A game that rivals and surpasses Wii Fit by a long shot, if not quite as charming.
When you first start the software you enter your age, height, weight, measure your sitting and post warm-up heart rate and measure the circumference of your biceps, thighs, waist, hips and chest. This provides the software with an accurate account of your overall fitness and uses said information to personalise your workout routines. Then after every 10 workouts it will ask for the above information again, minus age and height, and chart your progress in all of these areas. As a man I would want to increase bicep and chest size but reduce waist, thigh and hip, so being able to monitor these areas as opposed to just weight or the highly inaccurate BMI is excellent.
Maya will suggest the appropriate workout each day, e.g. cardio one day, then upper body, then flexibility another. This allows every part of your body to receive an even level of exercise due to the software having approximately 500 different exercise moves. This avoids repetitive strain injuries and helps to improve the condition of the entire body.
The routine length is chosen by the player as either 15, 30, 45… etc minutes. It is constructed as if you were at a fitness class so one exercise move will be followed by another; however there are breaks in between particularly difficult ones. The exercise moves are broken up into difficulties ranging from 1 to 5 so this allows the routines to develop in difficulty as you increase in fitness. At certain points in the routine you will be asked whether that particular set was too easy, a good workout or difficult to keep up. This is how the software monitors your development in the routine and will then adapt the next one based on your answer. The routine is also comprised of warm-up and cool downs which help to avoid any strain injuries. Finally, should you have more than one player profile you can have an extra 1-3 players do the routine with you at the same time.
The trainer, Maya, is modeled on a real life personal trainer and she provides you with constant encouragement. Her tone of voice, while being a little flat at times, is clear and the advice she provides assists you in executing the workout routine accurately and thus avoiding injury. Her movements are fluid and easy to understand, however if you do not understand any of the moves you can ask her to explain them. Finally at the beginning and end of each workout she provides you with a brief screen with some healthy lifestyle advice. This morning for example she told me about the benefits of exercising in front of my daughter and drinking peppermint tea being more effective and healthier than coffee in the morning.
There are various locations available for you to exercise in and there are over 70 different songs across 7 selectable genres of music. The graphics of these locations are nothing special and the songs are nothing you would want to listen to outside of the workout however they do suit the exercise theme of the software and wont annoy you like some chart songs I can think of.
The one thing most people will want to know is how it compares to Wii Fit and since I own both I can make it an accurate comparison. Wii Fit has been constructed very badly. It does not tailor make routines to suit each individual user thus you have no idea what part you should be exercising and how frequently. This causes an uneven development of the health of the body and can cause weakness is some areas whilst strengthening others.
It has a very low number of exercises and because of this you exercise the exact some area each time. This does cause repetitive strain injuries. It does not include any warm ups and does not tell you how you should do them. It just says to do it and for those who haven't a clue how or for how long this can lead to injuries. It has the same music every time and the graphics are very weak and bland. Everything is just white, including the trainer! BMI has been found to be very inaccurate at measuring health and fitness and since this is the only way that Wii Fit measures it you are never given an accurate account of your health development. And finally there is the price. Wii Fit costs ₤ 70 whereas My Fitness Coach costs ₤ 15. This is because My Fitness Coach does not utilize the Wii Balance Board which I have found to be completely unnecessary.
To sum up. If you want some software for your Wii to get you into shape safely, monitors you accurately and has enough variety to keep you interested for years to come, then choose to buy the very affordable My Fitness Coach. You will not be disappointed. I know I'm not.