NEW U Fitness First (Wii)

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $69.95     Save $7.00 $62.95
Availability
Genre	General: Fitness
Platform	Nintendo Wii
Release Date	17/09/2009
Rated

NEW U Fitness First (Wii) Product Information

New U is the only all in one Fitness & Nutrition Videogame on the market that has been built from the ground up with a real world industry leading companies including Fitness First.

Users input their specific information and most importantly what they want to Achieve, New U will compile a specific workout regime, accompanied by full diet of healthy and varied meals, in order to achieve those goals.

FEATURES:
• Slick, Modern Apple like interface
• Personalised workouts based on the goals you choose
• Over 130 recipes, all created by professional nutritionists, built around your specific requirements i.e. no wheat / nuts etc.
• 4 trainers, 2 male & 2 female (Real Fitness First personal trainers)
• Train in 4 locations, beach, mountain, forest & a gym

NEW U Fitness First (Wii) Review

New U Fitness First starts you off by setting up your profile, which involves choosing your body type (mesomorph, ectomorph and endomorph - it doesn't specifically say these but we paid attention in biology), getting your height, weight, calculating your BMI and learning about your exercise and eating habits. It also asks you for your goals, or 'focus', allowing you to choose a primary and secondary focus from a pretty comprehensive list. These focuses range from general health-related goals like losing weight, or having a healthy heart, to some which are more occasion-based like slimming down so you can look good in a suit, or training yourself up if you're going to go skiing. This is a great idea, and really enhances the 'personal trainer' feel that the title is going for, although selecting a personal trainer also helps. There's a range of four good-looking people in their mid-twenties ready to help you, and unlike other fitness games, they're not 3D characters, but real people/actors.

The on-screen display during your exercises is quite good. There's a timeline, which functions much like a music game, as the action required of you moves from the right of the screen to the left, and you must perform it when it hits the white bar. There are also counters which display how many reps both you and the trainer have performed, an indicator which tells you how well you are doing, and a balance indicator that tells you how well you are balancing. One problem that arises is when you're performing prone exercises on the Balance Board, such as push ups or the 'plane' position, because of the position of your head you're unlikely to be watching the balance indicator on the television to correct your posture, making it a bit redundant. The sensitivity of the Wii Remote and Balance Board is generally adequate, although sometimes it just didn't seem to track our movements at all. This was frustrating when we really were doing push ups on the Board (honest!) but the game was only sensing half of what we had accomplished.

A big part of the title is a focus on having healthy nutrition, and in this area the game mostly excels. There are a tonne of healthy recipes, and the game actually maps out an eating plan for you every week - giving you healthy recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. There's some nice stuff in there too, not just your standard chicken salad and eggs on toast. There's a lot of variety, and if you're an aspiring cook or just someone looking to make your eating habits a lot healthier, it's a pretty good feature. The only problem here is in the 'shopping list' which the game generates for you, which lists all the ingredients that you'll need. Ours was huge. It wouldn't be cheap to buy so many specific ingredients just so you can follow the diet plan the game wants you to follow, so there's a monetary commitment there that may be a problem for some people.

NewU Fitness First Personal Trainer is another fitness product that has its heart in the right place. The nutritional focus of the title is excellent, if potentially financially demanding, and the exercises you perform are proper exercises that you could perform at the park or the gym. However, a lack of detailed prompting for performing these exercises could leave you doing them incorrectly, as all you have to go on is just watching your trainer go through the motions, but unlike a real personal trainer, they can't come over to help you if you're moving the wrong way. There's a fair amount of content here for exercise-enthusiasts and while the title is perfectly functional, it is inferior to both EA Sports Active and Wii Fit in all areas except the aforementioned nutritional planning.

Full review PALGN