A few months ago, I invested in the new Wii Fit, hoping that I could finally get myself into an excercise routine. However, after about a week, a lost the motivation to continue given the lackluster excercises and lack of routines.

Fortunately, Wii Active is everything that Wii Fit wasn't (and then some)!

I've only had Wii Active for about a week now, but I can honestly say that this game makes me sweat and feel the burn. Also, it provides good incentive to keep going...

POSITIVES:

+ AUTOMATIC ROUTINES - As someone who doesn't frequent the gym, I must say I wouldn't know where to begin as far as developing a routine. Fortunately, this game has a LONG list of preset workouts for you to follow. Unlike Wii Fit, it jumps you right into the next excercise without clicking a bunch of stuff. This keeps your heart rate up and frustration down.

+ IT WORKS - OK, I can't officially claim this yet as I'm barely a week into it, but I work up a sweat, my muscles ache, and I feel much more energized than I did just a few days ago. I'm confident that this trend will continue through the next several weeks/months.

+ CO-OP PLAY - Even though the game fails to give you an extra set of workout equipment, you can still play a few of the exercises with a friend. It provides a nice break from the solo routine.

+ VERY CUSTOMIZABLE - Nearly EVERYTHING in this game is customizable: your profile character can be changed to look like you, you can create your OWN workout routine, you can change the difficulty of the workout, heck, you can even change what music plays in the background! There should be no two Wii Active's in the world that are identical.

+ WII BOARD COMPATIBLE - If you have your Wii Fit board (like me), some of the exercises can utilize it to enchance the feel/workout. However, unlike Wii Fit, the board (in my opinion), is NOT a critical piece to the game. So, don't feel obligated to buy a board just for this game.

+ INCENTIVES - Lots of trophies to earn and your given goals to meet each week for your 30-day routine. Lots of incentive to play again and again!

NEGATIVES

- OFF-AND-ON REMOTE DETECTION - I have a few issues with the Wii remote not being detected during a certain excercise or two. For example, when I lift my arm up and down, it doesn't detect me moving it down. I must say that this is rather minor and that 95%+ of all moves are flawlessly shown in real time. It just gets a tad frustrating when your running low on energy to repeat a move again and again.

- ROUTINE-CENTERED - On one of my 'rest days', I tried to just play a few of the many games offered by Wii Active (rather than a full workout). Unfortunately, it is set up more for an 30-minute excercise routine, rather than a 5-minute play-for-fun routine (like Wii Fit). Still, I was able to customize a routine in order to play what I wanted.

CONCLUSION:

So, does Wii Active completely eliminate the need for a gym membership? Probably not. However, does it provide me with a good workout routine right in the comfort of my own home? Absolutely.

Those who were dissapointed wit the Wii Fit results, should give the video game workout genre one more chance. While I'm still young in my workout, I'm feeling results.

And for someone who'd rather play games than visit the gym, this is a rare chance for me to do both and better myself. Besides, who wants to use sweaty exercise equipment anyway...?