When it comes to fitness games, Kinect owners have a few options. EA Sports Active 2, THQ’s UFC Personal Trainer, and Ubisoft’s Your Shape Fitness Evolved are just a few quality fitness games that come to mind. Each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses, yet at the end of the day they will all get you sweating if you stick with the programs they offer. Last year, when Your Shape Fitness Evolved arrived on the scene for the Kinect launch, many praised the game for its clever use of the Kinect’s motion controls; however, critics suggested that despite it being a solid fitness game, it was best to keep your local gym membership active. One year later, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 has arrived looking to deliver an experience that not only addresses last year’s deficiencies but also improve upon an already solid virtual fitness experience for the Kinect. Does it succeed?
One of the reasons why games like UFC Personal Trainer and EA Sports Active have seen some success is primarily due to the job they do at replicating a true-to life experience with a personal trainer. Well, much like last years Your Shape game, Your Shape 2012 also does a decent job at creating that experience with a trainer. The core of Your Shape 2012 is ongoing personal training matched to your evolving fitness level. Yet Your Shape 2012 goes beyond the majority of the fitness games on the market by offering gamers plenty of variety and customizable options. Whether you just want to go for a long virtual run, do some yoga, dance to some Latin beats, or sweat it out doing some Boot Camp, Your Shape 2012 has something for you. Bottom line, if you are committed to taking advantage of what Your Shape 2012 has to offer you will get in shape, shed some pounds and do so while challenging yourself to the game’s many fitness routines.
Much to my surprise, getting a quick workout going when you first fire up the game is accomplished with ease. There is no cumbersome profile to set up, no data to enter, no initial goals to set up and no fitness tests to take. You merely stand in front of the Kinect, make sure you body is in the play zone and the Kinect sensor scans your body. The first time you play Your Shape 2012 the Kinect sensor scans your body so that the game can store your biometric data. The next time you play the game, the Kinect will recognize you and load your profile. It is a simple process and I certainly appreciated the fact the game did not discourage me either by throwing up my weight for all to see. After the game scans your body, you are then greeted with a snazzy introduction segment where a narrator briefly explains the games menus and how to jump into a workout. The instructions are clear and after she was done I felt like I had a good handle on things.
Despite the nicely presented into, navigating the Your Shape 2012 menus can be a finicky process at times. You make a selection by moving your hand over the vignette of the content you want to play and then you push your hand forward to select it. I would have preferred a grab and swipe selection system much like we have seen in Dance Central or UFC Personal Trainer games. Even a system where you hold your hand out until the circle fills the area selected would have been more beneficial. I just found the virtual hand to be somewhat of an eyesore and the push motion seemed non-responsive at times.
So how does Your Shape 2012 for the Kinect play? Simply put, it plays very similar to last years Your Shape game and in no time you will be working up a sweat. My first exercise involved jumping a virtual rope for approximately 2-minutes. This simple yet challenging exercise managed to get my heart rate pumping in no time, not to mention I burned about 8-calories in the process. Your Shape 2012 features a calorie counter in the top right hand side of the screen. Calories you burn during the game are tracked and prominently displayed. The calorie bar, as it is referred to in the game, essentially keeps track of your current fitness level. Each time you complete an exercise the calories you burn are added to your calorie bar. When the bar fills up you are ready to move on to the next fitness level. Overall, I found the calories display was a nice little motivator and I ended up working out a bit harder in the process. In one instance I was ready to shut it down with only 20-minutes in; but one look at the calorie bar and I knew I needed to work out a little more in order to hit the amount of calories I wanted to burn. Is the calorie bar accurate? Likely not, but it is a nice approximate indicator much like a treadmill is at your local gym.
