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Namaste guys, I’m your guru Jack Jenkins, and today I will take you on an enlightened journey. I was once a man who was weak and scared. Thanks to the hot new Nintendo Switch game, Yoga Master, I am indeed a yoga master. Alright, I’m done with the fake hippy accent crap. What’s going on, everybody, and welcome to this fitness game review. A series where I pick up and play a fitness game for thirty days straight to see if it’s something you should play to lose weight or if it’s better left in the trash. Run that intro!
I can’t believe I got an intro and stuff… I’m so proud of myself. Today I am playing through Yoga Master as well as it’s DLC pack, Dream Fantasy. I found this game while trying to pull up Zumba, and it was on sale for only twenty dollars, including the DLC. So I figured to do this while I wait for Zumba to go on sale. That’s right, ladies, I’m a cheap ass. As I didn’t know about the game before this point, I didn’t have any expectations. My experience with Yoga personally is limited to Wii Fit and Ring Fit adventure. My girlfriend does hot Yoga, but other than that, the only ideas of Yoga I have are those hippy douche bags from TV shows. Looking at you, Dave, from two hot to handle. But what I found was Yoga itself is a pretty fun way to get all stretched out and relaxed before bed. The game Yoga Master, while the delivery of great yoga programs, is a game that needs quite a bit of work to actually become a master.
[Yoga Master Day 1 Review]
That’s right, from day one, I’ve had the feeling that the game was cheaply made, and that carried all the way to day 30. Now let me explain by starting off with the meat of the game, the actual Yoga. The game has a ton of Yoga content in it for just twenty-five bucks. There are over one-hundred, and fifty different Yoga poses in the game. As the game is more of a teaching tool, they use the actual Indian name. So instead of Warrior 1 pose in Ring Fit Adventure, they call it Virabhadrasana. Sorry about butchering that word, by the way. The game states in the beginning that this is an education tool, so maybe it’s to educate us on what these things are really called. While you don’t know the names of the poses at first, you eventually become a custom to the terms and will catch on. While I don’t think I learned what the actual names are, I can differentiate a few different yoga moves from the starting position. So the educational notice, in the beginning, wasn’t a total lie. I wish maybe it could dive in a little deeper on what yoga actually is, though. I know to some it’s not just stretching, but to me, it is. I don’t really care to know more, but if it was a part of the game, that would be nice to see.
The programs themselves are also fantastic as well. The game comes with over one hundred different programs that range from easy to hard and last anywhere from eight minutes to around an hour. While I didn’t get a chance to do them all, as I only had thirty days, what I played so far is excellent. Each program is varied enough, where I felt like the difference is noticeable and acceptable. One thing I didn’t like about the programs is that they come with a weird title and don’t tell you what they are working out. For example, they name them Wellness or Brighten Day, which is meaningless to someone like me. I’d rather have an exact name telling you what you will work out, such as Calf Stretches or Back stretches. Once you choose your program, you can adjust some settings, such as how long you want to hold each pose and whether to continuously switch to each pose or take a break between each one. One thing I wish the program would include is a way to skip a pose. When I was practicing some of the more challenging levels, I could do some of the poses, but others were just way out of my league.
I want to restate this again, the Yoga in the game is excellent in this game. There are a ton of moves and programs. The description for it on Nintendo’s website states that it is built and designed by professional yoga coaches. I feel a ton of care was put into making the different programs and making the Yoga poses authentic. However, the overall game and the packaging around it are horrible. The game reads your movements through the motion controls based on how still you are. However, when someone like me has never really done yoga before and is stretching your body for the first time, you tend to shake a lot. One review I read on Reddit from user Miiblord even states that this is a bad design idea. When doing Yoga as you want to engage your muscles, which causes shaking. It feels like this is just an idea slapped on to make it a “game” rather than basically a virtual DVD. Luckily you can turn off the tracking, so you can only use it like that. I tried it for a week with the monitoring. Not having to hold the Joycon the entire thirty-minute program is terrific. If you do get the game, I would recognize this upfront that you are basically using this as an interactive DVD.
Other than that, there really isn’t much to it gameplay-wise. You can choose your fitness instructor, but they are basically all the same model. The devs just swapped the hair and skin color and called it a day. There are about twenty different songs, including the ones from the DLC pack to choose from. All the pieces are decent to meditate for except for this one, which sounds like movie villain background music. Why did they have this in the game? If you want to add more diversity to the audio, you can choose to have sound effects play. I found these so damn annoying and just ruined my concentration. Nobody want’s to hear a monkey or bird scream while stretching out their caves.
