Welcome to Test Tube. Not to be confused with our full reviews, these ‘two hour test’ articles see us tackle remakes, ports, party games and other titles of interest.
Sony has entered the lucrative fitness genre a little too late to make any kind of impact with Move Fitness. Utilising the Move controller and PlayStation Eye to track your goals will send you to boiling point with constant recalibration of the controls. It is also important to note that you have to have two Move controllers to play this game.
Fitness games are meant to entertain you as you work up a sweat. This title is so clunky and confusing, it does neither and the only sweating comes from sheer frustration. Other fitness games take you through 10-15 minutes of stretches before allowing you to do the full work out. In this game it is entirely optional and you can skip the whole thing if you want to. This is extremely bad for you if you’ve never exercised before, encouraging you to get straight into the workout without preparing your body.
There are a few options you can choose from. You can do a pre-made workout ranging from cardio, fat burning, light workout, full body workout and boxing, or you can design your own custom program. You’ll want to go with this option as the preset workouts have you doing the same three or four activity types over and over again. If you add this in to the aggravation of constant recalibration, it makes for a very irritating gaming experience.
One of the few good features of the game is that you can work out to your own music through the PlayStation Music feature on your PS3. So while you are recalibrating your controller and camera for the 50th time, at least you can do it to the music of your liking. Rihanna’s SOS (“please someone helped me”) really came in at the right time playing this game.
During the workouts there is a trainer to show you what to do, not in time with your movements, mind you, but on an annoying loop, chiming in whenever you stop or the sensors don’t pick up that you have actually done something. A calorie and score counter are there for motivation as well as a heart rate monitor and countdown timer, all of which attempt to track your progress.
After a couple of hours of play, it becomes obvious that this belated entry into the fitness genre is too little, too late. The clunky controls, lack of activities and (de)motivating trackers make this a half-hearted effort. Do yourself a favour and go for a jog around the block three times, do some sit-ups and save your money for another game.
