Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've only had the game for 1 day but I spent quite a bit of time playing with it and I also have the Active 1 game. The quirkiness of Active 1 where you have to point or orient the remote and nunchuck ever so precisely to get the game to register your movements has been eliminated as the remote is rarely used and the nunchuck is completely gone. I am a little disappointed that of the 3 versions of this game (Wii, PS3, and XBOX) the Wii version is the only one that isn't completely hands free because there are times you must hold on to the Wii remote. In fact when I saw the packaging with the picture on the box showing the woman doing arm exercises still holding on to the remote I was a little mad because that was one of my biggest gripes with Active 1. However it's not that bad and I'll explain further. Here are the best improvements to the game from Active 1. 1. The leg strap - the Active 1 leg strap is awful and breaks after a short time using it. Plus you are constantly retightening it as it continues to slip down your leg. However with Active 2 all of the straps are an elastic fabric with loop on one side and rubber gel lines on the back to grip. I did a very hard workout last night involving lots of sprinting and I didn't have to adjust the leg strap (or any of the straps) once. They stayed in place and because it isn't lycra covered neoprene I think it will last a long time. 2. Hands Free Exercises - I'm not sure if all the arm exercises are hands free but all the ones I tried were in fact hands free where you do not have to hold the Wii remote. This is fantastic because with Active 1 I couldn't use a resistance band with nice foam grips and the nylon handles that it came with hurt my hands. Now I don't have this problem. Plus now I can use hand weights when I want to. You may be wondering how it registers movement on the arm without a sensor but they changed the arm exercises slightly from Active 1. Now the arm exercises have you move both arms at the same time (both arms do the tricep kickbacks, bicep curls, etc) rather than one arm at a time and the game just assumes you are moving the arm without the sensor. I also love that now you don't have to waste time putting the nunchuck in the leg strap and then taking it out for a different exercise as you do in Active 1. The game moves much better because you don't have to do those things anymore. 3. The Heart Rate Monitor - I like the addition of the heart rate monitor. It is nice to see how hard you are working. Supposedly as you continue to workout it will track how well your hear rate recovers which would be cool to know. I think it probably results in more accurate calorie calculation as well. 4. The game is MORE like a game - Active 1 is nice because it was like having a personal trainer at home. However you will work harder with Active 2 and have more fun. It has a mountainboarding exercise where you have to jump from one leading foot to the other and has points you can get on each side. You also have to squat and jump and then run up hills. In addition it has a Fitness Trail - Sprint Outrun exercise where you have to actually catch up to and outrun 6 runners on the trail. The thing is that when the other runner sees you getting closer they start running harder so they are hard to pass. This got my heartrate up to 185 bpm trying to pass the other runners. It definitely pushes you harder. I am disappointed that additional motion sensors aren't sold at the release of the game because I would like to race my husband on some of these games and will be buying the extra sensors as soon as they become available. 5. The Wii Balance Board can be used to weigh yourself. However don't feel the need to get the Wii balance board if you don't have it because every exercise that uses the Wii balance board also has the same exercise which doesn't use the Wii balance board. In fact I probably won't use the balance board much with Active 2 because there is a flaw in the game concerning its use which is irritating to me. I'll list the flaw in the diappointments below. 6. Custom Workouts - There are 13 Upper Body, 22 Lower Body, 11 Full Body, 12 Cardio, 26 Fitness exercises (including boxing, step aerobics, mountainbiking/boarding, dance, & kickboxing), 6 Core, 15 Basketball, 15 Soccer, 8 Warm Up, and 8 Cool Down exercises to choose from. Most are between 1 and 2 minutes long with some like the Step Aerobics actually lasting 10 minutes. You can create a custom workout with a combination of any of the these exercises to make longer or shorter workouts as needed. 7. Online Community - With Active 2 you can join online workout groups which hopefully will help you stay motivated. I joined one and time will tell if it really helps me but it can't hurt and it's nice to see there are other people like you trying to get fit. Here are my disappointments 1. I wish the game were completely hands free. I feel like the PS3 and Xbox versions are better than the Wii because they are truely hands free. I have read some reviews on the Xbox though and it seems the Kinect is not all worked out yet so maybe just the PS3 version is better. I haven't had a chance to do all the exercises but I won't be surprised if I don't run across an arm exercise that requires the remote be held since the packaging show a woman doing this. I just don't understand why the PS3 version comes with 2 arm sensors and the Wii version doesn't. In addition the PS3 and Xbox versions will be able to download new workouts in the future but the Wii version won't be able to. If I had both the PS3 and Wii game consoles then I would have bought the PS3 version of the game. 2. I wish the extra motion sensors were available now as it would be fun to play with another family member. Sure they could do it with you but you'll push yourself more if you can race them. EA has stated they will sell additional leg/arm sensors but hasn't given a date as to when yet. 3. I wish the workouts on the 9 week challenge would allow you to choose how long you want to workout. All of the workouts are around 30 minutes long. I would love to have the option of doing a 1 hour workout. I can achieve this with the custom workouts but it would be nice in the challenges too. The game will also formulate a workout for you based on what you want to workout but again it will only make a workout that is up to 30 minutes long. 4. The resistance band that comes with it is still cheap. Go buy the resistance tubes with nice handles for $10 - $15. 5. Active 2 has an annoying flaw concerning the Wii remote and balance board. First the Wii remote is not needed for much of any given workout but the game is constantly looking for its presence. Therefore when you don't use it for about 3 min or so the remote shuts off to preserve batteries. As soon as it does the game is interrupted until you can push a button on the remote and turn it back on. I have resorted to pushing the A button on the remote in between each exercise just to make sure the remote doesn't turn off. The same thing goes for the balance board. The workout may only use the balance board for one exercise at the beginning of the workout but the game will keep looking for its presence throughout. When the balance board shuts off the game stops until you turn it on again regardless of whether the balance board is being used. Leaving it on for an hour during a workout just to actually use it only 2 or 3 minutes is a waste of batteries. All in all though this is a fantastic fitness game. I workout with a trainer too that does much of the same things throughout his class. He is impressed with the game and will be helping me choose which exercises to do so I can make some great custom workouts. If you don't lose weight and get fit with this then it's because you eat too much and don't actually play the game very often.