You can change your background location as well as the time of day as well. The backgrounds they had are fantastic and look pretty cool. If only the graphics weren’t PS2 level terrible, this could have been awesome. The characters, songs, and background come right out of the box, and there is nothing to unlock. This is all you get, so there is really no reason to be motivated to play it long term.
There is the ability to create your own yoga program, which is pretty nice. I made a program that really just stretches out these tree trunk legs. Again, the plans are ordered by feelings rather than what they actually stretched. If you’re an expert in this, it is cool, and you know what “Opening to forgiveness” does to you. If you’re an average person like me, you don’t care. I don’t know what align chakras means, and I don’t give a shit. Just stretch my back already. The ability to create your own program that does what you want it to do is a necessity and a great feature.
You can also put it your body stats as well, and it can pick a program for you. The feature is nice, but there are a few issues. First, the game was pretty much made with women in mind, so the weight tops of at two hundred. This is a problem since it can’t count the calories I burned correctly. Wait a minute. The game doesn’t count calories burned. DDR Mario Mix had that feature fifteen years ago! What the heck. Secondly, You also can’t choose a part that you wanna stretch either. You can only select your weight, how flexible you are and your lifestyle fitness level. I used this feature once and never again. It’s easier just to go through each one in the poses section of the game.
The last feature in the game is a tracking icon. It tracks how long you play. That’s it. It doesn’t follow what program you do or how many yoga poses you have done. It’s useless in the grand scheme of things.
The last complaint I have of this game is one you might have noticed, and I mentioned before. The game kinda looks like a hot steaming pile of garbage. This is supposed to be out for the Switch and the PS4 in 2020. Mario DDR looks better than this crap, and it’s from 2005. That’s two reasons why Mario is better than you, Yoga Master. I said the environment would look cool, and they would if there was any effort put in. The description from Nintendo’s website says it has breathtaking settings. Sure, I stopped breathing because I can’t believe Reboot has better animation than this. Everything looks so stiff when moving. It would have been better if they had a real-life person screened to actually show you what it looks like. But then it would be just another yoga video you could lookup for free on youtube rather than a video game you had to drop twenty bucks for. Maybe if they did green screen a professional, it would help the load times. Look at this uncut example of loading the game. Wait for it. Why did it take so long… what were you loading up? Wasting my time game.
In conclusion, the yoga poses, and the programs in the game are great. It’s everything else about this game that’s a bummer. I know it’s a budget title for twenty-five bucks regular, but it had so much potential to be so much more. Let’s talk about that in my favorite segment in these Fitness games review, what I want in a sequel.
If the developers of the game, My World, are listening. First, I want to say that you have a terrible name for a game development studio. Secondly, if you follow my suggestions, Yoga Master 2 could be the best and ultimate yoga game. First, I would entirely redo the graphics. Maybe give it the right art style like Just Dance or just a green screen, a real person. That would benefit significantly as the screenshots of it make people go away. A first impression is incredibly important. Second, add even more content. Apparently, there are three hundred Yoga poses, so add a few more of those in. You can have the Indian name but also add the English title as well. Have the poses say what they will work out and maybe explain why they are titled like that. The title opens up to forgiveness means nothing to me, so explain it. You put that educational banner there for a reason so common… teach me. Third, track what the user is doing. I want a break down like Ring Fit has where I can see how long I did each pose and how many times throughout how long I’ve been playing. Also, keep track of how many times I’ve done each program. Maybe have the most played ones on the home screen so we can just jump into it. Lastly, give a reason for players to play. Have challenges and unlockables. If you are going to have it a game, then gamify it. For example, a challenge can be to do children pose three times this week, which unlocks a new clothing item for your character. There’s a lot you can do with this idea.
Overall, do I recommend this game? After all the complaining I’ve done, the answer may shock you. I recommend you pick it up on sale for twenty bucks. Why, well, a Yoga DVD is fifteen dollars on Amazon for one program. You get over one hundred in this game for twenty. While yes, you can watch youtube videos, I feel like having programs crafted by experts in professional Yoga is valuable. Again, I feel like My World spent a great deal of time crafting the experience of Yoga, and it shows. I had a great time doing the actual Yoga, and I have stretched myself enough that I can now reach the floor. Watch! How cool is that! It’s the game portion and the packaging I have a problem with. Let’s hope for Yoga Master 2 to come out and resolve all of these issues. My World… god, what a terrible name for a development studio.
So guys, thank you so much for watching this video on Yoga Master. If you like this video, please thumbs up, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. You can expect a new video every single Friday on things such as self-development, product tries, and Fitness Game Reviews. If you have any suggestions on videos you would like to see, then please leave a comment. I try and make sure to make any request posted as I love trying new and interesting things. Follow us on Twitter @TrueJackJenk. Lastly, have a fantastic day, everyone.