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It’s time for the fifth and final game in my Budget fitness game review month. I am finishing the month with a game that I couldn’t too much information on. I am playing Yoga for Wii or the first one hundred percent yoga experience for Wii if you want to go by the full title. For the rest of the review, though, I will stick with the more straightforward name.
[Intro]
The game starts off by introducing you to polish model Anja Rubik, who is also on the box’s cover. She will pop up from time to time to explain the benefits of Yoga or why you should do a particular exercise in these video cutscenes.
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They must have spent a pretty penny to be in this game, considering how the rest of the game turned out, but more on that later. After her introduction, you get the main menu. You can choose from starting the story mode to doing a single pose or doing a set of poses in a predetermined order in the routine mode. Lastly, you can go to the settings to select what you will be using as your equipment. The game supports the Wii balance board in the same way that the Yoga games in Wii Fit did. I had it on for the moves that allowed access so the game can measure my movements better.
As you all may know, I am a sucker for a story in video games, and the concept of this one sounded super intriguing. Basically, you walk through this multi-level Indian temple exploring different objects. Once you get near an object, your guide will tell you what it is, the history, and how it relates to Yoga. For example, you walk across a picture of a chakra point, and the guide will tell you what it does. After you meet a few objects, you then learn a yoga pose from another guide or our girl Anja Rubik. Rinse and repeat for two hours. That sounds perfectly fine and a great way to learn about Yoga in concept. I say in concept a few times just because in practice… it’s a little rough around the edges.
My first issue is in the beginning when you are choosing a guide. It’s not in the graphics since you know it’s okay for a Wii game but try and listen closely.
[Play footage audio]
Precisely, why does the audio in the game sounds like that? I sound like crap since I’m doing this on Youtube for free, and I don’t know how to work this camera. The game cost fifty dollars, and all the audio in the game sounds like the microphone was just at the highest level right next to the person’s face. Apart from Anja Rubriks cutscenes, all audio sounds like this for every character. Nothing like trying to relax while someone is peaking the volume on your TV. I also noticed a few glitches where the characters will throw different voices at the same time.
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That kept happening when trying to do different poses. Sometimes, it would happen while switching to varying poses in the routine mode. It’s not that big of a deal, but it happens enough that it makes you wonder if they tested for these bugs first. There are also a few graphical glitches and pop-ups that make the game feel a little unpolished. Speaking of unpolished the story mode has another pretty significant issue. It is boring as all hell. It’s not the museum part that is. In fact, I found that learning about the various chakra points and styles of Yoga extremely helpful, and I wish other yoga games like Yoga Master did so. What is boring is the in-between parts. See, the temples are big, and your character moves on rails slowly. This means there are vast sections of the game where your character is just walking with nothing else going on and nothing you can really do but watch. Here, Watch this section.
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Alright, I’m going to stop the clip there. That was forty seconds between when the guide stopped talking, walked to the following location, and began talking. It wouldn’t be so bad, but there are like thirty items and ten poses to reach the room. Sometimes, there is a whole minute and a half of nothing but the guide walking to the next object. A simple fix for this would be to have you walk yourself around using the d-pad of the Wii remote. You can stop your guide by hitting the B-Button and then clicking on her. You can then choose to go to a different pose in the temple, but if you want to see all the objects, you have to wait for them to slowly walk around. It’s boring. I was so excited about the temple concept. It’s so good and such a great way to frame learning Yoga in a videogame like this. As I said, they teach you a lot, including how vitamins affect the body, which is super neat… it’s just such a slog to get through.
Once you get to the Yoga poses, the game doesn’t do much better. Remember in Wii fit or in Yoga Master how you get a little score once you are done? Well, you don’t get that in this game. Once you complete a pose… you just move on to the next. You see how your weight is distributed on the screen using a heat map, but it’s not as good as an interface as Wii fit. There is also no timer to show you how long you are doing the exercise for so you just kind of sit there waiting. Not all the activities use the Wii balance board or the Wii remote. That makes sense since some of these are pretty intense moves, such as the four-limbed staff pose or Chaturanga Dandasana. Sorry for butchering that word… I can’t speak Sanskrit at all. For the thirty poses in the game, about ten don’t use any method for measurement. I will say that even Wii fit didn’t use the balance board for some poses, which makes sense.
There are four floors to the temple, and you can move from each one with ease. I was on the fourth floor of the game when it just ended without notice. It was super weird like they forgot to make a proper ending or anything. Just watch.
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Alright… well, the game ended, I guess. No credit song or… I think they didn’t expect anyone to suffer through that story mode to get to the ending? Once you beat the story mode… nothing happens. There are no unlockables in the game. You can just replay the Yoga poses you learned to do, go through the predetermined poses or replay that story mode. When doing the poses, you don’t get any settings or timer. The game doesn’t tell you when they are switching poses other than the visual cue card, which doesn’t help when facing down. It just needs so much more polish. Did the developers spend all the money on Anja Rubik? I mean, it’s cool and all, but she’s not that big of a deal. Spend the money-making the game.
Do I recommend the game? The answer is honestly no. Yoga Master beats the game pretty quickly in terms of a better Yoga experience. The leading hook of the game, the story mode, falls flat due to an abundance of glitches and how completely dull it is. I guess if you’re a big Anja Rubik fan… sure? Otherwise, I would look elsewhere for your Yoga experience.
So, guys, thank you so much for watching this video review of Yoga Wii. That wraps up Budget month with Smurf’s dance party taking the cake. I’ll stick to the world of Yoga when I review the new expansion DLC for Yoga Master titled Meditation Studio. To see that video when it comes up, please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Follow me on Twitter @truejackjenk. Lastly, have a fantastic day, everyone. All you guys are completely outstanding.