Fitness Circuit Nintendo Switch Review
Summary: Improve your fitness while having fun? It might just be possible with Fitness Circuit.
4.3
Gamercize
Gaming has often been derided as the realm of overweight social outcasts… and while that perception is slowly changing… there is still a stigma (and in some cases a danger of the amount of inactivity due to gaming). Fitness Circuit might just be the counter point to those views.
On a basic level it’s a fitness game… it doesn’t hide that fact at all, so you know what you are getting yourself in to. But… while some fitness games are very formulaic or set along a predetermined path… Fitness Circuit is more interested in working with you to make sure you get the most out of your gamercising. Key in that customisation is the fact that you can choose which exercises are included or excluded from your routines which is fantastic for people who might have mobility issues. The design also focuses on fun which is reflected in both the cartoony/stylised characters and the fact that there is very much a “minigame” feel to a lot of the action.
But don’t let this accessibility fool you… there is also a great home training system contained within. For those of us who are perhaps a bit shy or just prefer to work on our fitness in a more private space… Fitness Circuit has you covered. It fills the job of a personal trainer by developing a training session for you based on your preferred fitness goals (it will ask you to input some details such as weight, etc to give it a baseline). You can then adjust this workout depending on your personal taste, so for example if you are feeling a bit flat one day you can tone down the intensity… if on another day you are feeling full of energy you can bump up the intensity. After you’ve explored all the exercises available you can even develop your own routine if you want to take control of it all and totally personalise it. Your progress is stored so you can see just how far you’ve come.
For those who prefer to have others around to help motivate them while training… you can use Fitness Circuit in multiplayer mode. Then you can either cheer each other on… or get really competitive and try and outdo your fellow trainers.
Fitness games are becoming more and more common and popular, VR has a handful and certainly the Wii started providing new ways to get physical while still having fun. Fitness Circuit feels like a good mix between still feeling like a game… but also will really get you sweating. Personally I always appreciate having my progress tracked because it’s easy to loose sight of how far you have come if you don’t have any reference point.
Even if you already have a fitness game or two in your collection, I’d recommend Fitness Circuit be added as it does a great job filling the position of your own personal trainer without any of the “tough love” you might otherwise be subjected to. Fun and fitness in one package… grab your sweat pants and grab a copy!
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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