Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010 for Nintendo Wii

• Type: Exergame
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Equipment Needed: Remote and optional Balance Board.
• Price: $39.99
• Fitness Level: Beg, Int, Adv

Jillian Michaels is known for her killer workouts on "The Biggest Loser" and her DVDs and this game promises fast-paced, high intensity workouts set on a tropical island. Virtual Jillian leads you through circuit workouts with motion tracking and the ability to program routines for up to 6 months. There is some improvement from the 2009 game and fans of Jillian and her show might enjoy it, but exercisers looking for challenging, seamless workouts may want to stick to her videos.

Knowing Jillian's reputation and having done some of her videos, I was excited to try her new game. It didn't necessarily deliver the intensity I was expecting and there were some disappointing features, but the overall experience was much better than her 2009 version.

Getting Started

Your experience begins with a brief introduction from Jillian and a chance to create your profile where you enter your name, age, height, weight and gender. From there, you can choose from a variety of menu options:

• The Workout Area - Choose a full workout, try individual exercises or tour the island
• Jillian's Locker - Get basic tips about diet and exercise or, if you're feeling fashion conscious, change the color of her outfit
• My Info - Edit your profile, view stats, change options or view your Resolution calendar
• The Help Desk - View exercise tutorials and troubleshooting

Motion Tracking

Part of the fun with exergames is the challenge of doing the exercises and having your movements tracked for accuracy. In this game, the exercises are tracked with the Wii remote and an optional Balance Board. A pulse bar appears on the screen and your moves are tracked by your timing. The bar turns green when you're on target, yellow if you're off and red if you're not even close. You also get up to 10 points for each rep you do correctly. The movement tracking worked for most exercises, but I did have a problem with the swing kicks. The move is logged by touching each side of the Balance Board but no amount of touching (or kicking, stomping and yelling) worked for me.

From the Workout Area, you can choose from a variety of different options:

• Island Overview - From here, choose any location on the island (Cascade, Desert, Hilltop, Rock, Sand Dunes, Pier, Beach Landing, Jungle or Marshland) and an exercise is randomly picked for you to try. Each time you complete an exercise, you gain points for accuracy. Visiting the different areas will allow you to try an exercise, but you can't view tutorials of the moves or do a full workout from this part of the menu. It would be helpful to access tutorials from any workout menu rather than just the Single Exercise section.
  
  
• Single Exercise – In this menu, you can choose a single move from the 18 cardio and strength exercises available:
  • Swing kicks
  • Jumping jacks
  • Running
  • Bicycle
  • Hip twists
  • Water pump
  • Sledge swing
  • Back kicks
  • Squat jacks
  • Obliques
  • Pushups
  • Crunches
  • Side planks
  • Side lunges
  • Lunge front kicks
  • Pelvic thrusts
  • Close pushups
  • Boat pose
  In this section, you can choose the exercise, location, music and difficulty level (beginner, intermediate and advanced), which determines the number of reps you do. Aside from the help section, this is the only area where you can view step-by-step tutorials of the exercises, so you'll want to do this section first before going on to the actual workouts. The tutorials are helpful, but there are no video demonstrations, which makes it difficult to figure out some of the exercises.

• Circuit Training – In this section, you can create your own workouts or access 5 pre-made circuits that include two total body workouts, an ab routine, an upper body workout and a lower body workout. For each workout, you can view the exercises included as well as the reps, location and music, but you can't actually see how long the workout is or swap out exercises.

  The workouts themselves start with a 5-minute warm up of running place, following Jillian around the island. This is a long time to run in place, and it gets tedious, so you might want to stick with your own warm up exercises.

  From there the workout moves in a circuit format where you go from one exercise to the next (e.g., lunge front kicks, pushups, crunches). One annoying aspect of the workouts is the lack of flow. Before each exercise, the workout stops and you're given an exercise or diet tip. You have to press a button before moving on to the next exercise. It would be nice if the workout flowed more seamlessly.

  During each exercise you can pause and choose to skip the exercise or quit. You can't view tutorials of the exercises and Jillian doesn't offer any instruction or cueing. In fact, she doesn't say much at all. When you're on track, she says you're "Awesome," and if you mess up on your tracking, she yells, "Come on don't waste my time!" which isn't terribly helpful.

The Workout Area also offers a Resolutions option where you can create a custom workout schedule for up to six months or choose Jillian's pre-made schedule.

Pros

• Detailed tutorials of the exercises
• Great scenery and motivating music
• A nice variety of cardio and strength exercises
• The option to create a workout schedule allows users to follow a complete program for the long-term
• Adjustable camera angle allows users to see moves from different perspectives
• The choice of options for location, music and difficulty level will appeal to a wide range of exercisers

Cons

• Intermittent Workouts - Having to press a button between the movements takes the flow out of the workouts and gets tedious over time.
• Lack of Interaction - Virtual Jillian doesn't say much during the workout. It would be great to have some instruction for the exercises.
• Jillian's Locker - This section didn't offer much more than obvious exercise and diet tips and the option to change the color of her clothes, which is a little silly.
• Lack of Intensity - While some exercises are challenging (such as the squat jacks and side planks), exercisers who are used to regular workouts might be disappointed by the low intensity of many of the exercises.

Overall, I wanted to like this game and there were certainly some redeeming qualities. I think people who were disappointed in the 2009 version will like this version much better, but exercisers looking for a challenging, interactive workout might be disappointed.