Product Description

More Workouts Wii

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 19409
• Published on: 2009-10-31
• Released on: 2009-11-17
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.30" h x 7.70" w x 9.30" l, .52 pounds

Features

• Enjoy extensive multiplayer support that allows you to workout with a buddy (additional EA Sports Active exercise accessories not included).
• EA Sports Active More Workouts keeps your EA Sports Active workout fresh with over 35 all new exercises and fitness activities.
• The 6 Week Challenge, a total body, structured fitness plan that accommodates both experienced 30 Day Challengers and new users of EA Sports Active.
• Compatibility with EA Sports Active Personal Trainer that allows you to transfer details like age, weight, name and gender from the old game, and recognize your previous workout information and goals.
• Get fitness and nutrition tips from professionals with the included Fitness Book. This book will help you keep going on your journey to better health with tips, tricks and advice on good nutrition and fitness.

Amazon.com Product Description

Keep going on your journey towards better health with EA Sports Active More Workouts, the next iteration from the EA Sports Active franchise, the proven fitness alternative for the Nintendo Wii. Stay motivated, with over 35 all new exercises and fitness activities that will challenge you and help you obtain results.* With all-new cool down/warm up stations, abdominal exercises and a 6 Week Challenge EA Sports Active More Workouts is a full body, complete workout experience and a great addition to the EA Sports Active family. More than 35 all new exercises. View larger. EA Sports Active Gameplay Designed around the standard Wii Remote/Nunchuck tethered controller configuration, EA Sports Active's interactive fitness program is more focused on physical activities than previous 'fitness' titles for the Wii, but still challenges you to have fun while developing a more healthy lifestyle. Separated into the three sections of workout, nutrition, lifestyle, and other activity, the user's experience begins with a pep talk from Bob Greene which quickly transitions into the beginnings of action as players set up profiles, choose a virtual personal trainer and enter baseline data like age, weight, gender, fitness goals, etc. Although the nutrition, lifestyle, and other activity sections add a holistic element facilitated by a mix of surveys and data input, building fitness through physical activity is the driving force behind EA Sports Active, and as such the meat of the content resides in the workout section. Here players will find dozens of themed strength training and cardio workouts which can be customized as you choose and linked into circuit training routines. These routines are introduced and monitored by your personal trainer, and allow for ongoing player motivation via real-time feedback on your workout form, an approximation of calories burned and the ability to adjust levels of exercise intensity. Key Game Features 35+ New Exercises - EA Sports Active More Workouts keeps your workout fresh with over 35 all new exercises and fitness activities. Warm Up and Cool Down Stations - 4 new exercises designed to warm up your body before a workout routine and 4 cool down exercises designed to stretch the muscles after a workout and help maintain flexibility. 6 Week Challenge - A total body, structured fitness plan that accommodates both experienced 30 Day Challengers and new users of EA Sports Active. It works out all major body parts, adapts to your level of fitness and lets you track your progress week by week. With the weekly check-in you can track your weight, calories and workouts and compare your progress to previous weeks. Compatibility with EA Sports Active Personal Trainer - Get rewarded for your progress with EA Sports Active Personal Trainer, More Workouts will transfer your details like age, weight, name and gender. It will also recognize your workout information from the previous 4 weeks with EA Sports Active Personal Trainer, so you get to keep your trophies and completed goals. Fitness Book - Get fitness and nutrition tips from professionals with the included Fitness Book. This book will help you keep going on your journey to better health with tips, tricks and advice on good nutrition and fitness. Multiplayer Support - Enjoy extensive multiplayer support that allows you to workout with a buddy (additional EA Sports Active exercise accessories not included). Screenshots: Challenging routines. View larger. Multiplayer fun. View larger. A structured fitness plan. View larger. Fitness and nutrition tips. View larger. * EA Sports Active leg strap and resistance band are not included on EA Sports Active More Workouts and are required for use. They are available on EA Sports Active Personal Trainer or EA Sports Active Accessory Pack.

Customer Reviews

Still the best balance of fitness and fun out there.
I admit, I was a little skeptical when I heard EA Sports was putting out a sequel to their original EA Sports Active so quickly. I've seen far too many companies enjoy success with a product and then rush out one substandard title after another in order to cash in.

