Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise – Review
Ever since the Wii came out way back in 2006, there has been an influx on home fitness games, with or without gadgets. The motion controllers allowed the game to pick up movements, and link them to certain required motions, making it feel like you were actually working out in a gym with a personal trainer. Sony picked up these games as well with its Move controllers, and Microsoft with its nearly forgotten Kinect camera. Nonetheless, these games were considered a niche, often actually serving as a doorway to gaming for the female populace. Now, Nintendo is publishing Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise, which is developed by Imagineer. With a towel and a bottle of water nearby, we get into our best fighting stance with flashy Joy-Cons in hand.
Story
If you’re looking for a story in which you rise to the top as a fitness prodigy in this game, you’ll be sorely disappointed. This game’s sole purpose is pretty much whipping you (back) into shape for whatever reason you want to get fit for. There is no narrative, but you can pick out of nine different trainers to help you on your journey of achieving your goals.
Graphics
Graphically the game is not that impressive, but during exercises, you won’t have the time to enjoy the scenery anyway. The game will present you with a few PS2-PS3 quality modeled trainers who will escort you on your journey to getting fitter. The cast is quite diverse and every character is quite appealing to look at, while also having different unlockable clothing options. The backdrops can go from very simple things to somewhat flashy abstract messes to get the blood flowing. The UI is simple and clear, and that might just be the most important aspect of the game’s visuals.
Sound
The sound design is fairly okay having nine fully voiced trainers. Sure, their lines may repeat a lot, but not more often than during an actual fitness class. The music in the background is quite decent, with some original tunes for the game, as well as bastardized versions of hits from the last few decades. It’s quite satisfying punching holes into thin air with Girls Just Want to Have Fun blaring through your speakers.
Gameplay
Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise is, as the name implies, a sports game in which you do some fitness and well, boxing. You’ll always have to perform different punches at different prompts, while picking suitable background music, with the occasional warm-up or cool-down in-between. The game eases you in the different exercises by having a tutorial for every different punch or movement ready.
The problem with Fitness Boxing 2 becomes apparent immediately and that is that, just like with every other motion-controlled game, the controls are very unreliable. The game registers most moves, but sometimes it doesn’t, even if you do absolutely nothing wrong. The controllers will also make no clear difference between certain motions, so it’s possible you can clear a training stage by just doing jabs for basically every type of punch, if you time them right, sometimes giving you a higher score than players who are actually trying to go with the requested motions. Of course, you’re only cheating yourself when playing in such a fashion, but even so, the issues are still present in the game.
Nonetheless, obvious control issues aside, the game does have a lot of unlockable content, which will certainly drive players forward. You can pick and choose between nine different trainers, who you can slightly customize appearance-wise, but also in terms of clothing. Of course, for many items you’ll need tickets, which you’ll earn by training with different trainers, achieving higher scores, or even just start messing with their wardrobes. Imagineer did a good job in creating an extra incentive outside of the obvious motivation to get fit(ter).
Conclusion
Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise isn’t perfect, but it’s actually a fairly fun experience, even if it depends on you not cheating at how you throw your punches in real life. While motion controls can always be a bit whimsical, the game works decently and there’s a fair amount of content to unlock when you keep pressing on. While games like this will never replace a balanced diet and other workout routines, this game might just set you on your way to much bigger things.
Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise - Review,
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