Your Shape Fitness Evolved review: More work than workout

by Rachel Shatto on Nov 4th 2010 12:02AM

The original Your Shape for Wii was marketed primarily as a post partum pudge-buster with new mom Jenny McCarthy leading the fitness charge, but left a lot of players cold. Now, with the advent of Kinect, the game has evolved and Jenny McCarthy has been replaced with generic fitness girl and fitness boy, in what can best be described as a frill-free but serviceable exercise in ... exercise games.

For all its talk of customized workouts tailored to your personalized goals, the sad truth is that Your Shape: Fitness Evolved really boils down a few standard questions about your age, gender, weight and lifestyle, while the Kinect sensor measures your height and length of your limbs -- there's no real way to gauge your fitness, flexibility or exertion level. (And it never it once suggested that I check my heart rate.) Yet where it struggles the most is in its lack of ability to motivate. With trainers devoid of personality and charm, and with very little in the way of actual personalization, there isn't really much here to get you to put down the controller and get up off your butt.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (Kinect)

The visual presentation is very sterile -- there are some random shapes floating here and there, but mostly it's just a kind of depressing geometric wasteland populated by expressionless workout drones. Plus, rather than use your Xbox Live avatar, the game presents an amorphous, vaguely human-shaped ... thing summoned from the depths of the Uncanny Valley as your stand-in. Oh, and it strong-arms you into taking a hopelessly unflattering and likely sweaty photo, that you just have to hope and pray will never inexplicably make its way out into the internet ether. Anyone who is not particularly keen to see all their bits wobble or is remotely mirror or camera shy is no doubt going to find this incredibly off-putting. And it begs the question: Why not allow the user to chose their Avatar or create an aspirational stand-in if the sensor is simply tracking their skeleton?

Speaking of the Kinect sensor, it'll have no part of yoga pants or sweats (or anything that doesn't cling to your form for dear life), so spandex or shorts are a must if you want to be in rhythm (which is basically the whole point of the game).

Kinect reviews

Truthfully, there is a lot of potential here, not the least of which is an impressive number of workouts available through personal training. There's cardio boxing, and two workouts created by Men's Health and Women's Health -- all of which will no doubt make you sweat, as even the easiest workouts do their job very effectively. Be prepared, though, to be launched directly into your workout without so much as a hamstring stretch. For whatever reason, the warm-up and cool-down, which are fundamental parts of any workout, do not exist in the geometric shape littered Animus that is the Your Shape universe. With some maneuvering of the phone-tree-like menu, one can find some Zen workouts that consist of a mixture of yoga, tai chi and palates. They're there, but if you hoped they would be integrated into your personal training, forget it. The selection of gym games range from the marginally fun Virtual Smash (a timed punching and kicking game) to the infuriating Light Race that only registered my feet in four of the six "panels" you're meant to activate á la Simon says.

Ultimately, despite the drawbacks and disappointments (oh that amorphous blob-thing!) I did get a decent workout -- the problem is, I had to work so hard for it. Your Shape Fitness Evolved won't replace your gym membership or motivate those who aren't already fitness-inclined, but for those looking to mix up their current routine or supplement their workout regimen, it may do the trick. Still, with all the other fitness games out there vying to be the fittest fit for your wallet, the franchise had better hurry up and evolve again.

This review is based on the 360 retail version of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved provided by Microsoft and Ubisoft. Rachel Shatto is a life-long avid gamer and managing editor of Curve Magazine. When she's not killing typos or polygonal baddies, she's hosting the semi-regular, horror themed Zombie Grrlz Podcast.

Tags: microsoft, ubisoft, xbox, Your-Shape-Fitness-Evolved

Reader Comments (34)

I was hoping that working out would be easy.

@GordoJones88

Well, with beings of your...healthy stature it may be a little tough at first, but you'll get the hang of it eventually!

:P

My question is, can you really punch roses out of a punching bag of you hit it at exactly 42 mph?

@Faren22 Yes, but when it hits 88mph, you're gonna see some serious s***.

@Faren22
Where we're going, we don't need roses.

@GenMan

Why don't you make like a rose and get outta here?

I find it's easier to play real sports, and do real workouts. Games like Wii Fit and such, they just feel so forced.

@King Johngie the Fourth workout games make sense if you want a light workout, in your home, as quickly as possible. but anyone who thinks playing a videogame is going to replace going to the gym for an hour is kidding themselves.

What is said in this review is what I expected from this game. I grew frustrated trying to research in depth details of the work outs and grew even more tired of watching someone punch colored blocks in the trailers. It's almost as if they were hiding details.

I have never seen such vague info on a game in my entire life from their website.

Despite this I already had it pre-ordered until EA Sports Active 2 comes out then I will throw this on Ebay.

Recent studies have shown that people who stretch before exercising suffer more injuries than those who don't stretch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/sports/playmagazine/112pewarm.html

Why don't you read this article and then realize the people who made this game know more about exercise than you do.

@thinkthis

Did you actually read the article? Funny to criticize someone else, when you obviously have no better idea. That article is about the value of dynamic stretching versus traditional static stretching. Warm up is still considered incredibly important before a workout or exercise, it's just that most people do it wrong. Omitting it does not show that the game developers knew what they were doing.

@thinkthis A recent study shows that up to 90% of medical studies are wrong.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/

So I wouldn't be so sure that those researchers or the developers know what they are doing. Do what works for you.

@thinkthis

MEANWHILE, People like myself who tend to tighten up all their main nerves when they concentrate and workout at a gym NEED to stretch or you end up with carpal tunnel and a pinched nerve in your neck like I have....

Some people can get away without stretching; the majority can't.

Plus, if you DON'T stretch before working out frequently, good bye flexibility.

