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I have reviewed dozens of fitness games over the course three years now. In my time, I’ve learned there are two types of these so called games, Fitness Entertainment, Fitness Software and Fitness Games. Fitness Entertainment are apps that are geared towards fun rather than fitness, think your Just Dance Series. Fitness Software focus more on the Fitness than the game part. Think you’re Wii Fits and the likes. Fitness Games are the perfect combination of the two. They are the perfect blend of focus around Fitness and Gaming. My favorite games, such as Ring-Fit Adventure, fall into this category. Luckily, Thrill of the Fight falls into that category and may take the crown as one of my favorite fitness games of all time. At least it would’ve if not for some bugs and a lack of content.
[Introduction]
Thrill of the Fight is a VR boxing game available through Steam and the Meta Store. I got my version as part of a subscription to Meta Quest Plus and played it on my Quest 3. All of the footage behind me is from that version. Thrill of the Fight puts you in first person mode as you box against multiple opponents. The game was originally developed by a sole developer back in 2019. Thrill of the fight is legendary in the VR community for how much people sweat and burn calories. I decided to take on that conception as see how many calories I can burn in thirty days. Watch ahead to my review or you can click the chapters in the description below to skip to the statistics section.
Thrill of the Fight has you punch through different ranks and exercises to become king of the boxer. The gameplay is super simple, where you hold each controller in your hand, and begin boxing. There are no need for any buttons at all unless you need to cheat and pause the game for a breather. Hey… guilty as charged for doing that myself. As far as boxing goes, this game nails punching and blocking. The game registers your jabs, hooks, and uppercuts with ease. How hard you hit correlates with how much damage you do. That damage threshold can be automatically calculated or be set by you which is a very nice feature.
Blocking opponent punches is just a bit hard since you don’t have arms in VR, so you can’t tell where you are blocking from. When starting the game, you must stand on this scale and look at the camera. It’s a smart way for the headset to calculate your height. Although I do feel that the computer opponent does punch a bit too high making blocking a bit weird. Wish there was a way I can set how tall I am which could help fix that issue.
Other than height calculations and blocking issues, what really is missing in Thrill of the Fight, is the movement. If you corner your opponent, chances are they will just stay there. The enemy AI is missing all the lateral movement you get when sparing in real life. Again, none of these issues are bad enough that would cause me to rate the game badly or anything, these are all just tweaks that should happen when the Sequel finally releases.
Outside of the gameplay, you have loads of different characters and modes to choose from. Each of the game’s ten characters has four different default difficulty options. Ranging from so easy I didn’t break a sweat to I’m so fat I can’t do this anymore. Besides these fights, you have training options on speedbags, punching bags, and a dummy, and you can face off against ghosts and other creatures in specialty fights. The side features are cool to mess around with for thirty minutes but fighting the ten default characters is what’s really needed here. The ten characters do all fight the same and don’t really have a personality. Only difference is how hard the difficulty gets with each new match.
I will say my favorite feature of this game is the mixed reality mode. Instead of being in the arena, the character comes to your environment, and you face off against them. This is a magical experience and a great way to ensure you don’t bunch up some of your stuff. Here is footage of me in my living room boxing it out in front of my TV. A great way to make sure I don’t actually punch it.
Calling the game a workout is understating it. Whenever this game comes up, everyone talks about how tired they are or how much it hurts their arms. Let me tell you… it’s all true. I caked in sweat every time I took off the headset. My biceps and shoulders hurt badly due to how much of a workout you get with this game. The exercise basically comes down to shadowboxing. As someone who has done boxing in high school and has played dozens of boxing games, I believe Thrill of the Fight is as close as possible. There is just something about VR that makes you want to go all full force and attack the opponent more than you would in something like rhythmic boxing.
During my playthrough of this game, I beat both the easy and normal difficulty levels. I got halfway through the endurance class when I had to give up. I do not have the stamina to beat some of the harder battles, especially as a nearly three-hundred-pound obese man. That brings me to my main complaint about this game. Outside of the fighting, there really isn’t any content. The before-mentioned speed bag stuff is just a distraction. There aren’t any training options in this package. You do have a coach in this game, but he doesn’t talk to you or do anything other than give you a thumbs-up. I get it, as this game was made by a single guy. Not to mention, the price of this package is incredible at only ten dollars. I probably want a little more meat on these bones when Thrill of the Fight 2 comes out sometime next year.
With my complaints out of the way, let’s get to the burndown. During my twenty-seven-day period, I played the game for twenty-four days. Always try to take a day off, usually on Sundays, for a break. Over those twenty-four days, I burned a crazy four-thousand nine-hundred and forty-two calories. That comes down to an Average Calorie per session burn rate of two hundred and five calories. I played the game for seven hours, twenty-three minutes, and fifty-four seconds. That brings me to an average time per session of eighteen minutes and thirty seconds. With all this calculated, my burn rate of calories per minute is eleven points thirteen. That is insane for a video game. Like I said, I am a six-foot-two, nearly three-hundred-pound man. Playing Thrill of the Fight is equivalent to me jogging as far as burn rate is concerned.
While there is much room for improvement, I absolutely loved Thrill of the Fight. What this package does for a ten-dollar game created by a single developer is astounding. While yes, there are a few bugs, such as the room spawning outside my room, some bugs here and there, and a lack of meat… you just can’t beat that price. For Thrill of the Fight 2, the developer partnered with a much larger studio, Half Brick Studios, to bring in the ultimate boxing game. I like many people, and I will be there from day one on release to burn more calories and strengthen my arms.
So, guys, that is for today’s review of Thrill of the Fight. If you like this video, please give it a big thumbs up. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos. If you have any ideas on any challenges, you want me to complete, please leave them below. I will do pretty much any challenge that won’t hurt me. Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more content. Follow me on X and Instagram @truejackjenk. Lastly, have a fantastic day, everyone. All you guys are watching is just so incredibly amazing! Besides boxing and losing weight, there are other ways to improve your life. No matter what, you can’t improve it alone. You have to improve it… together.