Fitness Boxing was released on Switch at the end of 2018. Far from benefiting from the marketing power of Nintendo like its colleague Ring Fit Adventure, the title developed by Imagineer has nevertheless managed to pull out of the game, and to pass the milestone of 1M copies sold at the end of the summer.
Now, aware of the commercial potential of its license, the Japanese studio has decided to do it again (once again with the help of Nintendo in the West). The result is a Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise in the direct line of its now illustrious predecessor.
As much to say it right away, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise is extremely close to the first opus, as well in the substance as in the form. It is therefore always a question of fitness software combining a rhythm game and a fitness session based on boxing movements. The overall impression of your servant on the concept and its operation remaining unchanged, it is therefore recommended first to read the test of the original episode available at this address. Is it good, are you up to date? Well. Now let’s talk about the specifics of this suite.
When starting Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise for the first time, people who have played the first episode are invited, if they wish, to import the data related to their use of the latter. If this feature obviously only concerns some of the potential players of this second episode, it is nonetheless practical for regular users of the first game in the sense that it gives the possibility of continuing to monitor their in-game activity.
Fitness Boxing : A la carte training
As was already the case in the first Fitness Boxing, the interest of this suite lies in the motivation and seriousness of its user. The game assumes that the player does what they want them to do right and doesn’t just shake the Joy-Con to trick the system into making it look like they’re doing the right thing. And if the system works well overall, it still happens that the game misses certain movements (to partially remedy this problem, performing sharp and very marked movements is always useful). If the user realizes that he cannot perform one or more movements correctly, or that he is physically unable to perform certain movements and that this leads to his statistics, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise offers increased possibilities in terms of personalization of the experience.
A turn in the options of the game makes it possible to see that this time we benefit from much more control over the experience. For example, it is possible to exclude certain types of movements from the sessions offered by the game (lowering, rotating dodging, etc.). And if an exclusion is too drastic for the user, he can ask the game to consider a certain type of gesture to be successful automatically.
When the player has the impression of feeling a penalizing latency when exercising in table mode, he can also adjust the “command/evaluation offset” and the “sound/animation offset” using gauges provided for this effect. In general, the user has control over almost all the elements of the game. This is an excellent thing, both for people playing in special conditions and for players with disabilities who would also like exercise with their Switch.
Fitness Boxing : Fitness Scoring
Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise is clearly not a title designed as a game for the hardcore gamer. However, it appears that its developers have made efforts to “gamify” the experience. In addition to communicating the “serious” statistics at the end of each exercise (successful movements, missed movements, percentages of success per movement, the estimate of calories burned, etc.), the game also displays a score counter. The latter obviously increases when the player succeeds in the movements displayed on the screen. And to make it climb, even more, a gauge gradually fills up when the requested actions are correctly performed. When the latter is full, and the player arrives at the end of the series combo phase, the game then switches to a special display mode allowing even more points to be earned.
The overall progression allows you to unlock new exercises, trainers or songs to sweat on, but the accomplishment of certain actions or attendance serves to validate “Challenges.” These, which can make you think of Trophies or Achievements, serve as in-game currency to unlock personalization elements for virtual coaches. This The “gamification”, clearly optional for those who do not perceive Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise as a video game, can, on the other hand, serve as additional motivation for those for whom getting back into shape is not a sufficient objective.
The overall progression allows you to unlock new exercises, trainers or songs to sweat on, but the accomplishment of certain actions or attendance serves to validate “Challenges.” These, which can make you think of Trophies or Achievements, serve as in-game currency to unlock personalization elements for virtual coaches. This The “gamification”, clearly optional for those who do not perceive Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise as a video game, can, on the other hand, serve as additional motivation for those for whom getting back into shape is not a sufficient objective.
Another appreciable modification from which this sequel benefit lies in the deepening of the indications given to the player. For example, virtual trainers are more talkative and give more information and instructions both before and during exercises. Statistics and other data related to the use of the game are more numerous and detailed and are used to follow its progress and see the areas that require more work. The developers have also added a small metronome-like indicator that allows the player to keep pace during a workout. The only downside is that this indicator is too small to be truly visible when the game is used in nomadic mode (in other words when the console is not connected to a television screen).
Fitness Boxing : Stingy playlist
As for the Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise playlist, luckily there is a whole new set of songs coming up. And here too, it is possible to notice a difference with the first episode. Indeed, in addition to the instrumental (and re-orchestrated) versions of well-known songs (Hot N Cold by Katy Perry, YMCA of Village People, Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf, Sandstorm by Darude, etc.), the game also offers to do exercise on a handful of original music, composed especially for the occasion. This is not necessarily useful, but swinging your hips on them gives the possibility of recording a video of the exercise.
As was already the case in Fitness Boxing, it would have been nice if this playlist was more extensive. As it stands, it only has 23 songs, and regular users will quickly have the impression of always hearing the same music. That being said, a link to the Switch’s eShop on the game’s main menu raises the question of whether additional songs can not be purchased later. Unless this potential DLC concerns new exercises. Trying to access the eShop from the game menu leads to an error message. This clue seems, in any case, to indicate that the game will receive additional content sooner or later.
Even if it turns out to be very close to the first Fitness Boxing overall, offers a more complete and more comfortable experience than its predecessor, in particular via the additional options for customizing sessions, more in-game comments or more detailed statistics, this suite designed by Imagineer goes further than the original game and adds sophistication to the experience offered. And if comfort has also been increased for the user, the presence of dubbing in French would once again have been welcome.