No, it wasn’t directed at my father, it was directed at myself. Yesterday was Fathers Day, and it was a good one. I’ve been a dad now for three years, and I have to be honest by saying that this was the first one when I really felt like I deserved a day for being one. It’s been a rough year with the two kids, the daughter was diagnosed as diabetic last year, and the boy has had chronic ear and sinus infections, and was just slated to have his tonsils and adenoids taken out. I still say Mother’s day is more deserved, at least for my wife, because she’s the level headed one.  But, it was nice to have a day put there to say, “huzzah for me and my working genitals”….er…”you’ve worked hard, go take a nap”. Yeah that’s more like it.

Anyways, I was showered with gifts in the early hours, and among the lawn gnome and water pistols, I received a copy of EA Active for the Wii. I have been attempting to get back into shape in the last few weeks. I started about a month ago by increasing my water intake and watching how much I ate. I haven’t changed my actual diet too drastically, I have tried that in the past, and it just doesn’t work for me. I wanted to get some form of workout going to help my effort in losing mass, so I started back on the Wii Fit. I bought the Fit right when it was released, and like alot of people, used it for a couple weeks and shelved it. The games were a bunch of fun, and even more fun for people just wanting to watch you make and ass of yourself, but there really wasn’t a solid regiment. After looking at some reviews for EA Active I spoke with Aberrant one night about wanting to see what it was like. To my surprise, he already owned it, and spoke highly of it. Since I know Ab’s high water mark standards for games (see his Peggle review), I In turn mentioned it in passing to my wife. She never forgets anything I say, so with a quick trip to the store, she granted my wish.

I tried the EA Active that night. Having the Wii balance board from the Fit gives you a few more options on some workouts. Its not a requirement, but it makes it a bit more interesting. I entered some personal information including my weight (mass) which I found odd. The one glaring usefulness of the Wii balance board which does not get used by EA Active is as a scale. You still have to input your own weight manually. I figured at least they would program it in so that you could tell it to check your weight via the board. Oh well.

Next, I setup my characters look and was a bit upset with the options. Sure, I know that the Wii is not a powerhouse console, but only 6 options for hair, none of which is bald? Come on, you have to expect some middle aged men to be trying to get back into shape. I remedied the situation by throwing a hat on the hairy freak. There’s also only 4 options for body shape which equates to; stick thin, average joe, Billy Badass, and Patrick Star. After choosing a sweet jogging suit and some fly kicks, I hit day 1 of my program.

Which of these do you most resemble?

Day 1 consisted of some running, kickboxing which was much more of a workout than the Fit’s version, some squats, leg extensions, inline skating which was harder than it looked, bicep curls with the big ass rubber band (included), leaning rows (again with band), and a repeat of all of the exercises with increasing intensity. Immediately, I can say that the one thing I like about EA Active over its Nintendo branded counterpart is the fact that it keeps coming at you. With the Wii Fit, you have to individually choose every exercise you do. The day 1 of my “light program” took about 35 minutes to complete, and I was sweating profusely after it’s completion. I didn’t feel like I was going to keel over, but I felt like I got a solid workout. The Wii Fit has too much time in between exercises, and I don’t feel pushed to keep going after about 15 or 20 minutes.

Rubber band made of space age underwear elastic

My only initial gripe about the actual workout is the big ass rubber band. Granted, the workouts are mostly aimed at a cardio workout, but I really would have hoped to have at least two bands of varying thicknesses included with the package. The one boxed in is very flimsy. I’ve even seen complaints on EA’swebsite about it breaking after a week’s worth of use. It offers almost no true resistance, even if you choke up your foothold on it like the video says. I may try to visit a sporting goods store and see if they carry a thicker band that I can adapt to it, cause these guns ain’t gonna get bigger themselves.

All of my negatives regarding the Wii Fit aside, I think its still a great program. Time will tell with my EA Active workout, but I may end up using both. They seem to almost compliment each other. The Wii Fit offers better balance and stretching exercises, whereas EA Active gives you a harder cardio workout. It’s only day 1, so wish me luck in my effort to stick to it. I’ll update you on my status as I go. Stay tuned!