t call that hard scientific fact. I’m sure it’s a good idea to keep hydrated, but eight glasses is usually unnecessary.
It’s something that’s been disputed many a time. http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp
I’m sure if you looked at the origins of the research grant that originally came up with the ‘eight glasses’ figure, you might find some money contributed by a bottled water company or two.
I love conspiracy theories.. Don’t you?
jordyn
June 15th, 2009
awesome i want to get one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jordyn
June 15th, 2009
if you want to get one go to
http://www.target.com
or buy it from the store cool right
i’m going to get one
jordyn
June 15th, 2009
my friend has wii active and i have wii fit and they both are a great workout so go and buy wii fit and wii active personal trainer i love it. it’s my favorite i said go get one
Colin Brewer
June 21st, 2009
I’ve been using it for two weeks and it is unusable. It is oversensitive in many upper body exercises and the software reports incorrect error messages to the user and the routine stops. This is the most frustrating WII product and I have binned it after a fortnight.
Lesley Grantham
August 25th, 2009
Like Colin, it doesn’t always recognize that I am doing the upper body exercises and end up doing twice as many before it registers. I hate the band and incorporate hand weights instead. The exercises are the good old fashioned but effective tried and tested exercises which I am too undisciplined to do by myself. I need someone to tell me to do squats, lunges etc. It would be great if there was a questionnaire at the beginning so it could tailor the workout, such as my aims, ie lose weight, tone specific areas, any existing injuries so that a lower impact exercise could be chosen. Like I said there is no magic in the exercises and they certainly aren’t my idea of fun but whatever my trainer tells me to do, I will do it!
Heather Kane
September 1st, 2009
This product really is suited to my lifestyle. I had a child over a year ago and time to go to the gym or going for a run is just impossible, so when baby is asleep I do my 30 day challenge! it boosts your mood and stops you sitting watching tv!
Kristy
September 7th, 2009
I’ve had my wii active for a week now. it is the best! very motivating and I much prefer this to wii fit. it has the structured 30 day challenge, but the ability to do custom workouts. i couldn’t be happier … i’m hooked!
Abby
September 15th, 2009
I got this for my birthday in June and in 3 months have lost 6 kilos. I am totally addicted and highly recommend anyone wanting a bit of a “push” to exercise to consider buying it. You might want to consider using velcro strap on arm weights instead of the resistance band though.
billeden1514
October 26th, 2009
Does anyone know how to burn Wii games to a dvd-r on a Mac OS X. I really need to know. I don’t need to know where to get them or anything like that. Just what program is best and will work, also a tutorial if thats ok.
how to burn wii games
burning wii games
laureen
January 2nd, 2010
got this for xmas from hubby, game had it on sale for £30 with leg strap and band. started using it today, and its very very good – i am surprised its a real workout. you feel as though you have a personal trainer… maybe now i can loose all though pounds
zoefluf
February 17th, 2010
Had it for two days. I like it but the leg strap is useless. It doesn’t register correctly when I am running or squating and is SO frustrating. I just quit doing the exercises that require it which is not helping my work out AT all! I really do wish it would work.
Carrie
February 23rd, 2010
I love my wii active. I had some of the same problems with the leg band, you have to make sure that you ahve the nunchuk in correctly and that it is around your upper thigh and does not slide. Since then I’ve had no problems. You can change the sensitivity settings on your wii. That should fix any over or under sensitivity.
I’ve lost 5.5 lbs in 1 weeks time. I can’t believe I waited so long for this. It is awesome to have your own personal trainer!
zoefluf
February 23rd, 2010
How do you change the sensitivity on the WII. I am still having trouble with the nunchuk on the leg. Even though I’ve tried everything, it still only works SOMETIMES. Very frustrating.
hhaugh
March 9th, 2010
Love it! Have finished a Thirty day challenge eliminating the lunges and squats just went online tonight to see if I could find the answer to this. Someone suggested putting the nunchuk in the leg strap upside down for squats and returning remote to centre of the body pointing up after completing a lunge, I’ll have to try this. I keep a roll of masking take with my equipment to take the nunchuk in the leg strap for running.
hhaugh
March 9th, 2010
Sorry tape, Not take.