Your Shape: Fitness Evolved Review

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is a fitness game developed and published by Ubisoft for the Kinect. Containing exercises created by Men’s Health and Women’s Health Magazine, Your Shape aims to change the way current fitness games are played, while revolutionizing the ability for games to teach and encourage exercise.

Although Your Shape: Fitness Evolved was released last November, I wanted to share my thoughts on it in case anyone was still considering picking it up. According to the game itself, it is unique in that it tracks “1 million” different dots on the body. This feature allows the game to display your body (or at least a close representation of it) on the screen. This is a useful feature because the game knows when you are “cheating” by not squatting or lunging low enough. If you let your arms drop too much the voice of the game’s guide will immediately remind you by shouting, “Arms in the air!” Okay, so she doesn’t exactly yell it, but sometimes your arms really will be in the air and she feels the need to say something to you anyway.

This brings me to my first issue with the game. Although Your Shape without a doubt takes an awesome step towards making a fitness game for consoles that could replace your typical workout DVD, its features don’t always work the way they claim they’re supposed to. I first noticed this while taking the Fitness Test the game requires you to take to assess your exercise level. You can receive Beginner, Trained, or Advanced. The Fitness Test involves performing a few cardio and strength-based moves so the game can form its opinion about you. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, not exactly. There were several times where I found myself in exact rhythm with the trainer and yet the game would claim I was not in rhythm. There were times where it said my feet weren’t wide enough apart even though I had stretched them to the point where I was about to collapse into the splits. At one point during a lunge workout it kept saying I was out of rhythm. In a fit of frustration I just waved my arms wildly in the air. Apparently the game liked this and decided I was back in rhythm. Maybe I had this issue because of my vertical challenge (I am only 4’11). Still, one would think since the game assessed my height, arm, and leg length it would have an idea of how far my stubby legs will go. I have been fairly active most of my life mainly through fitness classes and workout tapes/DVDs since sports weren’t really my thing. That being said, I was pleased to discover that regardless of the game not giving me credit for when I was performing moves correctly, it still put me at the Advanced level; giving me access to the harder workout routines in the Personal Training fitness mode.


Arm and shoulder exercise by Women's Health

  Moving on, the game divides its exercises into three different modes. There is the “Personal Training” mode in which players can choose from Cardio, Toning, and Strength training exercises that are customized to your level (Beginner, Trained or Advanced). This mode also includes a few exercises from Men’s Health and Women’s Health, and also from other companies such as Gatorade and Nivea. I found the exercises from Women’s Health, Gatorade and Nivea to be more fun, unique and challenging than the “customized” workouts offered by the game. My biggest complaint with this mode was its lack of arm exercises. There is a good one by Women’s Health, however it is very short and does a terrible job of targeting the triceps (back of the arm) which is a problem area for a lot of people (women especially).

Another mode is the “Gym Games” mode. This includes games like Virtual Smash, which is the one most advertised on their commercials. However, don’t expect to be side-kicking boxes, throwing uppercuts and dodging flying objects as the commercials sometimes make you believe. It is actually much simpler. I have played on all three levels (easy, medium, and hard) and each one is essentially the same. You either punch or knee the box with the opposite arm. Each round lasts around a minute. The dodging object comes into play during the hard mode but even then said object is just a huge “pendulum” and it is so slow I probably could’ve just sat on the floor to dodge it. It’s actually pretty cool though that the game can recognize if you’re not crossing over to punch with the opposite arm. But don’t be fooled by the commercials. They show people burning a ton of calories per round when in reality you only burn about 7 calories per round.


Zen Class

 The third mode is the “Fitness Classes” mode which includes Cardio Boxing and Zen classes. I’ll admit the Zen class was one of the things I was looking forward to the most. For me, it was a disappointment. The game’s technology is especially unforgiving with the Zen classes. It requires you to line up your joints with the trainer but even when you are spot on it still claims that you aren’t and won’t give you credit. If you are wearing a baggy shirt and pants it will be even less forgiving. Also, most of the classes only last around 5-6 minutes. Tai Chi moves are supposed to be done slowly. The game attempts to be slow, but isn’t. As soon as I feel myself begin to breathe and relax in the movement it is already over and time to move on to the next move.

