Making the rounds this morning is the announcement of “EA Sports Active,” a new fitness game/piece-of-software from EA shipping for the Wii next spring. The game trades in “Wii Fit“’s requirement of the balance board peripheral for mandatory use of a bundled “leg strap,” a strap that wraps around one’s upper thigh with a Wii nunchuck in its pouch, for tracking lower body movement.
EA is pushing that this game (product?) will give gamers a 30-day fitness goal, chopped into customized 20-minute workouts, differentiating it from “Wii Fit,” which forces the player to make their own workout routine. EA is also promoting that the game has more of a heart-rate-pumping western approach to exercise, a differentiation from the yoga, push-ups and light jogging offerings of “Wii Fit.”
But the hot-selling “Wii Fit” was really charming. Does “EA Sports Active” need to be charming? Does it need a cute balance board and some Mii support rather than the endorsement of fitness guru Bob Greene? We shall see.
More screenshots of the new peripheral in action and a fact-sheet info-dump below.
And from the official EA fact sheet…
Key Features
• Active Fitness Made Fun & Easy— 20 minute circuits feature variety and familiar activities that target upper body, lower body as well as cardio. Start off with a run, followed by bicep curls and get your heart beating with some cardio boxing. Get fit and have fun in minutes a day!
• Benefit of a Trainer in a Box—Your trainer will be the focal point of the experience guiding you towards your own version of personal achievement. Feedback will be given throughout your workout, keeping you on track to reach your fitness goals.
• 30 Day Challenge—The game will track your progress as you embark on a 30 Day Challenge and tailor 20 minute workouts to your level of fitness. Circuits will change as you progress each day, and EA SPORTS Active will track calories, intensity and progress throughout your journey.
• New Way to Play— Slip the Nunchuk into the specially designed leg strap and hold the Wii Remote in your hand to track your movements from both your upper and lower body. A resistance band is also included to increase the intensity of exercises such as bicep curls and shoulder presses.
• Get Fit with Friends and Family—Two players can work out together while having their individual calories and workout scores tracked. Using split screens, you both can complete your own customized workout and do them together.
• Workout Your Way— Circuits can be customized to your interest and fitness level. Choose your duration, intensity level & set your own goals for calories burned and workout score.
• Wii Balance Board Compatibility—Get more out of your EA SPORTS Active workout using a Wii Balance Board with added functionality and physical benefits for many of exercises.
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
