Zumba: Rush

Even though I had major issues with Zumba: Fitness I decided to download the demo of Zumba: Rush for Xbox Kinect.  I surprised myself by not hating it!  It seems like Majesco Entertainment really took what people had to say about Zumba: Fitness to heart and fixed some of the major issues with the interface.

What I Liked:

In Zumba: Fitness, I couldn't distinguish my instructor's body parts. This made it extremely difficult and supremely frustrating while I was try to learn the dances.  When the character was doing a more intricate move, I was not able to tell precisely what the legs were doing, because it was one big, orange blob.  In Zumba: Rush, they took a page from the Dance Central game book and went with instructors that look like real people.

I get a calorie scorching workout!  I can tell my heart rate is up, because I'm sweating like...something that sweats a lot.  When I work out, I'm hard pressed to break a sweat, even in the dead of summer.  It's just nice to know that they $50 I spent on a silly fitness game was actually money well spent.

Repetition.  Many of the dances incorporate some of the same moves.  They may not be in the same combinations, but at least you can identify a move and say, "Oh, hey!  I've done that one before!"

It's fun!  Even if I'm not doing so well on a dance, I'm still having fun.  I laugh at myself all the time, because I know how ridiculous I must look flinging my arms and legs about like a flailing thing.

What I don't like:

I only have two problems with Zumba: Rush.  The first is that the tutorial is lacking.  It has a set of four tutorials, each with four basic moves.  If you have ever done Zumba, you know that there is no Zumba dance in existence that contains only four moves.  The four moves they give you are very basic, so when you get to a full song, you are completely unprepared for some of the off the wall moves they throw at you.  If I did not have 16+ years of dance training, it would have been daunting.  That's not say that the tutorial has not improved at all from Zumba: Fitness.  In Fitness, even with my dance background, I wanted to throw my sneaker at the television.  I knew very well that I was not performing the moves the way the AI was, but she kept telling me what a great job I was doing.  It drove me batty.  At least in Rush, they give you a rating of Nice, Hot! or ZUMBA depending on how well you are performing the moves.

The second problem is that there is no preparation before they launch you right into a song.  During the song, a graphic pops up to notify you when they are changing from one combination of moves to the next.  It would be very helpful if there was a graphic at the very beginning to tell you which move you were starting with.  It gives the feeling that you are always fighting to catch up.

All in all, Zumba: Rush is a huge improvement over its predecessor.  I am in love with it, and I burn far more calories in a 20 - 30 minute session than I would with Dance Central.  Don't get me wrong, I still love Dance Central, but where it is a dance game, Zumba: Rush is a fitness program disguised as a dance game.  I don't think I've sweat so much at one time.  Ever.  And that tells me that I'm getting a decent workout.  

   

Your Shape 2012: Out of Shape...

I hate going to the gym.  I feel awkward working on an eliptical machine next to another person and not talking to them.  Working out from home is also preferable, because when I screw up, no one is around to snicker and point.  This is one of the reasons I adore JARVIS (my Kinect).  The Kinect fitness games have the ability to read your body's movements and tell you what you are doing wrong vs a video where you could be doing the entire routine incorrectly and you would never know because you can't see yourself performing the moves.

In my quest for the perfect at home fitness routine, I exchanged Zumba Fitness for Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012, hoping it would be a better fit.  It was.  The first night was a challenge, because I had to figure out how everything worked.  The Roommate got a kick out of it and has already threatened to record one of my workouts for YouTube.  Why?  Because I have taken to bickering and arguing with my "personal trainer" while huffing and puffing through my strength training interval workouts..  I'm sorry but when you say, "Let's do such and such,"  I am automatically going to hate you a little bit because you aren't doing a darned thing.  I'm the one doing all the work, so you can cut that "we" crap right out.

As much as I bellyache about the trainer, it is nice to have her there coaching me on.  She tells me when my arms aren't doing what they're supposed to and when my legs should be closer or further apart.  She also tells me when I've gone out of rhythm with my "coach."

Things I have discovered about myself while playing Your Shape:  1.)  I am more out of shape than I previously thought  2.)  My "personal trainer" is trying to kill me.  3.)  I hate interval workouts!  Don't get me wrong.  I will keep doing them, but I feel myself die a little more with every circuit. 4.)  Push ups and fast mountain climb are the devil.  I can do 12 once, but when I'm doing an interval workout and get to the second set, I need a break in the middle.  I'm sure I've made more discoveries as I've gone along, but those are the ones that stand out the most. 