Your Shape 2012 offers up a glut of fitness routines and activities to keep you buff. One of the more unique new activities to the franchise is the “Run the World” activity. Here you run through the streets of London and New York while seeing some of the more significant sights on a guided tour. As you hit certain checkpoints, you are introduced to a pop up screen that gives you a brief little tidbit on the area or landmark. This is certainly a fantastic concept, yet playing the Run the World activity did feel unfinished. The Kinect sensor accurately detects your running motions as you run in one spot while the game moves you along a guided trail. While running along the trail you are surrounded by black and white buildings that loosely resemble those of New York and London. The game would have benefited from a virtual replica of the famous landmarks. Some splashes of colour and running down an actual virtual New York City street would have been much more ideal in my opinion.
There are over 80-fitness routines in all, so clearly there is enough content for those who plan to set lofty long term goals. There are workouts designed to sculpt all areas of your body. If you wanted to do an all glutes workout, Your Shape 2012 allows you to target that area with specific designed workouts for your glutes. Your Shape 2012 even includes sports preparation programs. So for those that need to get into football shape, it has programs specific to target those areas that need to be ready for game day. There is even simulated dancing where you can shake your booty to some hip hop, latin music, or Bollywood as well as cardio boxing, boot camp programs and yoga. Needless to say, Your Shape 2012 offers a robust amount of fitness programs.
Overall, the Kinect sensor was able to capture my moves with a good degree of accuracy. Naturally, some fitness games read your motions better than others. The running and punching exercises were able to quite effectively read my motions while other games like those where you need to juggle a soccer ball were hit and miss. I also found that other games where you need to face the screen sideways felt unnatural, as I would have to keep turning my head to monitor the screen. These are not major issues but more small annoyances.
Much like other fitness games, Your Shape 2012 features a hub where you can access your stats, monitor your progress, access online content, and check up on your status on the leaderboards. Additionally, you can set goals for yourself. Whether it is weight loss or strength training, Your Shape 2012 should be able to meet you needs. Up to four players can play the game together and compete in the various multiplayer activities. From punching blocks, catching falling shapes, or stomping on floor when the coloured areas light up, Your Shape is able to provide you with some fun activities
When it comes to fitness games, it is a reasonable bet to assume the games target audience is not all that interested in a visually stunning looking fitness game. So it comes as no surprise that Your Shape 2012 it not a stunner. Sure the games menu’s are easy to read and the game is very colourful; however, the fitness instructors lack some detail, the game’s environments are nothing to write home about, and I cannot help but feel this fitness game could have looked much better. Despite all of this, Your Shape 2012 does come across as a graphical upgrade over its predecessor. The game features a bit more variety from each fitness routine to the next. Also, the game does a nice job at imposing your image on the screen in colour. Sure, some wonky things can happen from time to time like images of your feet and head cutting out of the screen on some occasions, but much of that likely has to do with the Kinect peripheral’s shortcomings. Despite some these weaknesses, Your Shape 2012 comes across as an average looking game but is certainly on par with other fitness games on the Kinect.
Much like the games visuals, I was left a little underwhelmed by the games sound package. The music features no recognizable artists which is not surprising, but the repetitive zen-like workout tunes grated me after awhile. It almost sounded like the music that plays when you are standing in an elevator in some swanky five-star LA hotel. I found the music really did not add that much to the gameplay and it did not get me going like I would have envisioned. That being said, some of the tunes are perfect for those Yoga sessions included as part of the game. Other in-game sounds such as the fitness instructors voice work, are passable while the boot camp instructor can irritate you but his voice is clear and the instructions are easy to follow. All in all, Your Shape 2012 is decent sounding game just nothing spectacular and nothing incredibly innovative.
Overall, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 stands as one of the better fitness games available for the Xbox 360 Kinect. While the visuals and sound leave no lasting impressions, the fact remains the game includes more than enough fitness routines to keep you coming back for months on end. While Your Shape 2012 is nothing incredibly innovative, and some of the wonky Kinect sensor issues surface from time to time, the fact remains if you want to shed a few pounds or simply tone a few areas, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 is definitely for you.
