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Let’s Get Fit is easily up there as the most comprehensive fitness game I have ever played. Containing pretty much everything that I wanted in a fitness title since I started this series. Generated custom workouts, programs, challenges, badges and goals, over 100 exercises, and more. However, the issues that plague the game bring it down a big notch, with the limited budget being incredibly apparent. Do I still recommend purchasing this game? Well… watch and find out. What’s going on, everybody! My name is Jack Jenkins, and welcome to my YouTube Channel. It’s a fitness games review and Let’s Get Fit is today’s victim.
[Introduction]
Let’s Get Fit came sneakily under the radar. I found it originally while searching the main page of the Eshop. There was no real marketing in the United States and no physical release. It’s from the same publisher of Let’s Sing, which I guess is a sister series and a franchise that I’ve been meaning to jump on for like a year now. Keep coming up with more popular ideas, so it’s getting pushed back… I’ll get to it soon. With a thirty-dollar price tag, I purchased and began my thirty-day journey on this game. My idea was to play it for thirty days every day. My goal was to burn at least two hundred calories after twenty minutes of playthrough. That seems to be my threshold in these more intensive fitness games. With that outline created, I started up the game.
On firing up, it requests using the let’s get fit straps. These straps come with the physical version that, again, did not release to America. Luckily you can go on amazon and get the wrist straps for Just Dance for about ten bucks for two. I will link what I got below in the description. They worked wonderfully in both Just Dance and this game. Using these and the Ring Fit Adventure Leg Strap is all you need to get started. Alternatively, you can use the joy-con separately. Still, the playstyle would be different, and the game won’t recognize your moves either. It sucks that there isn’t a control-less method like there is in Yoga Master. For accessibility reasons, that should one hundred percent be in every fitness-based game or motion-controlled game. Not everyone can say Run in place, so Ring Fit made the update for those in apartments or wheelchairs. The fact that this game doesn’t have this is the first of many marks against this game.
Once you are all hooked up, you complete the optional pre-game survey. It has the traditional gender, weight, and height survey that all these games have to calculate your burned calories. Put a pin in that thought for later. After your survey, you get your level and get introduced to your fitness instructors. They are Lucy, the Zen Instructor. Jeff is the overall surfer dude, bro. Julia, the party girl, and Mike, who should be in tropic thunder. Seriously though, in all the promotional art, they have him colored super dark, but he is just a tanned white guy in the game. Maybe they had to fit a diversity quota at the last minute and put this dude in photoshop. Either way, it’s pretty weird and threw me off the first time I started a program with him. All these instructors are bad stereotypes with horrible voice acting. Mike sounds like every d-bag hogging up the smith machine at Planet Fitness. Julia sounds like a Zumba instructor who will try and hit on your husband after class. It honestly reminds me of early 2000’s games when they relied much more on stereotypical humor. They don’t say anything offensive like many games back then, but the vocal performance matches that vibe.
With these characters introduced, we get to the main menu. You have three modes to choose from Free, Program, or Challenge. The free mode allows you to choose whatever pre-made workout is available or generate your own. You can’t actually create your own routine, though, which is another mark against this game. The issue with the generator is I’ve run into it telling me it’s impossible to generate a workout based on my options many times. If it’s impossible, don’t give the player these specific combinations. Seriously it’s user experience 101. Overall, the generator works fine when it does give you options, and the pre-made workouts are okay. I wish there could be more customizability with the option of creating your own workout from scratch, like with Yoga Master. Still, I understand the developers were on a limited budget.
The program is where the meat of the game lies. Each program has you run through a set of exercises that work out whatever part you choose. This section of the game relies on the results of the survey you took in the begging, so hopefully, you didn’t lie; otherwise, you will be working out well! The programs range from getting Arms of Steal to working out your Legs. Each program lasts around thirty days, and each workout lasts fifteen to twenty minutes. You can’t alternate between weird programs since you aren’t supposed to do legs daily. You need rest days, especially if you are almost three hundred pounds like me. It isn’t clear if you are supposed to take rest days in-between, so the actual program bases could be clearer.
That brings me to the Challenge mode. The challenge mode encourages you to do a specific exercise every day for thirty days. Each day the program will be extended with more reps or holding for longer. Initially, you just get a three-minute plank, but new ones open up each week. I mostly stuck with doing the seventy-crunch program since my abs are the weakest part of my body. Got to get these puppies strong. I wish there were more options available from the start… maybe like three, so you can choose one that works opposite your program. You also can’t do more than one challenge, so you better like doing pushups every day for thirty days. The same problem with how you are supposed to structure the challenges with your workouts is here, which is an issue with the overall game. Again, I understand it’s a budget title, so it is a bit forgivable.
