Active Life Outdoor Challenge Reviews

5 Comments

1. ZETAZEN says:

   July 28, 2010 at 9:30 pm

   Review by ZETAZEN for Active Life Outdoor Challenge
   Rating:
   I am an owner of a Wii Fit, so I wanted to try another interactive game that moved my whole body. This game is just as great as the Wii Fit. Here are a couple of pros and cons of Namco’s Active Life Outdoor Challenge:

   Pro:

   Will move your entire body – if you looking for a cardio workout. There are a lot of games that you can play by yourself, against someone or as a team. You can use your Mii; and the game will collect fitness data that you can gage your fitness over time.

   Con:

   My kids kept jumping off the mat and off the small squares and triangles. They are not looking down at the mat, but up at the television. So you have to make sure your eyes and feet are coordinated enough for you to watch the screen and ensure your feet are in the right place on the mat.

   The mat itself is like the Wii Remote so while was reading the instructions my daughter was using the mat to move the instructions before I could finish reading them. I thought I was going crazy because I wasn’t using the actual Wii Remote to move to the next screen. (This will eventually become a pro when you really get the hang of it)

   My daughters and I played for about 90 minutes and we were all sweaty and tired by the time we said ENOUGH! Between this game and Wii Fit I don’t see how anyone could not get a good cardio and strength training fitness regime.

   I am anxious to see how Namco will franchise this “interactive mat” into more physically challenging games…i.e. an Active Life series.
   
2. plyopowerd says:

   July 28, 2010 at 9:59 pm

   Review by plyopowerd for Active Life Outdoor Challenge
   Rating:
   I’m in my 40s, been working out for many years and I’m a big fan of Dance Dance Revolution which stripped 50 pounds off me. I don’t have Wii Fit, but this is the first game I’ve tried for the Wii that really gives DDR a run for its money.

   At the beginning, go to Free Play mode first as it lets you practice all the minigames on their easiest levels. Once you get the hang of them, go to the courses on Outdoor Adventure mode that will unlock higher levels as you pass them.

   The third mode, Exercise Training, has a variety of courses that range from about 5-10 minutes long. You can’t fail the games on these courses; just keep playing as well as you can for the allotted time. One of the courses, 10 Minute Marathon, simply has you walking or running for 10 minutes. You can use this course for interval training; for instance, run for 10 seconds and walk for 20 seconds (or the other way around!) for 20 rounds. The Outdoor Adventure mode also allows you to design your own courses, although it seems you can only save one course at a time.

   You get “Activity Points” for completing the exercise courses, which are put on a daily graph along with a Brain Age-like stamp. Unfortunately there is no calorie counter in this game (unlike DDR for PS2) and it doesn’t record exact dates you worked out, just “2 days ago”, etc. It also doesn’t record your weight, but maybe that makes this more suitable for children than Wii Fit.

   I’d like to add that this game is VERY beginner-friendly, especially compared to another Namco exergame for Wii, We Cheer (another excellent game, but with a huge leap in difficulty level). Active Life can be played by anyone – young or old, from sedentary overweight folks to athletes. On Free Play, there are scrolling instructions for each game that you can easily skip past, and Easy mode even has on-screen prompts. Exercise mode allows you to go at your own pace, even if you have to just walk through or keep taking breaks. On the other end of the spectrum, the most advanced courses are super-tough; I still haven’t passed them! This is one game you won’t “outgrow”.

   My favorite games are the mine cart (a real core/balance challenge), mountain boarding, pipe slider, speed skating and the most DDR-like game, whack-a-mole. The mat slides around a bit (putting it on a sticky yoga mat helped) and is probably too narrow for two “plus-sized” adults to play at once, but it responds very well. I would love to see future Active Life games add more enhancements to Exercise mode (like keeping track of scores, dates and calories burned) and add more types of games like perhaps a music/rhythm game and games that use lateral and forward/back jumping.

   But overall, this is an awesome first entry for what I hope will be a long and successful series!
3. PT Cruiser says:

   July 28, 2010 at 10:57 pm

   Review by PT Cruiser for Active Life Outdoor Challenge
   Rating:
   I’m not a kid. In fact I’m almost 60 and I bought the game for myself after getting Wii Fit a couple weeks ago and really enjoying the games that are included with that.

   I LOVE this game (or series of small games) If you want a good workout and you’re a kid at heart, you’re going to love Outdoor Challenge. I’ve only played it by myself so far but I can tell you that it works every part of your body. I was dripping with sweat after 10 minutes. Some of the games you do standing, or I should say running in place and jumping over logs or jumping on a trampoline over water or jumping rope. There’s a Mine Cart game where you’re leaning to the side and lifting one foot while pumping both hands up and down to propel the cart at ever faster speeds. Or sitting on the mat and rowing with the “paddle” (wiimote) trying to get to the goal as fast as you can.

