- The Premise
Fitness boxing was a surprise hit for the Nintendo Switch. It has sold more than 900,000 copies at the time of this writing. The premise of the game is simple. It’s a rhthym game, similar to Just Dance or Guitar Hero where you try to perform boxing punches and dodges in time with music. There are 20 music tracks based on pop songs. Each individual move is scored as either Perfect, Ok, or Miss depending on how well the move is timed. There are 27 or so workouts that vary in length from around 4 minutes to around 13 minutes. Each one can be done at either a regular or fast pace and either a high or low intensity. When you complete a workout you are scored on a three star system. There are six selectable coaches that demonstrate the moves and encourage you to keep going. You unlock new articles of clothing for the fitness coaches based on total number of stars obtained, total punches thrown, and total days worked out. There is also a 2 player mode that allows you to workout alongside a friend or battle them.
2. The Good
First, you will absolutely get a great aerobic workout. After 15 minutes I was drenched in sweat and my Fitbit showed my heart rate getting up near peak speed. The game features a good variety of realistic punches and dodges and the workouts progressively get more challenging. The game mechanics are also pretty fun. I am personally a huge boxing fan, but an appreciation of the sweet science is not at all necessary to enjoy this game. The multiplayer mode is a nice add on. Also, it’s great that you do not need any additional equipment, just the Joy-Cons that come with the Switch.
3. The Bad
It’s fun to start, but the game needs to be deeper. There’s not enough of a reward system to keep you hooked for long. The only unlockables other than songs and the workouts themselves are the clothing items, which are pretty limited. Each trainer only has about 12 different outfits. The first pieces are unlocked pretty quickly, but after that getting anything new is a grind. After throwing 192,500 punches, you get to give your coach a new shirt and shorts set. The juice was not always worth the squeeze.
Also, each coach has a different voice, but they all say pretty much the same things. It gets repetitive pretty quickly. They don’t seem to respond to your performance hardly at all, giving you the same tips over and over again regardless of how well or how poorly you’re doing. After a while, I actually switched the language setting to Japanese mode just to mix it up a bit.
Of course, you won’t want to do a marathon playthrough because of how strenous it is, so it will still take a little while to get stale.
As for the controls, I had a little trouble with the Joy-Cons registering moves. Punches registered pretty well, but the defensive moves, like side steps, not so much. Eventually, I was able to make it work by jerking my hands whenever I did one of these steps, but that forced me to get out of my guard, which is not something you’d want to do in a real fight. While the boxing moves are realistic the game is not really meant to be a boxing simulator. You’ll get a great workout but it’s not going to prepare you for the Golden Gloves tournament.
Finally, the music selection is not what it should be. If you don’t like pop songs you’re pretty much out of luck. Even if you do like the songs, you probably won’t appreciate the “muzak” style versions the game uses. There are no lyrics and the instrumentation all sounds Casio keyboard simulated. I can understand why they did this. They wanted to be able to vary the tempo to accommodate different workout speeds. It’s a shame though because the most expensive part of creating this game was probably acquiring those song licenses.
4. How To Make It Better
There is so much promise in the Gameplay mechanics. I can’t help but imagine this as a Punch Out style game where you actually try to win fights. Punch Out was basically a rhythm game anyway. I would prefer to win title belts instead of just unlocking outfits. I wish they could set it up like a real fight with three minute rounds and a one minute rest in between. That would be perfect for High Intensity Interval Training. They could still include the regular workouts and call them sparring sessions. There’s also a couple simple things, like a punch counter or performance display on screen during the workout that would improve the experience. Fitness Boxing 2 is scheduled to be released December 4, 2020. We’ll see what if any improvements are included.
Bottom Line
It’s good for a little while, but gets old faster than many other options. It’s worth giving a try, but look for a sale.
Full song lineup
- 1. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
- 2. The Nolans – I’m in the Mood for Dancing
- 3. Pitbull ft. Kesha – Timber
- 4. Lady Gaga – Bad Romance
- 5. Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
- 6. Walk the Moon – Shut Up and Dance
- 7. T. Rex – 20th Century Boy
- 8. Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger
- 9. One Direction – Live While We’re Young
- 10. Aqua – Cartoon Heroes
- 11. Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen – Good Time
- 12. Lipps Inc. – Funkytown
- 13. Lady Gaga – Born This Way
- 14. Kelly Clarkson – Stronger
- 15. Meghan Trainor – All About That Bass
- 16. The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star
- 17. Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris – Baby
- 18. Maroon 5 – Sugar
- 19. Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend
- 20. 5 Seconds of Summar – She Looks So Perfect