As much as I pretend to hate the Your Shape, there are really only two problems I've found with it so far:  1.) There doesn't seem to be a tutorial where you can get the moves down before you have to perform them in an actual workout.  2.) The game isn't geared towards midget people who want to get in shape.  One of the warm up activities is called "Wall Breaker."  I love this!  It's exactly what it sounds like.  You break blocks to burn calories and earn points.  On the medium setting, however, it want you to break the lower blocks by raising your knee across your body at a 45 degree angle.  At 4'10", the game doesn't read my knee raises.  This is easily corrected by just kicking out with my foot much like an Oompa Loompa or a member of the Lollipop Guild, but I feel I am missing out on what could be a decent workout for my oblique muscles.  That is somewhat disappointing, but all of the other features make up for it.

My schedule has been insane this week, so I haven't been able to explore Your Fitness nearly as much as I would have liked, but that is the plan for this weekend.  I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with JARVIS. 

Dancing Queen

I bought myself a Christmas present this year.  It was Xbox Kinect.  I honestly don't know how I ever lived without it.  1.) It makes me feel like Tony Stark 2.) Kinect games are the most fun games on the planet!!!

     

The first order of business after purchasing my Kinect (which I have since named JARVIS) was to pop in to GameStop for a couple of games.  I have always wanted to try a Zumba class, so I picked up a pre-owned copy of the game and a copy of Dance Central.

     

I got home and popped in Zumba Fitness, thinking I was going to have fun bopping and shimmying my way to an effective cardio workout.  Unfortunately, I didn't make it past the tutorials, because I realized the game wasn't reading my body movement at all.  The chick in the tutorial kept telling me "Great arms!" and "Great legs!" but in some cases, I was just flailing around trying to keep up with the faster portions.  This is a problem for me, because if I am going to dance, I want to be able to perform the steps correctly.  

     

If the tutorial had a way to slow the faster combinations down, it might have helped; however, the steps started out slowly (Great!  Perfect!), but when they sped the tempo up, the steps changed completely.  I want to know what step I'm going to be doing during the game.  Show me that slowly and we're good, but don't add a ball-change and extra steps and call it the same thing.  

     

 Another thing I didn't like was the graphics.  They're very generic, almost non-descript.  When you are trying to copy an instructor's dance moves in a game that scores you on how well you are performing the moves, it helps if you can distinguish body parts!

     

While writing this entry, I thought that perhaps I was just being hyper critical.  I got curious and checked out the review for Zumba Fitness at 123kinect.com.  They had about the same things to say about the tutorial mode that I do.  After reading this, I thought perhaps I would give it another try and just jump straight into the Zumba Party portion of the game, and just pick things up as I went.  However, the review went on to say, "Zumba Party is very intimidating because it's a very long session and it quickly jumps from one routine to another with somewhat abrupt transitions.  If you don't know the steps, it can quickly become frustrating and makes it feel like you're flailing."  This would drive me batty!  

     

If Zumba Fitness would revamp their shoddy graphics and give their tutorial section a makeover, I would try it again.  As it stands, however, I won't be Zumba will not be a part of my cardio routine. You can read the full review for Zumba Fitness here.

After being so thoroughly disappointed by Zumba Fitness, I looked to Dance Central to fill the blanks on my dance card.  I was not disappointed.  Everything Zumba lacked, Dance Central had in spades.  The tutorials rocked my socks!  Not only do they break the steps down, they also have a feature that allows you to slow the movement down until you have mastered it and then you can speed it back up and continue the tutorial.

The graphics for the game are fantastic.  I haven't found it difficult to replicate the moves at all.

I like that there is a Fitness section that puts together song based on the type of workout you are looking for.  My favorite part of the Fitness section is that is calculates the number of calories you burn while you're dancing.  For someone with a nature as competitive as mine, this keeps me going and gives me a sense of accomplishment even when I don't make it to that fifth star--which I am proud to say is not that often!

On the downside of the Fitness portion, it is not continuous play.  There is a pause after every song that evaluates your performance.  I could do without that bit, but beggars can't be choosers, yeah?

The best part about Dance Central is that I get a dance class in my living room, and I don't have to deal with other people unless I invite them over to play!  I can start up the game when I want to and stop when I want to and there was only a one-time cost.  Beats the hell out of any recreational dance class I've ever had ;)