   Like the Wii Fit games, it keeps track of your scores and the scores of others that play so you are constantly trying to beat your best scores and get top scores in the games.

   This game is too much fun to waste on kids. Get it for yourself! It’ll make you laugh out loud!
4. M. Garcia says:

   July 28, 2010 at 11:11 pm

   Review by M. Garcia for Active Life Outdoor Challenge
   Rating:
   I just received the game Last night, Sept. 8, and have the chance to play for about 2 hours with my family. First of all I would like you to imagine my 7 years old boy when I opened the Amazon box and saw the video game; at first he though it was the Wii Fit, but later realized it was the Outdoor challenge and was not that excited.

   We when straight to play, I should tell you, my kid changed his mind, he had a really good time, it was probably the funniest time we have spent playing Wii. The game is not at the same level as the Wii Fit, would not replace playing out doors and seems to be aimed at the younger set; still it’s kind of challenging, so I would say it’s a good alternative to burn some extra calories; spend some time and have fun with the family specially the kids.

   Over all this collection of minigames are played with a special floor pad that looks a bit like a DDR dance pad. What I liked about the pad is that allows you to play the game by yourself, or have two people playing on the same pad together.

   We tried games like

   Mole stomp, where you stand in the middle of the pad; as moles pop out of holes on screen, you then step on the corresponding pad to “stomp” it

   Speed skating, for this game you need the Wii remote to move left or right and pump your feet, the faster you pump the faster you go.

   Running game, is similar to the speed skating game–you pump your legs to run as fast as possible, the difference is that you need to jump to avoid some obstacles that could slow you down and no need for the Wii remote.

   Mine cart, where you stand on the left or right foot to navigate turns as a mine cart speeds around an underground track. Also Wii remote has to be moved up and down to give the cart more speed.

   Log jump, seems very simple but still a lot of fun and more in multiplayer game, where two people stand side by side on the pad and then jump to avoid logs that are rolling their way. You are supposed to be standing on a circular platform and, each time you get hit with a log, you move further toward the outside edge of the platform. The player that stays in the platform is the winner.

   Other mini-games included are jump rope, river rafting, seesaw, and water trampoline, among others.

   A plus is that the game could keep track of the amount of energy you’ve spent in the various mini-games mode, my kid does not care, but my wife and me find kind of useful, though still no sure how accurate it is.

   So far would say it was a good buy, my kid and wife loves it, as for me, I would have a better idea after my wife’s birthday party which is this weekend, we have a couple of friend coming, so it a perfect time to see the real play and replay value.
   
5. Amazon shopper says:

   July 28, 2010 at 11:17 pm

   Review by Amazon shopper for Active Life Outdoor Challenge
   Rating:
   Our family is used to spending roughly $50 USD for Wii games, so the price point was not all that much of a factor in deciding whether to purchase, but still you want to feel like you are getting a game that’s worth your while. For our family of three (two parents 40+ and 1 9YO boy), it’s turned out to be a good deal.

   There are a couple of factors I did not anticipate, though. First, the mat itself becomes a storage problem since it does not fold up to a small size: no less than .35m x .5m x .10m …or 14″ x 19″ x 4″ …or 2 Wiis high by 2 Wiis wide by 2 Wiis tall. And it doesn’t come with a storage bag, so keep that in mind if portability is your thing. Second, the mat is fine for individual use, but a little small for 2 players, unless they’re both little kids. (And even then, the players might tend to flail a little bit and hit each other–unintentionally, of course!) And third, note that most games use only the mat as the controller; however there are a few games that also require the hand controller, but none require the nunchuk. We pretty much keep the hand controller in use anyway, because it’s still easier for us to scroll through options and instructions using the hc than operating everything with your feet.

   As for actual game play, it has pre-set ability levels, customizable activity sets (i.e., you can create your own mix of a series of games), and a free play mode. But you need to work through the ability sequence (“Outdoor Course”) to open new games in free play mode. It has an Exercise mode that supposedly categorizes the games by muscle groups, physical exertion, and game duration, but those are not particularly accurate in some cases. And in multi-player mode, there are only three games that can be played cooperatively, and one of those can ONLY be played cooperatively. And there are no computer characters to compete against.

   Overall, the games offer sort bursts of activity and mild competitive fun; we’re glad we have it, we are interested to see what comes out next for this interface.