I'm happy to say that EA Sports Active: More Workouts doesn't rest on the laurels of its predecessor, but adds an impressive amount of new and original exercises and fitness activities. They've also added new tools for managing your weight loss and fitness goals. Finally, they've added a well-thought-out 6-week workout program which rivals any program you'd pay much more money for at the gym.

You technically don't need the original EA Sports Active disc to play this game, although you do need the special accessories that came with it: the Leg Strap for the nunchuk and the Resistance Band. Neither are included in this game, so you'll either need to purchase the original or buy the accessories separately with the EA Sports Active Multiplayer Pack.

Unlike what Nintendo did with Wii Fit Plus, where they included both old and new features in the new version, EA Sports Active: More Workouts contains a new set of 30 exercises and 6 fitness activities which weren't in the original. I did like how they came up with a set of totally new and original exercises, but I'm not crazy about the fact that I can't integrate any of the old exercises in the new game. Luckily, for the most part the new exercises are an improvement, so I don't miss the old ones too much.

When you start up the disc for the first time, the system detects your old EA Sports Active profile data (if you have one) and instantly converts it. It'll also ask you to validate your vital statistics. One huge improvement is that now you can use the Wii Balance Board to check your weight. The Balance Board is still optional, but the new exercises make such good use of it I highly recommend it.

You can choose a male or female trainer (they're slightly less creepy than in the first version), and customize your on-screen character. I would have liked a little more control over what you look like: you're still limited to only a handful of body types, skin colors, and hair styles (but for some reason you now have 25 caps to choose from and 24 pairs of shoes)!

Once you get to the main menu it looks about the same as the original version, with the same catchy music which you can't get out of your head (do-do-dododo-do-do-do). The most obvious difference is that instead of a 30-day challenge, you now have the option to take a 6 week challenge.

The new 6 week challenge is a vast improvement over the 30-day challenge. The length is a much more realistic one for weight loss, the workouts are much better designed to focus on different muscle groups more intensively throughout the workout, and you can choose from easy, medium, and hard levels (where hard really does mean hard). One other major improvement over the 30-day challenge is the ability to choose the days of the week to work out, rather than being forced into every other day. For me, I chose Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, mainly because I'm too busy during the week to take more than two weekdays.

Another improvement is the Journal. This is where you can keep a virtual diary of your overall diet and exercise progress. You'll also be able to take daily surveys which ask you questions such as "how many glasses of water did you consume yesterday" and "how many restaurant/fast food meals did you eat". Like a personal trainer, the Wii will give you advice based on your answers (although I would have preferred to see the trainer change your actual workout based on what you say). There's also a place in the journal where you can enter other physical activity you did outside of EA Sports Active More Workouts, letting you choose from a wide range of activities from walking to dancing to yoga.

The reporting tools are also more impressive than in its predecessor. You can look up a weekly fitness tracker that shows calories burned, a chart of your weight, and the number of workouts, total exercise time, and number of miles covered in your EA Sports Active workout.

EA Sports Active More Workouts has lots of new exercises. The 30 new exercises are improved over the original version and work out every part of you, from lower body to upper body. One other nice addition is a warm-up and cool-down period, just like a real training program. While I was never a huge fan of the "resistance band" (I thought it was a bit too flimsy for a Wii accessory), they did think of new and creative ways to use it. For example, to do "one-arm rows", you're instructed to fold the band in half and step on the band in a way that you really do get great resistance on your biceps. As before, you get comprehensive video demonstrations for each exercise.

The highlight of the title has to be the new fitness activities. As with its predecessor, EA Sports Active More Workouts has some great fitness activities: water skiing, paddle surfing, cardio boxing, step aerobics, squash, and an obstacle course. As with the fitness activities of the original, these are not so much accurate simulations of sports activities as they are clever ways to get you to mimic exercise movements (like squatting and lunges) in repetition without getting bored. While it's tedious to go through countless reps of squats and arm movements; on the other hand, it's a blast to be doing it playing a fast-paced game of virtual squash (and quite a workout).

The controls are spot-on. Unlike games like The Biggest Loser and Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010, which passively "check" to see if you're making the right movements (and not always accurately), EA Sports Active's on-screen character will actively reflect your exact movements as they're making them. Every now and then the controls do get frustrating (not registering something when you know you've done it), but not too much to ruin the experience.

