I’ve made it past the first big milestone in the my experiment with the EA SPORTS Active 30 Day Challenge by completing 10 workouts.  As a reward I got a new trophy and an “attaboy” video from Bob Green in which he explained that they were going to be increasing the difficulty of my workouts from this point on.  I’m much more comfortable with how the program works and I’m learning the proper way to move to maximize the benefit I’m getting from my workouts.

I don’t want to give the impression that I’ve become a total EA SPORTS Active fanboy I thought I’d take some time this week to share my thoughts on ways I think the game could be improved.

Better Balance Board Integration

The Balance Board that came with Wii Fit was an integral part of the program and it played a significant role in many of the exercises.  While EA SPORTS Active is compatible with the Balance Board, it honestly feels like a bit of an afterthought.  You cannot weigh yourself with the Balance Board in EA SPORTS Active and during the 30 Day Challenge if you have a day in which you are using the Balance Board the exercises that call for it come up so rarely that you have to turn the unit back on again because it has gone into standby mode.

The Balance Board is optional for EA SPORTS Active and is only there to enhance existing exercises, but this leads to another problem for beginners with the game.  Whenever you encounter a new exercise in EA SPORTS Active you are shown a brief instructional video that demonstrates how to do it.  The videos for the Balance Board enhanced exercises say that you should make sure you review the video for the basic exercise before attempting to use the Balance Board, but if you’ve never done the basic exercise it does not show you that video.  I have come across several exercises where I had to stumble through figuring out what the heck I was doing as a result of this little logistical error.

The Balance Board was a fantastic addition to Wii Fit and really helped me feel like I was not only doing the exercises but doing them properly, especially when it came to holding certain Yoga poses.    It really doesn’t seem like any of the exercises in EA SPORTS Active were designed specifically for the Balance Board and as a result the accessory kind of feels like an afterthought instead of a well integrated part of the program.

Yoga!

I realize I’ve mentioned it already in my summary of the first week in the 30 Day Challenge, but the section I just wrote about the Balance Board is reminding me yet again of the lack of Yoga in EA SPORTS Active. By using the Balance Board in Wii Fit I felt like my form improved significantly with some of the poses I learned using Yourself! Fitness, and with my exergaming focus being exclusively on EA Sports Active right now I’m am keenly aware of the lack of Yoga in my workouts.  This lack of Yoga came up last night during a TweetChat with EA SPORTS Active spokeswoman Kathyrn Peck (Active_Girl on Twitter) and someone in the crowd pointed out that Yourself! Fitness had been ported over to the Wii as My Fitness Coach.  While I’d rather see some form of Yoga integrated into EA SPORTS Active as part of my daily workouts I’m likely going to be picking up My Fitness Coach to fill that gap in my exergaming routine.

The Accessories

The leg strap that comes with EA SPORTS Active may not be large enough to fit players who need to lose a significant amount of weight.  I currently weigh 255 pounds and it is pretty close on my thighs.  This came up in the chat last night and it was suggested that you could use the extra Velcro that comes with the strap to make it longer but there are no instructions on how to do so included in the game (the only instructions are on how to make the leg strap shorter).  The handles for the resistance bands aren’t very comfortable, either, and I’ve already started looking for a replacement set that would be more comfortable and offer a bit more resistance.

At this point that’s about all the negative I have to say about EA SPORTS Active and it’s a very nitpicky list.  On the whole it’s been hard to find anything bad to say about this program, and I’m looking forward to finishing up my current 30 Day Challenge and moving on to a more difficult one next month.

Learn more about EA SPORTS Active at the official site.