To be honest, EA Sports' venture into the fitness genre can't exactly be called a game. What it is, is an interactive and fun indoor alternative to exercising.

Popularised by the inimitable Wii Fit, the interactive fitness genre to date hasn't really managed to break players into a sweat. 'Active', however, manages to provide you with a complete workout routine that targets upper and lower body as well as cardio, delivered in a format that makes it both easy and fun.

This will appeal to a large audience: from anyone looking for physical activity without any fuss, to those who don't have the means to take part in physical activities, or those who don't have the time or to go to a gym.

Central to its appeal is that exercising with it requires very little motivation, thus negating the need to join a gym and/or hire an expensive personal trainer. Instead the 'game' is very supportive of the player's progress - you'll actually find yourself driven to improve with every session.

With 25 different exercises and a multitude of training sessions, 'EA Sports Active' will keep you breaking out in sweat for a good long time too. You can even create your own training sessions.

'Active' will track your progress through a virtual journal. Not only is your workout performance rated here, but you also have to complete a nutritional survey, with questions pertaining to such things as how much water you drank and how many vegetables you consume.

You will also receive trainer feedback about your performance, and the option to set goals such as how many calories you'd like to burn and the amount of hours' worth of exercise achieved in a set period.

The core of this game, however, has to be the 30-day challenge. It's a means to keep the player motivated with a variety of different exercises over a 30 day period. The workouts gradually increase in intensity as your fitness improves.

'Active's' approach is somewhat different to Wii fit in that it focuses on the amount of calories burned, instead of on the BMI. Before every workout you will be shown a graph with a projection of how many calories will be burned. After your workout, the graph will show you how you performed against this baseline.

Not being a true game, graphical prowess don't really factor into the equation here. The interface is functional and easy to understand and the backdrops are simplistic and clean. Occasionally you'll be faced with a rather cheesy setting, such as on a farm.

'EA Sports Active' offers the option to use the Wii balance board - certain games and activities, such as kick boxing and inline skating, enhance the experience and accuracy, but it remains optional.

As fun as 'Active' is to use, the accessories will get in the way at times. Although great in theory, the leg holster had an annoying tendency to slip down, i.e. during a running session you will often land up pausing the game to adjust the strap. Binding it tighter to your leg is not really an option because you'll just land up cutting off your circulation. Some more thought should have gone into this item.

The tension belt is also made from a very simple elastic material. Lifespan can definitely become an issue here as it's quite fathomable that it will break sooner than you'd like.

Placing the nunchuck in the leg holster can also be rather annoying - one often ends up putting the nunchuck in facing outwards when it should be inwards, which will ruin your exercise as the calibration will be off.

Furthermore, the option to restart an exercise is sadly lacking. It would have been very useful to be able to restart when you're halfway through and realise things aren't going as well as you'd like, even with the best of efforts.

Glaringly frustrating is the slow response time of the controls that pop up at times. The problem seems to raise its nasty head whenever jumping is required, such as when you're required to jump over ramps during inline skating exercises.

'Active' allows you to work out with a friend, although to do so you will need a second set of tension and leg straps, which can be bought as an accessory. The Wii balance board is not supported in two-player mode though and for the 30 day challenge it is not possible for two people to partake at the same time.

If you're looking for a good, balanced exercise game on the Wii that will see you break out in a sweat while keeping you interested, then 'EA Sports Active' will certainly not disappoint.

8.5/10

Buy this game: Wii

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