Short reccomendation:
Alright Liboo, get it. I've only done one workout this morning, but this looks to have high potential.
Long explanation:
I started this up today, and so far, I'm impressed. There's a video trailer on the Nintendo Channel if you're interested, but it will only give you a little glimpse of what the game's about.
I reinstalled the Wii Fit channel to handle weigh-ins before I started My Fitness Coach, and the scale said it hadn't seen me in a little over 100 days. Hmm... that's not good. In that time, I've gained probably 3-4 pounds. I have a feeling it's going to be a rough couple of weeks starting out. With the scale out of the way, I started MFC.
When you start, you create a profile, which took me about 20-30 minutes. Maya will ask for yoour name, gender, height, weight, and birthday. Then, make sure you have a tape measure handy, because she asks for measurements of your bicep, waist, and hips. While Wii Fit only tracks your weight and BMI, Maya will track these numbers with you as well. I don't know yet how often she'll ask for updates (the manual says every 10 workouts), but there's a chart that you can access on your profile that shows the measurements over time, which will be a nice addition when tracking weight loss. (You should be more concerned about watching your waist size than your actual weight, since you're building muscle to replace the fat.)
Then comes the fitness tests. First, you'll get a standing heart rate by taking your pulse for 10 seconds. Then she asks you to do jumping jacks for 2 minutes. I didn't think that would be too bad, so I started, and was getting really tired after about 30 seconds. I did most of the two minutes, and then got my active heart rate. Then she asks you to do as many push ups, squats and crunches as you can, followed by a stretching test. Finally, she delivers the bad news about how fat and out of shape I am. (Actually, she's very polite about the whole thing.)
She recommends that my fitness plan be focused on weight loss, though I could override her choice if I wanted to. Other possibilties are cardio, upper, core, or lower body strength, and flexibility. Then you can set your weight goal, though there's no setting like Wii Fit to say when you want to accomplish that goal. Finally, she proposes a workout schedule, with 2 30 minute workouts per week, and 4 15 minute workouts. You can change that around if you don't like the schedule. For instance, I decided I might as well slip an extra 15 minute workout on the empty day, and then moved my 30 minute wokouts to Saturday and Sunday when I have a bit more time. From the main menu, you can change any of these settings, if you need to do so.
With the profile all done, now it's just a matter of deciding if I want to do my first workout now, or wait a while. Shamefully exhausted from the profile tests, I decide to wait a while. So I pop in the copy of Lego Star Wars that I got for Christmas and finish off Episode 3 before coming back to Maya a couple of hours later.
So I go in to do my first workout, and Maya give me a few options:
- workout length (so I'm not stuck with what the schedule says)
- workout location and music theme (more unlock as you complete workouts)
- equipment available (this was also in the profile, but you can confirm/add/remove before starting the workout)
- workout focus (Maya will reccomend one, but you can change it. Options are yoga, cardio, upper, core, or lower body, and flexibility.)
As the workout begins, you'll go through a light cardio warmup (though I'm sure it will get more intense as you go) followed by exercises that Maya choose for you based on your long term goal and daily focus. My focus for the day was on upper body strength, so after warming up, I did some squat rowing moves (with a more complex name that I can't quite remember), standing rows, pushups, bicep curls and tricep kickbacks. I had freeweights, but she never asked me to use them today. I went ahead and used them for the bicep and tricep exercises anyway.
As you exercise, a timer will display in the lower left corner, telling you how much time remains in your workout. There's a sliding progress bar on the bottom of the screen that displays the name of the exercise, and when it's within 10-20 seconds of ending, the next one will begin sliding in. According to the manual, you'll see an icon if the exercise will include equipment, or if it's a water break. After some exercises, Maya will ask how that last exercise felt (too easy, too hard, just right). She'll use the input to adjust your next workout, if necessary. Every so often, you'll get a 15 second rest period between exercises (you'll see it coming on the slider bar), and Maya will encourage you to stretch out your muscles. At the end, you'll get a cooldown period to do some stretches before ending your workout. When you're done, you get screen telling you how many workouts you've completed, as well as how many calories you've just burned.
If you don't know how to perform an exercise, there's a tutorial button you can press. Maya will explain it, and you'll see her demonstrate it, but the view is exactly the same as when she normally does the exercise. There are two problems with this, but they're minor. First, you have no camera control (as far as I know), so you can't zoom in or spin around to a better angle if there's something you're not sure about. Second, this is basically another PS2 port, so the graphics aren't that great. It's not like you really need incredible graphics for this, but sometimes the details don't come through when you're trying to figure out where to put our hands or how to move your ams the right way.
Two final things. First, you can enter a workout credit if you've done a lot of activity away from the game (like Wii Fit), but it has specific options for cycling, walking, jogging, etc. I'm guessing you select one and enter a time, but I haven't tried it yet. Also, there's a "Group workout" option on the main menu. I guess if you have multiple profiles created, you can workout together; it's not mentioned in the manual. I'm not sure what kind of effect that would have on the exercises selected for the workout though, if your profiles are too different.
So, here's the bottom line: I liked Wii Fit. I used it a lot, almost everyday for several months, until it got to the point where I just did 30 minutes of free steps and a 10 minute free run each day. There wasn't enough variety to keep me coming back, especially when I had to make all the choices myself.
I like this too. I think it's easily worth $30, plus whatever you spend on the extra equipment (ball, weights, step, heart monitor) if you want them. But then again, I've only done one day. I took karate classes for about a year until I messed up my knee. One of the good things about taking an exercise class is you just have to show up and put forth the effort; the instructor will tell you what to do. It's the same thing here. Just shut up and do what youre told. There's a structure to your workout, but the actual exercises will be a suprise. But at the same time, it's not so closed off that you have no control at all. If I want to focus on yoga on Monday mornings, I can do that, I just won't be able to pick specific exercises.
The only major downside is that with the older graphics, the trainer isn't nearly as hot as the one in Wii Fit.
I'll try to write more in a few days just to give a little more accurate impression of the overall experience. In the meantime, if you've got questions, feel free to ask.
s
TEARS @ no one caring but me 
a woman, lilboo. It's awful public domain lite dance/house music that your mother would listen to and enjoy.
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