I fought the Xbox and the Xbox won.
Excited to see what it could do, I put on some exercise clothes (it doesn't like baggy clothing) and started the disk. After it ran through its calibration, I set up my profile (pretty honestly, I thought) and started the personalized routine.
Big mistake.
After about 15 minutes, I was on my knees. My form started out pretty well at the beginning of the workout, but got worse and worse as I tired out until I could no longer even pretend to meet the trainer's verbal guidance. I gave up, paused the game, exited to the hub and was forced to admit that I was in worse shape than I thought.
I was in no hurry to play this disk again. My quads ached for two days, and I was afraid to do battle with it again. But I was impressed by the presentation, and didn't hate the game. I did have proper respect for it though.
After a few days of recovery, I tentatively inserted the game again. This time, I decided to avoid my personalized workout for the moment, and check out the other activities.
I'm glad I did. I figured the Tai chi exercise would be pretty low impact and tried it out. After the 10 minute workout, my feelings about this title totally changed. The difficulty was reasonable for my ability, and the pose feedback was much more gentle. I felt a little burn in my quads from holding the squats, but I wasn't totally winded. And an achievement popped up on my Xbox as I saw my personal calorie counter top 100--and I still love getting achievments. Yay!
So that was cool. I wondered what the minigames were like. Hit or miss. Cardio boxing was fun but the Super Simon dance wasn't too interesting, and I couldn't hula hoop to save my life, though my virtual hooping was still much more successful than the real thing.
Last one I played was the balance board game. It totally hooked me. The easiest description would be full body Tetris--and its a blast. It may not be very physically demanding, but holding a couple of dumbells while playing would change that. Fitness Evolved is almost worth it for this game alone.
This isn't a perfect title. If you're out of shape, you absolutely need to pay attention to what your body's telling you. If you overdo it, you won't want to come back. But stick with it, keep it fun and satisfying, and you can't help but see results. For me, adding 30 minutes of this to my day has really helped my mood and actually helps recharge my battery for the rest of the day--endorphins rock.
Some might find the 'constructive criticism' annoying and others might get frustrated because they can't score 100% on every workout. I chose not to worry about 'winning' for the time being. Just trying is what makes the difference. Your scores will surely improve with time, and they'll reflect real physical improvement.
I wear gym shorts and a t-shirt for the workouts (games are fine in normal clothes), and haven't really had any troubles with tracking. It's gone wonky on me a handful of times, but corrects itself quickly if you just keep going. It's pretty remarkable how well it works, actually. And just the fact that you forget you're using the Kinect after spending time with it says quite a bit. This is light years ahead of Adventure's 'stop the leaks' game.
I bought this to help myself get healthier and I already feel some benefit. And I'm doing it in the comfort of my living room. Its convenient, and I'm not shamed by wussing out of a workout early at the gym. I don't have dumbells yet, so my upper body workout is limited, but I will. I'll start with some girly ones though.
Other than human tetris, there is very little 'game' in this title, but its feedback is addictive, and feeling better after working with it, even moreso. It's a special interest title, and for its purpose, it works. Just take it easy if you're not in great shape. You'll enjoy exercise more if you aren't in pain, and you're much more likely to stick with it if you're having fun.