In six months I have lost two stone through eating less (a radical idea) and exercise games; first Wii Fit, then My Fitness Coach (MFC). However neither of these has been really satisfactory in the long term and I needed something to re-energise my workouts. Most experts recommend that you need to be active, with a raised heart rate, for 15-30 minutes before you get real benefit from exercise, something that is difficult with Wii Fit because of its lack of routines and endless switching between mini-games. MFC is an improvement, but lacks the feedback of Wii Fit, and has limited variation. So I've been eager to give EA Sports Active a try ever since I first heard about it. It aims to provide the best of both worlds, cardiovascular and muscle workouts, interspersed with games, and lots of feedback. EA describe it as a more "Western" style workout in contrast to Wii Fit's "Eastern" concept of fitness. As someone who is trying to lose a lot of weight, doing yoga, and having great balance is nice, but it's not really what I'm after right now. Active on the other hand is all about burning calories and getting your pulse up, which is just the ticket.

I started by creating a profile, entering my height and weight (none of your business), and designing an on-screen character. Active has Balance Board support, so I was surprised that it offered no option to weigh me. It seemed like an odd omission. Having been ritually humiliated by my already rotund Mii ballooning in size every time Wii Fit weighs me, designing my own more "aspirational" character, was a nice change, and was indicative of a less hectoring, and more positive and supportive tone than Wii Fit. Next I got to grips with the equipment Active comes with, a leg strap and resistance band. The leg strap is secured around the right thigh, and has a pocket that you slip the Nunchuck controller into for some exercises, allowing Active to measure the movement of your leg. It took a bit of getting used to, but I was surprised how little the strap moved, even for the most dynamic exercises. The resistance band is a strong strip of rubber with handles on each end, which you use to provide resistance when doing muscle exercises. It's a simple but effective tool that makes all the difference.

Active lets you build your own workout, or you can let it build you a 30-day challenge, a set of routines which get more intense over the course of a month with a different focus for each day. The suggested schedule was simple: two days training, followed by one day of rest, although there seems to be no way to change the rest days to suit my own schedule, which is an annoying omission. The routines are very well structured, mixing cardio-vascular exercises with bursts of muscle work. The leg strap and resistance band allow an impressive range of exercises, from traditional moves like lunges, to target boxing and running, to inline skating (which is much harder than it sounds), and upper body muscle work like curls and shoulder presses. The Balance Board is used for some exercises but it isn't essential, and it's only used on some days, so no need to have it hanging around every day. At first I was disappointed with how few exercises use the balance board, but not being tied to it all the time allows you to move with much more freedom, and when it is used it's done well. I especially like that you don't have to calibrate it before every exercise, once of my pet hates in Wii Fit. If you find an exercise too hard (in my case side lunges), you can skip it, then exclude it from future routines.

While the short instruction videos for the exercises gave me brief breathers, I was constantly working throughout my 30 minute workouts, essential for any exercise aimed at losing weight. The constant variation, good feedback, and an ever-present display of calories burnt, really helps motivate. The calorie burn was impressive, between 200 and 260 in half an hour in my first few sessions. That compares well with the 600 calories I would burn in an hour at the gym, but more fun and convenient (not to mention cheaper). To lose a pound a week you need to burn 500 calories a day more than you consume, so 200-260 in a short workout is a big boost to any weight-loss routine.

EA Sports active is a thoughtfully designed system, with excellent production values throughout, making it the best exercise game on the market if you want to burn off those pounds, rather than stand like a flamingo. While there are a few minor niggles, it gets all the important things right to deliver real workouts that will make a genuine difference to your fitness, while motivating not boring you. My aching leg and shoulder muscles are a testament to that.

Paul

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Hi Paul;
I had checked out your review under EA Sports More Workouts before and you had replied that I had to have the leg band and that it was good to start with EA Sports. Well I just got it today. My leg band is a real pain, it slipped off several times during my 30 minute workout which took longer than 30 minutes because I watched most of the videos to get proper form. At first it wasn't registering my movements and I'm not sure what I did to fix that but it did start registering them. I am sore already. I plan to follow your advice and do 30 day challenge at low intensity. Then I might bump it up a notch or too and THEN get EA Sports More Workouts.

The leg band works best on bare skin or over really tight yoga type pants. If you put it over regular pants or sweatpants it either slides down or you have to put it so tight it rips. I sewed a small pocket to the front of my yoga pants and it holds the nunchuk now. It's much easier to get it in and out and no leg strap to bother with. There is a forum for EA Sports Active at http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/categories/show/146.page which is really good for finding out about the program and getting hints from long time users.