EA Active: First Look

As one of those people who was originally smitten with Wii Fit, but then stopped using it after essentially completing all the in-game challenges, I was eagerly awaiting the release of EA Active – a workout game designed by THE sports game authority:  Electronic Arts. I was able to pick up a copy this morning and spent an hour with the game this afternoon.

My first impressions when opening the rather light box were mixed. Included in the box are the game, a leg strap and a stretch cord. The stretch cord is a light band that doesn’t feel like it would hold up over multiple intense workouts, but would be perfect for someone casually getting exercise. It doesn’t provide much resistance, even when folded up, but it doesn’t directly connect with any of the Wii controllers and therefore, I can find no reason why you wouldn’t be able to replace it with stretch cords you already own – provided you own any. The leg strap, which is used to hold the nunchuck in an effort to measure leg raises during certain activities, seems much sturdier. The game booklet is short, but most of the “how-to” appears in game, so there is no need to fill it with redundancy.

Starting up the game, you’re asked to create a fitness profile. There you enter such things as your age, weight and height – as well as create a character. The character creation tool is nothing special, but then again – does it need to be for this sort of game? After that you’re presented with your own main menu. There you have a fitness journal where you can track your eating and work out habits, as well as set goals over a certain period of time. Unlike Wii Fit, where you set weight loss goals, EA Active does not track your weight. Instead your goals are based off calories burned, number of workouts, and the amount of time spent working out. It would be nice to track your weight within the game, and I can’t really figure out why this wasn’t included, but, assuming you own Wii Fit and the balance board, you can still track your weight through Wii Fit’s downloadable body test without having to switch game disks.

EA Active comes with a number of pre-set workouts, as well as the ability to customize and save your own. This is a major bonus over Wii Fit, which forces you to scroll through the menus after each exercise, thereby not allowing you to keep your heart rate up. In addition, it appears that all the exercises are unlocked to start the game. Wii Fit made you excel at certain exercises prior to opening others. In a way this was good, since it kept you coming back in an attempt to see what the new exercises were. Still, as far as working out goes, having everything available from the onset is much better.

Aside from the workouts, you can also choose the 30-day challenge, which is what I did. The 30-day challenge (which has settings of easy, moderate, and hard – I chose moderate) is a 30-day workout routine that increases in intensity day by day. Each day, different exercises are paired with each other to maximize the results and not overwork any one specific body area.

My first day of my 30-day workout lasted around 25 minutes and was comprised of 16 exercises (although only about 8 unique exercises were used as it had me doing many of them twice). It began with a light walk that turned into a run. Like the Wii Fit, these are done without the balance board, but unlike the Wii Fit, the nunchuck is placed in the leg strap and EA Active seems to do a better job at measuring your paces because of this. From there I went on to squats, curls, some cardio boxing (which involved punches and kicks, and was quite fun), in-line skating (which wasn’t as much fun as it sounds), and some lunges. Finally, I cooled down with another run/walk and overall burned about 160 calories (at least according to the game).

Overall the exercises felt good. They worked various muscle groups and the motion controls seemed to pick up my actions fairly accurately, with only a few misses every now and then. The activities are more in tune with Wii Fit’s Strength and Yoga games than its Aerobic and Balance games, so the workout as a whole is less fun – though it seemed more effective. The biggest problem I had occurred during the kicks in boxing. As I kicked with my right leg, I could feel the leg strap slowly slipping off. Eventually it dropped from my thigh to my ankle. Since it’s not needed during the boxing, all I had to do was take it off, but it is a little bit of a pain to put on and take off between exercises. I was working out in shorts, so the strap was around my bare leg. Had I been wearing sweats or other workout pants, the strap might have stayed on better. Still, I was constantly worried that it would fall down my leg during an activity that required it to stay around your thigh – like running (though it never did).

One other thing that should be noted is that the Wii Fit Balance board is not required for this game. Early on you can enter whether or not you would like to use it and, if you choose to use it, certain activities are enhanced. For example, the kicking during Cardio Boxing is measured by the rate at which you step on and off the balance board. I assume that if I did not have a balance board I would only be allowed to punch. The fact that workouts can be done without the balance board is an added bonus, since it doesn’t require people to go out and spend the extra money on a board to get the effects of the game.

I also took a quick look through the individual training activities to see what was in store for me during my 30-day challenge. The activities are divided into groups, such as upper and lower strength, cardio, or sports. Strength activities often use the resistance band. Cardio activities included things like the boxing and running and even something called dancing, which I have yet to try. Sports has things like baseball, basketball, and tennis drills. I tried the baseball and basketball briefly. In basketball I was shooting jump shots – although since I had to hold both remotes in my hands it wasn’t really tracking my jumps, just my hand movements. In baseball I had to reach in different directions to catch a ball with my left hand and the nunchuck (though I didn’t have to be terribly accurate) and then I threw at a target with my right hand and the Wii-mote. I didn’t really have to aim to hit the target, I merely had to make a throwing motion and I never missed. How fast my motion was determined if I knocked the target over or not.

All in all, I was impressed by my first try with EA Active, and I plan to keep using it in the near future. It seems like there are enough different activities to keep the game interesting – at least for the short term. Where the Wii Fit appears to be a little more fun, this seems better as a workout. Whether or not it will hold up as a long term exercise tool remains to be seen.