Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer Review
Summary: Another improvement on a solid franchise.
4
Punching Up
The fitness boxing games are pretty simple rhythm workout tools. It gets you doing a workout every day, learning new boxing skills, enjoying the physical challenge, and unlocking some new songs and outfits for your e-trainer too. They’re good exercise and do a good job of incentivising you to workout. They make for an easy way to workout at home and the haptic feedback on each punch makes it fun and satisfying. If that sounds like something you’ll like, you probably will. It is an easy franchise to recommend because it does what it says on the box, and each new installment is a little better than the last.
In terms of instalments, Fitness Boxing 3 isn’t so different from 2, but the designers (Imagineer) aren’t just cashing in on a yearly installment like Call Of Duty does. They updated Fitness Boxing 2 far beyond release, adding new trainers and modes up to three years after release. With Fitness Boxing 3, they’ve made the jump to a new engine with better capabilities. Fitness Boxing 3 both runs better and looks better– now there’s even reflections. It also has a bigger playlist with all new songs, a new sit-down mode for accessibility, and an even two-player mode to compete with your friends or online. Unless you prefer the songs from the last game more– this one switches Katy Perry for Billie Eilish– Fitness Boxing 3 is a clear upgrade over 2 in all aspects but one: it has only six trainers to choose from. Fans whose favourite trainers have been cut will be dismayed, but it’s probably temporary. Fitness Boxing 2 had more trainers added in later updates, so that’ll likely happen here too. Besides that, the reason there are fewer trainers is because they’re more animated personalities now with unique lines and attitudes to back that up– Lin is bright and cheerful, while Stella is cool and mysterious. And if you’re not interested in that at all, there’s also an option to change their “kindness”, so you can have your trainer be as stoic or as peppy as you like.
The next bigger change is the hit detection. In the last game, getting a “Perfect” on each punch required more attention than it does now– you practically have to miss the shot entirely to get an “Ok” now– but it isn’t less engaging because of this. It’s the opposite. Now, you’re consistently getting the satisfying sound of a “Perfect” punch throughout the workout and you can lose yourself in the rhythm. For hardcore fans this might sound cheap, but to balance that, the workouts are tougher and you’ll have no problem pushing yourself to the limit when you want to.
And aside from all that, there are a couple cute changes to keep you playing– daily quests, trainer friendship workouts, and mitt drills for playing without rhythm. So all in all, it’s easy to say it’s the best fitness boxing game yet. It might not do anything spectacular or innovative– it’d be fun to have an opponent to spar with, or even a punching bag to see bounce off each hit– but it gets a sweat up and your heart pumping. It’s boxing and it’ll keep you fit, simple as that.
About the Author
Branden Zavaleta Based in Perth, Branden writes on the arts for a handful of Australian outlets. He's also a street & creative portrait photographer, who's work can be found @brandenzp on Instagram.
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