Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this game for myself after I bought an Xbox 360 Kinect for my son. I am a 47 year old male, and I lead an entirely sedentary lifestyle -- I sit in front of a computer all day at work, then come home and sit in front of a computer all evening doing Web programming and digital photography. I have always suffered from a sore back and often-sore muscles from my poor fitness. I am not exactly the type to go to a gym and be intimidated by all the muscle guys and muscle women, so I decided to get this game to try to get myself moving. I can say that Your Shape has been successful at getting me moving again. It's a lot of fun, and there's a large variety of exercises to choose from. I started with the exercies disguised as gym games, which for us sedentary types is a good and fun way to start moving again. I then ventured to the Personal Training mode, and started following a routine for cardio and toning. There are several things I like about Your Shape (besides being able to exercise in my own home). First, the games and exercises vary from very easy and good for beginners, to very advanced for people in good shape (most of which I haven't tried yet). Second, there is a wide variety of games and exercies to choose from at each level. Third, I like how it tracks your progress over time (by way of total calories burned, and by way of which levels you have passed and which levels you have unlocked by mastering easier levels). Fourth, it does a pretty good job of making sure you are doing the exercises correctly (or at least not horribly incorrectly) by virtue of the Kinect. And lastly, the graphics are pretty nice and clean. I gave it 4 stars overall instead of 5 for fairly minor issues. One, it's not as easy as I would like to get back to exactly where I stopped the last time I played. For example, I would like the ability for it to return directly to the exact point in my Personal Training session where I last left off. Also, I have noticed that a small fraction of the exercises fail to recognize when I am in synch with the trainer, even though I am as in synch as humanly possible. This makes me do more repetitions, because it won't count my out-of-synch reps as valid. Maybe that's a sneaky way to make me exercise more? Overall, I'm very happy with Your Shape, and can recommend it, at least for people like me with previously low levels of activity. It may be great for much more advanced fitness buffs too, but that I cannot attest to. I can tell you that after my daily 40 minute evening sessions, I definitely feel like I got some serious exercise, and my tired muscles the next morning are a constant (but good) reminder that my body is indeed getting a workout. By the way, a good addition to this game is a pair of 5-lb weights (or some spare water bottles), which give you a little more of a workout if you use them while playing some of the fitness routines and games. This tip came from the game itself, and I concur.