The Cardio Boxing classes are actually my favorite. They start off with the bronze, and then move up to silver and finally gold (or platinum if you wish to purchase it separately). They do a fairly good job of easing you into the moves. One of my main complaints is that the classes are too short (around 4 minutes each). As soon as I feel my heart rate begin to pick up the work out is over. By the time I pick another workout to do my heart rate is back to normal. There is a 12 minute class in the gold category that does a good job of getting your heart rate up but after a few weeks of the same moves, it gets boring.


Cardio boxing routine

 Lastly, the game does not provide a good warm up or cool down exercise routine. The only form of stretching is in the Zen classes and these do not target all of the right body areas. Also the game does not require you to warm up your muscles before stretching in the Zen classes (although sometimes it mentions it in passing during a loading screen). Not warming up your muscles before stretching can cause them to tear resulting in serious damage. The game definitely needs to provide more education on the basics of safe exercise. Performing 10 squats properly is better than performing 50 squats in poor form. When it comes to these moves quality is sometimes better than quantity.

Your Shape also includes a feature where you can connect your profile to the online site. The website allows you to track how many calories you have burned over the weeks, create calorie-loss goals and challenges where you and a friend can compete to see who can burn 100 calories first. I liked that the website had tips about nutrition and fitness but I didn’t like how hard it was to sync my profile to the website. I would like to think I am pretty tech savvy but even I had issues getting it to work. I had finally given up when one day while playing, the achievement randomly popped that I had connected my profile to the website. Since the game seems to target middle-aged women, I imagine many players having more trouble with the sync process than I did. No offense to middle-aged women but if they are anything like my mom in the technology department (sorry mom!) then Ubisoft definitely needs to make it a little more user-friendly.


YourShapeCenter.com

 Overall, Your Shape has definitely opened up the possibilities for successful fitness games. Although I would not recommend purchasing it if you are serious about getting into shape, it is still a pretty fun way of burning some calories and earning achievement points. If it continues to make free add-ons available it may be a worthwhile investment if you are looking for a quick, easy and unique way to burn a couple hundred calories each day. I can’t say enough how its awesome (albeit frustrating at times) ability to precisely track body movements left me giggling excitedly with nerdy thoughts as to what new and fun games could be developed for the Kinect.

Be prepared, I am about to go on a body mechanics/safety rant so if you couldn’t care less, stop reading. If you are considering buying the game and are new to working out I suggest you read on...

Another problem I have with the Your Shape game and Cardio Boxing is its failure to teach you how to perform movements properly. I took an aerobic kick boxing class with a trained specialist that took an entire hour to teach the class how to perform the moves properly. Without this knowledge a person could really hurt themselves. For instance, when punching, you should never fully extend your elbow. This could really damage the joint. The same goes for kicking, never fully extend the knee. Also, when kicking, the knee of the leg you stand on should never be locked or kept straight. It should be slightly bent. The game does say “keep your support knee loose” but to a beginner that could mean a number of things. The game never teaches you that “keeping your knees loose” means to keep them bent and not locked.

While performing lunges the game tells you to keep your knees in line with your toes but it does not tell you to not let your knee go past your toes. The only mention of this that I saw was randomly during a loading screen. It would have been nice for them to mention it to the player before performing a lunge exercise. This could cause serious knee problems, especially if you have issues with your knees already (which, if this is the case I suggest staying away from lunges altogether). Nor does it tell you that when performing lunges you should put the weight on the heel of the foot that is lunging and that you should feel your quadriceps and hamstrings working in that leg.

Another potentially dangerous exercise is called the dead lift. Here is a picture:

Notice how her back is straight, knees are slightly bent, her core (stomach) is tucked in (or contracted) and her neck and head are in line with her spine. This is the proper way to perform a dead lift. It is an exercise that to some may look like it is working out the arms or back but it is actually supposed to work the hamstrings and the area directly beneath the butt. The game never says any of these things. Also, it is not easy to see these details just by watching the trainer because she is facing forward during this move and she is also not a real person. For someone with experience this wouldn’t be a problem. However, for someone that is new to working out this could cause a lot of back problems if they do not know the proper body mechanics like holding in your core to protect your back.

You may be thinking this wouldn’t be a problem because these moves are only in the advanced training mode. Well actually, I had gone through some of the beginning exercises and many of these moves were included in these exercises as well.