The game, of course, takes place on an island. Seems to be the trend these days, and I admit it's nice to feel like you're "getting away" for a workout. Another nice improvement is that you have the option to work side-by-side with someone else (you'll need two Wii remotes, nunchuks, resistance bands, and leg straps), and you can see both of you on split screen.

The game also comes with a small book of excerpts from Bob Greene's The Best Life Diet and The Best Life Diet Cookbook. The cynical among us may think it's more of a marketing gimmick to sell Bob Greene's books, but I admit there was enough substance in there to be useful to me as far as motivating me and giving me a couple good recipes to try. And I thank EA Sports for giving this to us in book form rather than on-screen like The Biggest Loser.

All in all, I was impressed with EA Sports Active: More Workouts being an improvement over the first version. Admittedly, Wii Fit Plus is more "fun", has better graphics, and has better responsiveness. But with EA Sports Active, the workout regimen itself is a tougher one which really gets you working out. As of right now, it does the best job of any Wii Exercise Game to balance fun and fitness.

Not Disappointed
I have the original EA Sports Active and have completed five 30 day challenges on the hard level. About two weeks ago, I started to become bored (probably because a new one was coming) and started looking for something, but I am glad I waited until I got this game.

I haven't tried the hard level (because a previous reviewer scared me), but the medium level kicks my behind, which convinces me that the hard level would be too hard for me right now. I have completed two workouts and feel it; it's going to be a long 6 weeks. I saw results from the original game in about month (probably because I refuse to change my nasty eating habits) and think I will be seeing results that fast if not faster.

The new exercises are fun, but I gave it 3 stars for fun because those core exercises, while much appreciated, suck. Ouch! I really enjoyed the obstacle course and the skipping and stride jumps really got me sweating. Squash (beginner) took a bit to get, but it is fun once you figure out what you need to do. The water skiing is annoying me because I can't get it, but I'm sure I will in time (I hope...). If anyone has any tips for the water skiing, please share. As someone else noted, the exercises from the original game are not included, but those nasty shoulder presses seemed to find their way into this new game. Another ouch!

Like the original, this game is a good investment in your health and figure. I would highly recommend this game to anyone.

The best just got better
I have accumulated several Wii Exercise games over the past couple of years. Out of the ones I had tried (i.e., Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, The Biggest Loser and EA Sports Active Personal Trainer), the EA game seemed to have the best motion recognition to give a good on-screen feedback, and the best regimen of exercises that actually raised my Fitness level visibly within a couple of weeks. It was the only game among the group I have that felt motivated to keep coming back to. The only problem with it was the heavy emphasis on the lower body exercises. It was very disappointing to hear the trainer say, we will focus on upper body today, only to be hit with a ton of crunches, squats, and jumps during the workout. There was also no specifically core muscle focused exercises in that game at all. After a few weeks, I did get a bit tired and slacked off of it, and tried those other games. But the lack of proper motion feedback made the workouts in the others very boring to me (like watching a DVD and trying to keep up). Well EA is back with their new game, and after two short days, I am glad to be back under the fold of their regimen. This game has seemingly addressed all the main gripes I had with their routine. We now get a six week challenge which actually lets you pick the days of the week you will always work on by default (four out of seven days are for workout and three are for resting). The workouts I've done so far also seem more varied, with my legs, arms, and middle section all getting worked on, but not abused. There also seem to be less of the long drawn out track runs, and more of the sporting activities. The graphics are about the same, and controls are good, not perfect, but good enough. The only thing I wish they had added was a random workout generator, where you placed a general set of goals (like say a 30 minute, 200 cal., whole body workout), and not get the same canned routine each time. The custom workout creator is fine, but it only generates your own fixed routines with no randomness. They also added real warm up stretches and cool downs, and not some hilarious interpretations of them like last time (run around the track three times and walk ten steps was their idea of a cool down before). The workouts also have gone down just a notch in intensity (which may be a result of their moving away from stressing your legs so much). I uses to struggle to complete some of the older routines on hard, but now seem to be doing OK through most of the ones I've seen. Overall, this seems to be a more sustainable pace, and in the long run that is a better approach. If you can only buy one workout game for the Wii, make it this one.