Working out with Fitness and Exercise games on the Sony Playstation 3

A while ago I posted a review of Top Spin 4 for the Wii on our sister site Nutwiisystem.com. I was a wee bit underwhelmed (no pun intended). As much as I love the Wii, it does have its limitations as far as precision and graphics goes.

When it came time to review the game on the Playstation, I had high expectations. The Move is much more precise than the Wii remote, and the graphics of the PS3 are phenomenal.

I’ll start off by saying that Top Spin 4 is excellent as a tennis simulator. The graphics are smooth, fast, and realistic, down to the facial features and characteristics of the players (most of the top stars of today are represented). You can see Nadal’s leap and hear Serena’s grunts. Serves, volleys, and reactions are extremely well captured. If you’re a tennis fan, you can have a blast just playing the game with your Dualshock controller.

Of course, this blog talks about PS3 Fitness, so the burning question is–can this come close to simulating a real tennis game?

I’ll say that it comes closer than any motion control game before it, including EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii (which used the Wii Remote Plus) and the awful Racquet Sports. Unlike the Wii version, where you just wag the remote and let the buttons do the rest, the Playstation Move allows you to control much more of the game using motion controls. One annoying thing is that every time you start the game, you need to reassign the Move Controller from 7 to 4 and to “calibrate” the controls by pressing buttons. I’m not sure why they couldn’t just make everything work seamlessly like in Sports Champions, but perhaps the publishers were new at programming for the Move and just didn’t know any better.

You can use your Move controller to perform each kind of tennis swing and to serve. To swing, you simply rear your arm back and then swing your arm forward, like a real tennis racket. If you swing your arm forward, you’ll hit a flat shot. If you swing forward and upward in a “U” shaped motion, you’ll be able to put top spin on the ball. If you swing while holding the “T” button, you’ll perform a slice.

How hard you swing matters too. As in real tennis, you can hit a power shot by making a broad backwards movement with your arm and powering your arm forward quickly. Likewise, you can hit a control shot by using very short preparation and swing motions.

Other kinds of shots do require buttons. You can press L2 (on the Navigation Controller) to perform a lob. You can also hold down L1 and move your joystick forwards or backwards to approach the net or retreat respectively.

You will need a PlayStation Move Navigation Controller to make your player run and aim your shots with the joystick (the Dualshock works too, much is much clunkier in your hands).

As I said, the graphics are phenomenal. All of the grand slam venues are reproduced to amazing accuracy, and you can customize your players to the smallest details, even to the sound he or she makes when grunting during a shot or the dance he or she makes after a victory.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed at the implementation of the swing. It seemed just a little sluggish and didn’t match my movements 1:1. Serving feels completely disjointed, as if all you have to do is raise and lower your hands, and you’ll hit a perfect serve each time. In that sense, it was a lot like the Wii. It’s hard not to make comparisons and wonder why they couldn’t match Sports Champions ping pong, where your movements are literally matched exactly and you can do even subtle things like rotate your racquet by turning your wrists. None of that here.

As for the “workout” value, there really isn’t much to speak of. I do think that if the swinging was implemented a little more realistically, it might be a fun game to play over and over. But in this game, it feel like the Move controller was more or less and afterthought to a game that was designed first and foremost to be played with handheld controllers.  As such, I’d give it a 4.5 for gameplay, but a 2.5 for Move implementation, so I’ll average it out at 3.5 stars out of 5.  If you’re a die-hard tennis fan, it’s worth it for the game, if not for the Move implementation or workout potential.

3.5 of 5 stars.

A few weeks ago I published a review of Fit in Six for the Wii on our sister site, Nutwiisystem.com. Long story short, I wasn’t impressed. Among other things, the motion controls on that game where non-existent, the graphics were amateurish, and the interface confusing.

