Joystiq hands-on: EA Sports Active

While Wii Fit never really felt like it could replace the gym experience entirely, EA Sports Active actually does feel like it offers an approximation -- and they did it simply by including a piece of rubber. Amazing, right? We took the new personal trainer for a spin yesterday, and while we don't know if this will give us a Charles Atlas body right away, it definitely felt like a substantial workout.

Go on, "break" a sweat in our review ... behind the break. Sadly, bad puns do not burn any calories whatsoever.
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Graphically, Sports Active isn't vastly different from Wii Fit, although you'll be using more realistic, customizable characters instead of Miis. What really sets it apart is the depth: it has a much more robust interface; deeper workout options; and lots of variety. One thing that EA Sports Active add to the workout is resistance, and that's where that rubber band comes in. Instead of having you go out and buy a set of weights to work out with, you'll use that band for arm curls, leg stretches, and plenty of other workouts in the program (EA balked whenever we called it a "game").

It's odd that a piece of rubber can make all the difference, but once you do a few workouts with it you'll see why. Instead of relying on your own body for resistance, which limits you to things like sit-ups and push-ups, the band offers a lot more variety with your workout and feels more like a gym-quality workout. We wonder how durable that band will be, especially since it's so thin. The EA rep we spoke to said that's something they're looking at, so we imagine they'll be offering new resistance bands at some point, possibly in different levels of resistance -- so you can step things down... or up, if you're Manny Ramirez. Of course, look for a billion third-party resistance bands to pop up in neon green as well.

The title has another leg-up (ugh ...) in its workout: you don't have to slip the Wiimote in your pocket to simulate different workouts. Instead, the game comes with a leg strap that acts as a nunchuck holster. (We're seriously hoping that some developer uses this as an option for quickdraws in a Western gun-fighting game.) Once you strap yourself up and house the nunchuck in its slot (there are videos that walk you through each step), you really don't notice it at all, and the program reads it a lot better than just holding the Wiimote in one hand and jogging, a la Wii Fit. We wore the strap over jeans, while the rep was in spandex pants, and it fit snugly on both.

During our brief workout, we did everything from jogging to punching to inline skating, where a deep squat and a full ground-clearing jump would launch you off different ramps on a downhill slope. We also did some arm curls with the resistance band and did a few more stationary workouts like lunges and knee bends. Even after only 15 minutes, you can feel the burn from each set, and the poor rep who'd been showing this off all afternoon said she felt like she'd been at the gym for a week.

We had to breeze through the menu screens, but there are tons of options for building your own custom workouts, and you can also opt in to the built-in 30 day challenge at any point. It'll keep track of all the different nuances of your workouts, and you can check the historic graphs to see how you've been doing. You'll even be able to track your nutrition and get tips for relieving stress, eating better, and keeping your exercise going. Sadly, there's no interface to track your workout online or pimp it out to Facebook or anything, but EA's "looking at it."

EA wasn't demoing the game with the Balance Board options, but this handy video will show you how it it interfaces with this title. One thing that bummed us out: you can't listen to custom tunes while working out, although EA pointed out that once you learn all the different workouts, you can slip on an iPod or something similar. We just wish it would support custom soundtracks via an SD card. We're hoping to try out the 30-day challenge when this thing launches on May 19th and track the progress here on the Stiq. If our heart doesn't explode first.