EA Active for Wii

The EA Sports Active game for the Wii is a follow on from the successful Wii Fit. You cannot buy this as a separate game, you need Wii Fit and the balance board to use this. Where the Wii Fit games became annoying after a while, this fitness program brings it to a new level entirely.
For a start there are better graphics, no more annoying Mii characters, you can have a representation of yourself that is more mirror image than cartoon like. The instruction videos are helpful and informative. The exercises are tailor made for a 30 day regime and are progressively harder as the week goes on. You can skip out of exercises or add them in a custom made profile.
The great thing about this program is that you can see how many calories that you are burning as you progress. These exercises really get the heart pumping and the sweat was pouring off me after the first ten minutes. You can burn anything from just under two hundred to over five hundred calories in a half hour training.
EA have really improved on the Wii Fit in many ways but the main example is the running. In Wii Fit the Mii character is not a true representaion of what you would run out in the real world. Here, it feels like you are on a running track and doing exercises that a Olympic runner would go through. You can sprint from two to six minutes and this is useful when playing sports as you only sprint over short distances.
There are however drawbacks to this program. The first is the frustrating accesories. There is a leg strap that the nunchuk is placed in on your right leg. Now, if you are doing exercises that involve the legs which is practicly all of them then the strap becomes loose and you have to constantly adjust or tighten it in the middle of a run. When you tighten it too much the stitches holding it together give way so I can see a need to get replacement straps almost every couple of months.
The resistance band is great once you get used to it but it does become awkward at times when you have to go changing from one exercise to the next.
The most irritating thing about this program is that you have to have the Wii remote in certain positions for it to register. If you are doing reverse alternating lunges with toe touches, it can actually stop and you are there waving the remote in the air up and down waiting for it to register. In frustration, I usually end up skipping the exercise altogether.
A great added feature is the sports drills that are taken to a new level in this. I enjoy the boxing, baseball and tennis drills the most. Basketball is too easy, Volleyball is hit or miss and inline skating can be a pain as they get mixed up with left and right leg so you have to think the opposite of what they are saying when you are lifting your leg. I think it is because when you have your character on screen, then that is a mirror image but as point of view is straight ahead then it gets confusing.
Overall, this is a great addition to the franchise and well worth purchasing if you are a fan of Wii Fit. I have used it for the last week and have already lost weight and one other strange fact is that my balance is almost perfect on the balance board as you do feel the difference in your legs after a session of this. I would give this 95%. Just be wary that you will be stung for replacing the leg strap as it won't work properly without it but it is worth the money.