So the questions is, how does Fit in Six for the Playstation fare? I’m happy to say that I am much, much more impressed with this version. It’s not perfect, but given that there aren’t too many other choices for pure fitness games for the Playstation, this one catapults its way to the short list of best PS3 Fitness games.

Like in the Wii version, the “Six” of the title refers to six core areas you need to work out to achieve full body fitness: Balance, Cardio, Core Body, Flexibility, Lower Body, and Upper Body. Every exercise you do in the program will tell you which of the six you’re working on.

There are some colorful summary reports you can pull up that show you how much of each category you’ve worked out over time. It’s a good way to keep track of whether you’re focusing too much on certain body parts while neglecting others.

When you start the game, you set up your profile, entering your sex, age, height, weight, and goal (note that you must have a Playstation Account and be logged in with it in order to create a new profile in Fit in Six–no doubt because Ubisoft wants to make sure it’s as easy as possible for you to purchase downloadable content in the future).

In terms of goals, you can choose from the following: Strong Back, Free Your Mind, Find your Balance, Burn off Your Extra Energy, Better Coordination, Better Body Awareness, Active After Break, Gain Muscle Mass, Stress Reliever, Shape Your Body, Healthy Heart, Secure Standing, Fight Cellulite, and Lose Weight. Each of these focuses on at least two of “The Six”. Depending on what you choose for your goal, you’ll be able to choose from about 25 different recommended classes to meet your goal.

You can also click the square button on your controller to view all the Classes you can choose from, which are divided into these categories: Cardio (14 workouts), Upper Body (7 workouts), Core Body (8 workouts), Lower Body (8 workouts), Fit for Life (9 workouts), Boot Camp (10 workouts), Kickboxing (8 workouts), Cardio Dance (9 workouts), Pilates (7 workouts), Latin Dance (9 workouts), Dance Moves (10 workouts), and Challenges (6 workouts).

The number of workouts I’ve provided here are the free workouts that come with the game–you’ll also see certain workouts that have a price under them (typically $1.99 USD) which represent downloadable content you can use to expand the game. I admit, while I don’t oppose downloadable content, it does tick me off just a little bit when companies make you purchase content which should have been included in the game to begin with (several exercises “for sale” by Ubisoft fall under this category).

Here’s a sample workout under “Cardio” called “Raise your Heart Rate”. As with the Get Fit with Mel B review, I’m too bashful to let you see my face

Here’s another workout called under “Kickboxing” called “Pure Power Punching”

The workouts themselves are very good. They teach you excellent technique for a staggering amount of exercises that cover just about every aspect of cardio fitness you could want.

About half of them use one Move controller (you can identify these by a glowing blue ball icon in the corner of the menu option), and the other half don’t. The Move controller is actually not critical to the game, but it’s a nice addition. You’ll see a colored “swoosh” next to your on-screen trainer’s left hand, and another colored “swoosh” marking out your own Move controller’s trail. By matching up the two, it’s another good visual cue that you’re following the trainer’s motions correctly. If your motions match the trainer’s you’ll be rewarded with bonus points and a “great!” or “good!” compliment. This is all in addition your video image is right next to the trainer, allowing you to match his or her moves one to one. I also like how the camera zooms and rotates on your trainer during the game, which ensure that you see the trainer from every angle and thus can mimic his moves (something missing from the Wii version).

There are other things I really like about this game. Aesthetically, it’s beautiful, from the colorful images that make up its menu options, to the soothing natural images of the backgrounds, to the beautifully rendered graphics that surround you when you’re doing the workout.

Also, if you’re getting a little sick and tired of the generic music that accompanies these kinds of games, you can actually upload your own music tracks to use during workouts.

Overall, I’d put this game on par with Get Fit with Mel B. There are a number of similarities, from the split-screen approach to the energetic music with a driving beat. I’d give Fit in Six a little bit of an edge for the sheer number of workouts it has. Overall, if you’re looking to use your Playstation Move for fitness, this is not a bad one to choose.

4 out of 5 stars.