UFC Personal Trainer for Nintendo Wii - Interactive Fitness Game for Home Workouts & MMA Training

I knew this would be just another glorified exercise video for Wii so I didn't let myself get too excited about it. I was pleased to see that they configured the controls to let you use two Wii remotes if you want, like with Gold's Gym Cardio and Exerbeat.As noted by some other reviewers, the controls are dodgy for some exercises, but they work very well for the ones I choose to use. For instance I tried one of the premade workouts and all the exercises done with the balance board did not register at all.After exploring the game I figured out how to use it for a good cardio workout on the Intermediate setting. With Mark Dellagrotte and Javier Mendez I just use the Combo exercises because they are the fighting exercises and that's what's fun and useful). You can save 10 exercises for saved workouts. Mark has 5 combos that I do twice each, for a total of 18 minutes. Javier has 7 combos but combos 6 & 7 the controllers do not work well with, so I just do the first 5 twice for a total of 14 minutes. Greg Jackson has 6 fighting exercises: Punch & Shoot, Ankle Picks, Ground & Pounds, Overhead Pounders, Sprawls, and Cage Pick Ups. The Sprawls use the leg strap so I do them last, and do the other four twice for a total of 11 minutes. Greg's workout is the hardest so I do that in the middle. His Sprawls get my heart rate to the max, and his Punch & Shoot and Ankle Picks also get the heart rate very high. Doing all three workouts gives me a solid 40 plus minute workout.My average heart rate when running or cycling is 140. According to my heart rate monitor my heart rate average when doing the above saved workouts was 135. Even though there is load time between the exercises, you can A button through fast enough that my heart rate only went down 10 beats in between exercises, so it did not return to a resting heart rate in between and is not much different than the heart rate change going downhill when running or cycling.All three trainers also have the usual strength, calisthenics and stretching exercises for those who want to use them. For me that's drudgery so I'll stick to the fighting exercises. In conclusion I consider this game to provide a workout that is equivalent to moderate running, cycling or other cardio activity. In addition it provides a good strength and toning workout from all the punching and dynamic movements. The fighting exercises are all low impact as well.Update:After using this game for seven weeks, the last two times I used it it froze up. I just restarted the Wii to finish my workout and didn't think much of it. After reading the other reviews I realize this is a flaw in the game, so I will stop using it until there is a fix for it. This is a serious flaw so in retrospect I would only be able to give this game 1 star as it is unusable until who knows when.Until I stopped using it, I did discover that adding footwork increased my heart rate 10-20 beats which allowed me to get a solid heart rate Zone 3 and Zone 4 workout from this game.Update 2:Once it started freezing up on me I quit using this game for a few months. I decided to give it another try, and have found that if I turn off the console in between the saved custom workouts, it doesn't freeze up.Was looking forward to this "game" for a long time. Had it pre-ordered for months. When I got it, I enjoyed it for a little while. However...> There is no support for "southpaw" fighters. When the trainer calls "jab" you have to throw it left handed. There is an option in the menu to set it "left handed" but all that does is change the hand that controls the menus. Still cannot "fight" southpaw. This is annoying, but I could have lived with it.> You have to throw verticle punches. Whether you two remotes or a remote and a nunchuk, your punches cannot "turn over" (like a correct punch should) or it doesn't register. So you have to punch holding your fist vertical. This is fine on a hook punch, where it should be verticle, but for jabs and crosses, it teaches bad habits. Larger annoyance, but I could have lived with that.> Punching too fast means the game doesn't register your movements. Bigger annoyance, but I could have worked at a lower level and gotten by with it.> After each exercise you are pulled back out to a menu. So if you want to do the same exercise again, there is no quick way to do it, you have to navigate a few menus to start it back up. Minor annoyance, but frustrating when you get a good sweat going.> The big kill was that during the workouts, the game locked up and froze. I couldn't complete a single workout. As long as I did the individual activities, there was no issue, but anytime I tried a workout, I would get 6-8 minutes into it and end up having to reboot the machine. According to the website, this was a known issue that they patched for the PS and X-box, but no patch was released for the Wii. Lots of talk on the message board about how the company is standing behind those platforms, but Wii gets to be the "red-headed-step-child".That was the end of this game. Four wasted workouts and I ended up returning the game for a refund. So very disappointed. If it worked, it would be great.First off I would like to say I was really excited to purchase the game and looked forward to the training.Upon recieving the game it immediately did a patch update to my system to be able to play. I then set out to create my profile and do the fit test. No issues yet, everything seemed great. I finished the test did a few of the bag routines and all was well. When my wife got home I had her do the same and during the fit test the game completely froze the Wii console, I had to unplug the unit and she had to start the fit test over. Once she completed the test (after 3 tries) we moved on to the heavy bag and tire lifts, both tries were unsuccessful because the game froze up again. She was so frustrated that we decided to stop and I did a little research on the UFC Pt website.It seems to be an ongoing issue with this game and the developers are very aware of it. Seems as though there have been a few patches since the game was developed, prereleased and final release to fix quite a few issues with the game. At that point I had to make a decision, wait for more updates that might fix the issue or get a refund. So I popped the game into the console to try and play again, frozen after a few punches on the heavy bag.The decision was made, return and inform others of the issues with the game.Overall I have to give the game a -1 Star because of the failure to operate properly. 2 Stars for fun factor, if it hadn't frozen all the time it might have been a 4 or 5 but we will never know because it wasn't fun reseting the power after every freeze.I still cannot understand why Amazon and other retailers of this game are continuing to sell an obviously defective product. Just looking at how many returns they must have gotten you would have thought they would suspend selling this product.Game is awesome, but do not buy for the Wii. It is extremely buggy (freezes) and the only way it doesn't freeze is if your internet connection is turned off. The controller doesn't always pick up your lunging movements so you "fail" some exercises and get yelled at by your trainer even though you completed the exercise in time. The balance board also has a hard time registering your movements, so is pretty much useless. When the game is working well it is fun and great exercise. It would work better for the Xbox as you don't need any controllers, leaving your hands free to incorporate hand weights. It is annoying having to pick up and put down controllers and the use the leg strap, which slips and falls off sometimes, and the nunchuck cord gets tangled so thankfully there is an option to use two controllers instead of a nunchuck. Also be prepared to listen to music while exercising to drown out the ridiculously repetitive speech (yes, my heart is really pumping now.... Yes, stretching is important... I get it).I didn't even get the leg strap that was supposed to come with the game. Not sure how I'm supposed to do it without. I have to find something else or modify one.Good Book. I have grown up reading these book series so I thought my daughter would enjoy them. After reading about 30 pages she has noticed many spelling errors. She says....I understand what they were trying to write but it's annoying....she's 11! So good book but needs better editing.Not sure how to rate this one because I bought it for the Wii leg strap. My EA sports active leg strap was wearing out, so I bought this as it was cheaper than buying another EA sports game ( which are hard to find). Prompt delivery which was terrific. :-)Ma conjointe l'utilise régulièrement afin de se remettre en forme. Très efficace malgré la douleur aux fesses, elle continu à s'entraîner.