Last\u00a0Christmas I received the video game Wii Fit.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a hint; I wanted the game.\u00a0 I enjoy doing yoga but long ago grew bored of yoga DVDs and since first trying a live class many years ago I wasn\u2019t keen on going back to a class in real life, with like\u2026 real people.\u00a0 *shudder*<\/p>\n
So Wii Fit seemed like a good solution.\u00a0 I could do yoga in the privacy of my own home, at my own pace with a virtual personal trainer.\u00a0 At first I really liked the game.\u00a0 It has a few features that are pretty cool, which mostly boil down to the balance board: a tablet one stands on that measures one\u2019s weight and balance.<\/p>\n
Besides yoga the game also has strength exercises and some light cardio and balance games.\u00a0 The problem is that all these activities get old fast.\u00a0 I conquered the yoga in no time and most of the strength exercises as well.\u00a0 Some of them remain too difficult for me; I\u2019m sorry but I will never be able to do a proper push-up.\u00a0 It\u2019s just not happening.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure I could pull it off with enough training but it\u2019s not a priority in my life.\u00a0 Opening windows however, is – I was once mocked by an obese person for being unable to pry open a window –\u00a0but I long ago came to terms with my lack of upper body strength. Other strength exercises in Wii Fit I would argue are not so much about strength as they are about balance, since the balance board is the gimmick of the game and damn it, they\u2019re gonna exploit that!<\/p>\n
The cardio is fine, but again pretty much too easy.\u00a0 And the balance games are like traditional video games except you use your feet instead of your hands (as in you shift your weight on the board to make things happen).\u00a0 And since I generally find vid games to be rather boring, this aspect of Wii Fit does not intrigue me.<\/p>\n
As a video game Wii Fit is fun but as an exercise program I find it lacking.\u00a0 I think it would be effective for really lazy,\u00a0out of shape\u00a0people who need an easy, fun way to get introduced to exercise\u00a0but it\u2019s not much of a workout for someone serious about fitness.\u00a0 Not that I\u2019m serious about fitness, mind you.\u00a0 So for me it was pretty much ideal.\u00a0 I even managed to lose a little weight using it.\u00a0 But then I got bored and I felt I wasn\u2019t really being challenged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Enter EA Sports Active.\u00a0 I saw an ad for it on TV and was intrigued. \u00a0Being in a very game friendly home, I obtained the game two days later by merely mentioning it to he who brings in the games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Active is much more of a workout than Wii Fit.\u00a0 There are three settings: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced and it didn\u2019t take long for me to move up to Advanced.\u00a0 Again, it\u2019s probably not as intense a workout as the real deal in a gym or whatever but for my purposes it is ideal and is actually challenging while remaining fun.\u00a0 Wii Fit comes with barbells if you buy the mondo pack (as well as a yoga mat and a towel and a stinky plastic bottle) but Active comes with an elastic band to use in resistance exercises.\u00a0 The band is superiour to the barbells because you can adjust it as need be.\u00a0 ‘Course it hurts when the thing snaps in half and whips you after a month of being stretched to oblivion.<\/p>\n
Now that I really think about it, the activities in Active aren\u2019t really that much more diverse than in Wii Fit, in fact Wii Fit definitely offers more options but they\u2019re all kiddy options.\u00a0 Active\u2019s exercises are more \u201cwestern\u201d than Wii Fit\u2019s, meaning they aren\u2019t about zen and calm and shit, they are about getting your heart pumping and sweating your ass off.\u00a0 As with Wii Fit, there is a virtual personal trainer who encourages you, and as in Wii Fit, you can choose a man or a woman, but unlike in Wii Fit, where they are both lily white (literally, there are only like 3 colours in the game) in Active you can train with a person of colour, and he looks a little bit like Obama in his virtual form, so there\u2019s that.\u00a0 Plus the trainer in Active is just cooler.\u00a0 He\u2019s more encouraging.\u00a0 (I use the male trainer so I can pretend I’m\u00a0cruising a hot guy in the gym).<\/p>\n
One of the really weird and off-putting things about Wii Fit is that the balance board is kind of a\u00a0jerk.\u00a0 It is anthropomorphized and talks to you before your workout.\u00a0 I\u2019ve already joked about it in Paradise Syndrome <\/a>and I swear, this is barely an exaggeration.\u00a0 The freaking board is totally passive aggressive and makes snarky comments instead of encouraging you to keep working out.\u00a0 I\u2019m like, seriously?\u00a0 You\u2019re gonna give me shit for gaining 1 lbs?\u00a0 In Active even if you screw up an activity the trainer encourages you to try harder instead of telling you you\u2019re a fucking loser who needs to stop eating donuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Active uses positive reinforcement and cautions you not to work too hard, whereas Wii Fit makes you feel guilty if you skip a day.\u00a0 And Active is just prettier.\u00a0 There are more colours and it\u2019s more dynamic looking, although YMMV, \u2018cause some might enjoy the cuteness of working out with a mii.\u00a0 Admittedly, Active doesn\u2019t offer a bevy of options for customizing your avatar, but it gives a hell of a lot more choices than Wii Fit does.\u00a0<\/p>\n