How Four Exercise Games Fit Into My Life
I’ve never been very fit in my life. Sports never really appealed to me, gyms make me very uncomfortable, and other workouts I would try, such as walking on my parents’ treadmill at home or following along to yoga videos, have never really stuck.
I’ve also never been particularly desperate to be fit. Try as others in my life have, using positive encouragement or negative criticisms, there have simply been other things in my life—school, work, relationships—that I’ve prioritized as more important to me. Combine that with a love for food and a few medications that can cause weight gain, and here we are.
However, lately my lack of fitness has had me staring at my own mortality. In the past few months, I’ve had some scary symptoms and doctor visits, with the overwhelming consensus being that I need to start exercising more or my body could give out on me at a very early age.
And so, over the past month, I’ve turned to one of my great loves, videogames, to see if they could offer the type of workout that could keep me from an early grave. Could any of them help with my fitness? Maybe more importantly, could any of them get me past my lifelong aversion to working out? These are my experiences with four of them:
I’ve been playing Ring Fit Adventure on and off since it came out in 2019, although I’ve taken very long, sometimes years-long, breaks between getting back into it. Currently at over 100 days logged, the game gives me a much better workout than any of Nintendo’s Wii Fit games ever could, and the RPG campaign that accompanies it, while relatively simple, is engaging enough to motivate me to keep fighting through the beads of sweat it produces.
Sometimes the workout is a bit too much for me, however, as I occasionally will feel my heart beating out of my chest and need to sit down, gasping for breath. To be fair, you can adjust the intensity of workouts, but I’ve found a sweet spot that I want to stick with and getting a feel for how much easier or harder the intensity would be can be hard to gauge.
The only problem with this is that it’s such an intense workout for me that it’s often hard to motivate myself to start it up. Still, out of all of these four games, this is the one I keep coming back to the most, and I hope to not only see my way to the credits one day, but keep going until I beat all the New Game + modes too.
Ring Fit Adventure
Workout: 5/5
Fun: 4/5
Like the rest of the world, I was enamored by Pokémon Go when it first released on phones in 2016. Also like most of the rest of the world, after a few months, I had had my fill.
Eight years later, I definitely don’t feel the same spark.
The appeal of Pokémon Go in 2016 was that literally everyone else was playing it. You could go outside and immediately identify other players. It still has a huge player base most other games could only dream of, but its moment in the collective zeitgeist has definitely long ended, so running into another player without planning to is much more rare.
To make things worse, getting back into the game after eight years involved more of an exercise in patience than muscles, as I spent hours trying to get back into my old save. Once I did, I was inundated by tasks I could do without getting off my couch.
By the time I actually did get outside, the last thing I wanted to do was continue looking at my phone. My partner and I have recently gotten into geocaching, which has been so much more fun than Pokémon Go that I’d much rather do that, or, God forbid, just go for a normal walk and take in the environment.
Clearly, Pokémon Go is beloved by tons of people, and if you do love it, it could be a great way to accompany you on walks or runs. But for people like me who just can’t get back into it, it’s more of a hindrance from me going outside than an incentive.
Pokémon Go
Workout: 2/5
Fun: 2/5
Also known as “The Only Game I Consistently Play In VR,” Beat Saber is always a good time. I love spending hours (not at one time, but over multiple sessions) on one song on its hardest difficulty, practicing and practicing until I can clear it. There’s a zen feeling I get when fully in the zone with Beat Saber that feels like what advanced musicians describe, but with much less work than actually mastering an instrument.
As far as the workout goes, it’s OK. Pretty much only my arms and heart get exercise, and once they’re tired out, I have to take a break. However, it’s a great alternative to more intense workouts on days when I’m too tired for anything else.
Beat Saber
Workout: 3/5
Fun: 5/5
The only new game on this list, Just Dance VR is Ubisoft’s first time bringing the long-lived dancing series to VR, after many failed attempts that were never released. And holy heck, this game kicked my butt.
There are different songs with differing levels of difficulty, but the problem is that it was hard for me to get into the easier songs since the movements are very simple. Kicking the difficulty up just a notch, however, quickly changes that. Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” very nearly stopped my heart by the end, as I desperately tried to keep up with the dancer in front of my vision.
The visuals in this game are also insane, and helped me not realize how much my body was working until the end of each song. Although you can only see them through peripheral vision since you’ll be focusing on copying the dancer’s movements, they’re so crazy that it felt a bit like an out-of-body experience. The camera flies up as you move up and forward as you walk in place at dizzying speeds, which made me instinctively move more to keep up with the crazy motion I was immersed in. I’m pretty sensitive to motion in other VR games, but for what it’s worth, I never felt barfy playing this one.
The only drawback to Just Dance in VR is that it’s inherently single player. Although there is an online mode for those who want to virtually dance with others, it’s not the same as getting a group together to dance in front of the TV. For those who like to exercise solo, however, this is a great option I’ll definitely be coming back to.
Just Dance VR
Workout: 5/5
Fun: 3/5
I wish I could say that I played these games every day over the last month and got super fit. Neither is true. Some people love working out, but for me, even great exercise games just serve as a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. And it’s bitter medicine.
Still, I remind myself that even if I work out every day for a week and then fall off, or consistently only exercise one or two days per week, every bit counts. I’ve also found that I really like going on walks while talking with my partner or just listening to a podcast, and I want to find more ways to stay active that serve another purpose, such as walking to work or biking over to a nice restaurant.
The most fit I’ve ever been in my adult life was in the summer of 2019, when I was interning for Game Informer (may it rest in peace). With no car, I had to bike everywhere I wanted to go, and with no money from the internship (Thanks GameStop!), I had to work at Chipotle to pay for my sublease. Both provided great workouts, and because I had to do them to get to my internship or make money, they were non-optional.
Games like the ones above can be a great addition to any wellness plan. The internet is full of stories of people who lost weight in part through playing games like these. So don’t let my experiences dissuade you from trying them out. I absolutely believe exercise videogames can and will have a part in my journey to fitness, but at the end of my month with them, I’ve discovered that what I really want is a life where physical activity is baked into my day-to-day life, not something I always have to take time out of my day to do. I’m not sure how to get there, but I’ll find my way there one step at a time.
Joseph Stanichar is a freelance writer who specializes in videogames and pop culture. He’s written for publications such as Game Informer, Twinfinite and Looper, and currently works as a full-time reporter for The Morrison County Record in Little Falls, Minnesota. He’s on Twitter @JosephStanichar.