Why don't they make more games like this?
When you first put the game in and create a profile, Maya creates a profile based on factors such as your age, weight, height, resting heart rate, elevated heart rate, level of activity, etc. She suggests areas you need to work on and encourages you to set goals for yourself. These criteria are not arbitrary and are the same things you would have to go through when consulting a 'real life' physical trainer, nutritionist, or physician.
Yourself Fitness gives you several different choices when selecting a workout to choose. First you can choose to workout in different environments, with different music, and concentrating on a specific area such as cardio, weight loss, strength, etc. The environments are not well developed and play no role except to look at. However, as you stick with your routine you can discover unlockables for new environments and music but again this isn't as exciting as it could be. Custom soundtracks (at least for the xbox version) also in my opinion need to be a must to make things a tad more exciting. Also, Maya will incorporate exercise equipment into your workout routine if they are available to you such as hand weights, a step, a giant ball. These add a bit more variety but are not needed if you don't want to go out and buy something more.
In addition to the regular aerobic workout, you can choose to do a session in the meditation garden. This is just a fancy place where you go through some basic yoga. This has become my favorite part of the game and I seem to do it nearly everyday or sometimes twice. The routine runs about 13-15 mins and its not as well played out as the aerobics but the difficulty seems to increase as you keep doing it. I've really gotten into Yoga because of it -- highly recommended even for the most inflexible. For Yourself Fitness 2 I'd like to see just a Yoga version because I love it so much.
What everyone wants to know about this game though is if its worth the money and will it help them to get in shape? I'm quite fit myself but I still really enjoy doing this game when its dreary and raining or I just don't feel like going out for a run or to the gym. Its great to be able to stay inside and for 15 minutes to 1 hour you can sweat (yes actually sweat) with Maya offering silly words of encouragement or even sometimes reprimanding you for missing a scheduled session. I can also say that this game is definitely worth the money if you are the type of person who doesn't have much time and just wants to get their body moving again. Just like most things, if you stick with it you will see results. After X number of sessions Maya will 'test' you and you can see your progress in all those areas you submitted when first creating a profile. Sure she is just a virtual personal trainer but she offers lots of encouragement along the way. If you utilize all the aspects of this game (the scheduled workouts, the yoga as a warm-up or cool down or just for relaxation, the suggested meal options) you will see results -- I have. Plus this is more fun than doing the same workout over and over again with Billy Blanks or Richard Simmons on some old VHS. If you're already somewhat fit and just want a little help than this may not be the game for you because you may find it too easy. I felt like I may have maxed out on the aerobics part so I switched to the Yoga and I've kept it up for nearly a year. I think games like this are the way of the future as seen by Sony coming out with the EyeToy that uses these ideas and takes them to the next level. I really hope the company makes more games in this line to help the gamer get off the couch. I'd recommend this title to just about anyone.