Once you complete one of these workouts, it gets marked on your calendar. There are spots for all three categories, so I assumed you should do each every day. Ain’t nobody got time for that. So, I did the challenge and either the Free or Program modes. It worked out pretty well for me, and I recommend everyone do this. This method games me about twenty-five minutes of gameplay daily, which was pretty good. Since we are at this point, here is the sheet of my playthrough of the game. This is another game that I was quite a few days from completing the challenge because it was just too bad. The game could seriously use another six months in development to stop it from being so God damn repetitive.
Once you get to the workout, you get greeted by whatever personal trainer you got and their environment. Each one has a distinct environment which is remarkable in concept. Should have three to four each to help ease the repetitiveness and make it a more random feeling. During the workout, you see the upcoming exercises on the left side of the window. The current one you are doing will be highlighted with a timer bar showing if you are working your left or right side. After making a move, you get graded from Red to green. That then correlates to more workout points which determines your rank on the leaderboards. It’s a straightforward system that works well and is easy to understand.
One thing I would say this game does differently is the environmental changes. As you work out, the environment begins to transform based on how well you do. For example, Julia’s Dance studio will turn into a Rooftop bar to party at. The concept is an incredible motivator to work out if there is some variety. Maybe have the room transform into a different set each time or something? Of course, this game disappoints you with just a single room change. Why be adventurous and fun when you can become boring.
While I am complaining, let me get into the gameplay. The straps you purchased should make it easy for the game to read your movements. Well, surprise, the reading of motions is very hit or miss. Sometimes I can get it to work; other times, I cannot. The game does not indicate what you are doing wrong, so you can’t correct anything. For example, I am not able to get the game to read me doing a plank. Is it an issue with my hips being too high or too low? I don’t know since there is no feedback. This is something that the original Wii Fit does that this game completely ignores. It’s an incredibly frustrating experience since one of the main appeals of fitness games is real time feedback. Sure, you can ignore the points and focus on the exercises but then you can just get a better fitness program through Apple Fitness Plus. I truly don’t understand how this game has an audience.
The instructors also don’t give directions for your moves, so you don’t know what you are doing if you look away from the screen. It only shows visually which is bad design as some of the exercises have you on the ground facing away from the screen. As an added complaint, the game ties both the voice narration and sound effects into a single toggle. So, if I don’t want to hear the annoying dings from the score, I can’t hear the vocals of the coach. I have never seen both of these combined into a single option before. It’s a terrible design choice.
The game just reeks of a low budget. In fact, it’s so low-budget that the calorie counter is wholly broken. Remember when I said to put a pin in that thought… well here I am, like five minutes later. So you get done with a workout and check how many calories you burned. For some reason, a fifteen-minute workout is about a thousand calories! Apple Watch says a hundred and fifty, which sounds way more accurate. I never had a product overestimate the calories burned so much, and it just shows the utter lack of care the developers had in this product.
That brings me to a conclusion. I said before the games’ workouts and programs are some of the bests, I’ve seen in any fitness game. However, the terrible presentation, inadequate controls, stock music, and more hinder the game. I don’t think this has enough customizability or gamification to count as a video game. Hence, it’s more in the utility category and Yoga Master. And I vastly prefer Yoga Master over Let’s Get Fit. Yoga master has way more customizability, ability to skip songs and the core programs are better than Let’s Get Fit. It isn’t as fleshed out as Apple Fitness plus or even Chloe Tings’ free workouts if I compare it to these other options. It isn’t nearly as fun as Just Dance or Ring Fit Adventure. It fits in this grey area where I have to say skip it. It was only thirty dollars which is cheap. Still, you can get a better value with Ring Fit Adventure or Yoga Master. Even other things like Fitness Boxing 2, Chloe Ting’s exercise, or the myriad of other things I reviewed are better.
I will say that while I don’t like this game, I can see it’s appeal. It’s a one time, cheap payment that anybody can afford. I just hope a full-on and fully-funded sequel comes out that is incredibly polished. I am truly sick of all these thirty-dollar experiences on the switch and I believe most people would much rather pay more for a truly polished experience. For those on a budget then Let’s Get Fit is fine. However, feel there is way more bang for your buck with other options.
So, guys, that is it for today’s review of let’s get Fit. If you have different opinions, leave a comment below. If you have suggestions for future videos, also leave a comment below. Give this video and all my other ones a big thumbs up. That helps out the channel a lot by having it grow. Follow me on Twitter @truejackjenk. Visit the website jack-jenkins.com to see the complete article and more. Lastly, have a fantastic day, everyone… all you guys are truly amazing.