Game review: Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise
During the madness that was 2020, I was one of those people that ordered Ring Fit Adventure over the lockdown period and actually used it daily. That game was my source of exercises for a couple of months on a daily basis. I loved Ring Fit Adventure so much that when Nintendo put out Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm - Exercise, I had to try it out.
Unlike the Ring Fit Adventure, there is really no story behind Fitness Boxing 2whatsoever. It is purely an exercise focused game. This means that the game will only appeal to those who are already in the mindset of daily exercise. When you first open the game, you get two different options: The Daily Workout or the Free Training.
The game provides some customisation options. You can choose the trainer that will accompany you, Music and how fast it plays, intensity levels and the background. The selection options for each of these, however, is not that great. There are nine trainers available, which is fantastic. Each has a different style and a different personality. Some are soft and calm, while others are a little scary. I will leave it to you to find out who is who! The trainers are unlocked the more the game is played. Then some customisation is available for the clothing they wear.
The game lacks choice the most in the music department, with only 20 songs. While Nintendo tried to include a wide range of different songs from Bon Jovi to Ariana Grande but at the end of the day, 20 songs are just not enough. They get repetitive really quickly, which gets rather boring. I wish they would have included at least 50.
With all the customisations aside, the game itself was kind of just 'okay'. It was not terrible, but it was not great. After the success of Ring Fit Adventure, we saw what Nintendo was capable of in terms of exercise games and Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm - Exercise felt like just a rushed version of what could have been a section in Ring Fit. The game basically asks you to punch a series of icons to the beat.
It starts simple with straightforward punches and jabs and then starts asking you to do more complicated moves that include ducking and blocking, and stepping. When the song is over, and the exercise is done, the game gives a score that is based on the accuracy of the punches. This is all fine in theory, except the JoyCons do not do the best job at detecting all the moves. It takes a lot of practice to master the moves the way the JoyCons understand them. It is not about how accurately you perform a punch; you have to think about how the accelerometer reads it.
At the end of the day, the game is just that: punching your JoyCons to the beat of 20 different songs. While that is still fun, I found it really hard to return to that game the way I returned to Ring Fit Adventure for days on end. Someone out there will certainly enjoy this game, but for me, I need more from a game to keep coming back for it.
