Can Fitness Games Really Make You Fit? Part 6

by Nicole Tanner

Another week and another pound lost! This past week was extra enjoyable for me because it was more about playing games than expressly getting in shape. I played through a couple of games with which the main selling point is not fitness, but rather to do something fun that also has the getting-into-shape benefit. The results were not entirely unexpected on my part, but the simple fact is that you can get more and better exercise playing these games than some of the games with “Fit” in the title.

Let’s start with Dance Dance Revolution, also called DDR. There are about a gazillion versions of this game and they’re all a little bit different in terms of music offerings, options, and modes available, but the gameplay is always pretty much the same. If you’ve never seen this game, this is how it works. You place a dance mat controller on your floor to “dance” on with the music in the game. There are four directional arrows on the mat, and you have to step on these arrows when the corresponding arrow reaches the top of the game screen.

I’ve played three versions of the game: Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 for the Xbox 360, Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2, also for 360, and Dance Dance Revolution Max 2 for the PlayStation 2. If I had to pick one of these to recommend from a fitness perspective, it would be DDRMax 2 for the Play Station 2, because it has a robust workout mode that allows you to dance non-stop to a series of songs that you pick. Unfortunately, the 360 version of the game scaled down this mode in favor of other modes, so it’s not as easy to play non-stop without the need to select songs or wait for them to load.

But even with that said, DDR is great because it gets you moving without thinking about it. If you’re someone who gets easily bored with traditional forms of exercise, DDR might be the right solution for you. You won’t get strength training, but you will be able to get your heart rate up. The other great thing about this game is that it’s not platform specific. With the exception of the PlayStation 3, there have been DDR games released for every home console, and we expect to see more.

Now on to another game that’s not precisely fitness specific: Wii Sports Tennis. Just like playing real tennis, you can get a workout from this game without really thinking about it. Perhaps its greatest selling point is that it’s absolutely free, coming bundled with every Wii console that’s sold. That’s pretty hard to beat. If you don’t have a Wii or haven’t played the tennis portion of Wii Sports, it’s pretty straight forward. You use the Wii mote as your “racket” and swing it back and forth to hit the ball.

The important thing to note about both DDR and Wii Sports Tennis is that you’re only going to get out of these games what you put into them. Their goal is to be fun, and they're not necessarily designed specifically for excercise. That being said, they’re not going to tell you how long you’ve been playing or whether you’re working hard enough to get any benefits. In other words you’re not going to gain anything from just standing and swinging your arm to play tennis or by playing a couple of songs in DDR on the easiest difficulty. But if you really get into them, by moving back and forth with the ball and really swinging your arm like you would in the real game of tennis, or playing DDR on a decent difficulty for 30 to 40 minutes, then you should find your heart rate climbing.

On the flip side, you’re also not going to be told if you’re working too hard, so you need to be careful. If you’ve had any type of leg, knee, ankle, or foot injury, DDR may not be the best thing for you. Likewise, shoulder or elbow injuries might be exacerbated by playing a lot of Wii Tennis. You have to use common sense.

Overall, the best thing about both of these games is that they give you exercise that’s actually fun, and if something’s fun, you’re more likely to keep doing it.

DDR Bottom Line: Recommended
Available for nearly every console and super fun to play, DDR can give you a great cardio workout if played for an extended period of time on a decent difficulty level.

Wii Sports Tennis Bottom Line: Recommended
Capable of giving you all of the benefits of real tennis, but in the comfort of the living room.

I’ve come to the end of my fitness journey, at least for now. Be sure to check out the recap article next week for consolidated information on all of the games I put to the test, as well as my final thoughts on the entire fitness game genre.

If you want to read more about Nicole's take on the fitness genre, find the previous parts of her feature here:
Introduction to the Fitness Series
Getting down and dirty with DS games
Is Wii Fit all it's cracked up to be?
Fitness celebrities don’t make a game good
A personal trainer you can really deal with