Hands and legs with Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure slightly diverting

The worst thing about regular exercise, in my book, is how much boring it can be. At best, exercise video games can help alleviate this boredom, giving you a fun and entertaining goal to pursue that makes you forget that you are exercising.

After spending an hour with Ring Fit Adventure-The Pilates-Ring-Dating-RPG recently announced by Nintendo for Switch – I found that it was, more often than not, a slightly engaging distraction from the boredom of the exercise. Sometimes it even became a global goal that made me completely forget the movements of my body. But I remain skeptical that it will remain attractive enough to get me through weeks and months of regular training.

Put a ring on it

As soon as I held the Ring Fit itself, I found it surprisingly solid. It has a good amount of charge and offers good resistance both when you push and pull the comfortable cushioned handles (you can adjust the number of thrusts and pulls needed to register through the game settings). And unlike some other (cheaper) Pilates rings that I've tested, the Ring Fit does not turn in unexpected directions when you push and pull it. It does not seem like it will separate or give in to wear during normal use.

By plunging into the game itself, the film begins with a short five-minute video that introduces you to a world that seems to feast on some of its conscious stupidity. A torn muscular dragon has invaded the realm and your player needs to help a sensitive ring (which, of course, mimics the Ring Fit), take out the dragon by feeding it "energy training". If you accumulate enough energy to exercise, your hair is on fire, for whatever reason, which should give you an idea of ​​the untruthful tradition that surrounds everything related to the world of candies.

To move in the world of Ring Fit Adventure actually means walking or running on the spot in the real world, where a Joy-Con attached to your thigh records your level of movement fairly quickly and accurately. It sounds immediately more natural than the old Wii Fit Balance Board, where you simply ride on your toes rather than raising your legs to "walk" in most games. The thigh strap allows much more freedom of movement and natural movement, although there is a "silent mode" that prevents you from lifting your feet off the ground.

Do not expect a world wide open to explore, even if – on screen, my character was limited to one straight path for the entire demo. You can interact lightly with objects and objects in your path and right next to it, tilting the Ring Fit to aim and compress to blow them with a puff of air or pulling to suck them up like a vacuum. You can also collect coins in the air or reach higher platforms by jumping, which requires not a real world jump, but a compression of the Ring Fit down.

Although it is good to have Something do everything while running, while sailing Ring Fit Adventure Until now, this sounds more like a chore than a trip to a magical world of exploration. Even in a single session, this minimal diversion seemed to be a weak excuse to chain the enemy battles, where the most serious exercises take place.

Let's go to the physical

Turn-based battles allow you to choose the type of exercise you want to perform for each attack. It seems like there will be dozens (though many are unlocked only slowly as you progress). During my short play sessions, I attacked my enemies by lifting their legs, pretending to sit on an invisible chair, squeezing my thighs, doing push-ups "in boards "and stretching the Ring Fit like a bow and arrow. You can not simply rely on a favorite exercise either; each attack must cool for a moment before you can choose it again.

For all these actions, I was asked to make several representatives in time with an on-screen indicator, which speeds up as the attacks continue. The game makes a small effort to evaluate your form and encourage the correct movement (increasing the potential for damage), but that does not seem to be a major concern as long as you actually move. And between attacks, I had to squeeze the Ring Fit against my abs to protect the enemy's counter-attacks.

As an excuse to test different forms of exercise, these turn-based battles seemed sufficient, I suppose. But I found myself so focused on the timing and form of each exercise that I hardly noticed the effect I was doing on the enemies, or that there was an external "game" unfolding. Diverting from the difficulty and boredom of the exercise, the combat system is up to now a failure.

Aside from the basic "Adventure" mode, I've also had the opportunity to try mini-games using Ring Fit as a new, interesting control method. My favorite game was a kind of mole-style game that required turning the Ring Fit like a steering wheel and squeezing or pulling to send mole hammers. This was the highlight of my demo, providing 30 seconds during which I was so focused on my task (and effectively reaching a high score) that I did not realize that my muscles (and my heart rate) were under pressure until it's finished.

I also tried a game that consisted of aiming crates and taking them out with puffs of air, which suffered a bit from the imprecision of the sensitivity to the Ring Fit movement. Yet another game just made me squeeze the Ring Fit in and out as quickly as possible, which ended up feeling more painful than distracting.

There is certainly enough novelty and verve for Ring Fit AdventureIntroducing to get through an exercise session for one hour without succumbing to fatigue. But it is far from clear whether the simplistic design of the game and "watching the numbers go up" will provide enough distraction to encourage the achievement of long-term exercise goals. We'll know more when we try the $ 80 package at home before it's launched in October.