@thinkthis

and this article says only 43% of people think the cake is a lie.

http://alectorfencer.deviantart.com/journal/poll/1558454/

News flash: Exercise IS work, its not just dicking around.

This game seemed really polished to me, I'll probably wait for more reviews before deciding though.

@Raffi256
Exercise is supposed to be work. But a game is supposed to be fun. So what's an exercise game supposed to be. Fun work? Is such a thing possible?

@zerosuitsammich I really don't think it is supposed to be a game in the first place.
I mean, come on, do you think that wii fit is supposed to be a game as well?

brb ima gonna go and punch my bag and make some petals for my wedding.

Awesome, Great review Rachel. Hope to see more of your work on Joystiq

"Your Shape: Fitness Evolved"... what's next? Halo: Combat Evolved?

@darkinchworm Halo Fitness?

@SewerShark Halo REACH!

"...but mostly it's just a kind of depressing geometric wasteland populated by expressionless workout drones."

I've been to that gym.

"Be prepared, though, to be launched directly into your workout without so much as a hamstring stretch."

Not a bad thing necessarily.

Lots of scientific studies have been saying for years that stretching prior to workouts does not really prevent injury, and in some cases static stretching can actually temporarily reduce strength or performance.

A pubmed studies review:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16130528

i guess i will have to wait for the EA version of a fitness game.

"the game presents an amorphous, vaguely human-shaped ... thing summoned from the depths of the Uncanny Valley as your stand-in"
That's you. Seriously, they just use the raw 3D camera image.

@UNSCleric

creeeepy.

From a technical standpoint, the "amorphous blob" actually seemed to work better than an avatar.

For one, lag is diminished compared to the stock Kinect Adventures game, and it is an accurate representation of what the Kinect Sensor is seeing.

Unlike most Kinect games, this one doesn't track you "skeleton" but your 3D body, including clothes. The reason it looks amorphous is because your clothes give you a wider look than you might expect.

The game is good for watching your form, like watching a mirror, but I'm not sure the in-game prompts and really going to help people achieve perfect form. I was intentionally doing exercises wrong and, but trying to trick the sensor into thinking I was doing them right, and it said I was "perfect."

The take away here is that you should know something about physical training before you use this program, but it's still useful if you do.

yawn

An important point, I think, is that the Wii balance board has a weight limit of 300 lbs. In this regard Kinect in general is the preferred motion device for fitness games if you weigh over 300 and don't want to hold a controller. In addition, the tai chi "zen" routines and the relatively low impact workouts that are offered to the player in that weight range are a welcome change.

The amorphous blob isn't some sort of model they created for the game, it's what the Kinect camera sees as you. By not having to constantly resolve that data with a 3D in game model and instead present it to you raw, you can skirt by some of the technical issues with Kinect pretty easily because you really can just watch yourself. And no offense, but there's no room to be "mirror-shy" if you're trying to see if you're performing the workout correctly.

Finally, the interface is brilliant in its simplicity and speed. There are no "telephone tree" menus, they're perfectly self explanatory. The reviewer's complaint that the trainer characters lack personality is absolutely a positive to me, I can't imagine a greater de-motivator than an AI character spitting the same canned dialogue to me every day while I'm trying to stick to a routine. The music is calm and soothing and is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to hear when just chilling out for a light workout.

Perhaps it's a question of gender perspective, but I and other fat guys seem to agree that this is actually a really great experience.; Check out Giantbomb's quick look to see it in action:
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-your-shape-fitness-evolved/17-3467/

@UNSCleric
The first joystiq review by a woman! Congrats on the deversity. now we just need a black guy.

"Plus, rather than use your Xbox Live avatar, the game presents an amorphous, vaguely human-shaped ... thing summoned from the depths of the Uncanny Valley as your stand-in."

You know you can display yourself, right? At the main screen, step forward with your left foot to select the 'Skin' option (it should be a purple circle) and next though you know it'll be a digital version of you! It's rather slick actually and there was a clue this was possible during as setup you see yourself scanned for a brief moment before it goes to a heat-like version (red/orange) of you. I'm particularly impressed it even scanned the writing on my t-shirt. Anyway, I much perfer the digital version of me over an Avatar. And it's slicker than the red/orange version. Not sure why this isn't the default option.

I've tried both Your Shape and EA active 2. Your Shape is better in so many ways. The only good things abut Active is I've got the heart monitor, a rubber band and a bigger diversity of games.

The body tracking feel really laggy compare to "Your Shape". The avatar you have is slow on reaction of your movement when you move. For example, I was doing the run excercice, I've start running it took maybe 2 or 3 seconds before the avatar starts running, same thing when I stopped.

EA Active does not give any feedback if you do not do your exercice correctly, if your arms are in the good position, if your knees are at the right height, if your rhythm is in track with the trainer. No feedback AT ALL!! I've even tried to not move and on Active I've receive an excellent note for not doing the exercice O_o.

And on the online side, on Your Shape the community feels a lot more richer and finished. On Active, I felt bombard with stats and numbers, that looks professional, but it's just a LOOK.

In the end EA active feels like a game that's it, Your Shape feels like real fitness program.

This "game" or workout his horrible. While the motion contol systems are decent only missing the occasional movement the game it self turns me off to playing it. Not only do I have to repete the fitness test three times all I got out of the workouts was the constant tutorials and the are you ready or would you like to repete the tutorial menus.

Hey designers how about making a game with an option for a real workout? now for beginners or those doing this in a more casual manner I get it and for them its cool, but for those of us with limited time and less tolorance for stupid repditive quesitons prehaps there should be an option to turn off the fitness quiz and the tutorials and allow us to just do the work out.

For the casual user this game will more than likely fit your needs. For those of us that just want to workout without all the BS you better off watching TV while conducting you own workout as you will not have the same tutorial play over and over.