The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout - Xbox 360

My husband and I bought the Kinect for Christmas with the intention of playing Dance Central. While we love the Dance Central game, I have to admit that The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout is my favorite "game." I use the term "game" lightly as it really is a workout. I have the Wii and own Wii Fit (and Wii Fit Plus) & EA Sports, but The Biggest Loser for Kinect is the best workout game I have played. It is so wonderful to work out and not have to worry about any controller.What I like:*As I said before, I love that there is no controller to worry about. This makes it feel more like a workout routine and easier to focus on actually doing the moves rather than wondering where to put a controller.*Workout Customization. The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout allows the user to take a fitness test before deciding on a routine. This helps place your workout in an appropriate level of difficulty. However, you are still able to change the difficulty, if you want an easier or harder workout. The system also lets the user chose what areas of the body they want to focus on. I will be honest, I am pretty out of shape and was worried that the game would be too difficult for me, and was surprised when I was placed in the "moderate" level. This was a challenge, but not crazy hard. I am happy to know that there are still several levels that are more difficult that I can progress into.*So, it sounds crazy, but I like that the trainers provide feedback and encouragement. This helps motivate me to finish the workout or push through a difficult exercise. I have to admit, Bob says: "Perfect, just like a yoga master" so many times I hear it in my sleep, but it still helps. The trainer checks in and asks how you are holding up or if you need a break. The Kinect allows for you to respond verbally, which is awesome.*Lifestyle tips. Although many of the lifestyle tips are common sense, I like that the game provides challenges to the user in their daily life. The game also has recipes and additional tips, but I have not really used these much. The few that I checked out seemed cool, though.*Customization. The game lets you select how long your workouts are (from less than 15 minutes and up) and how often you work out. I like that I am able to create my schedule and feel awesome when I stick to it.What I don't like so much:*Controls. While working out, I have no issues with the Kinect sensing my movements. However, trying to select something off the main menu is difficult. I don't know why it is a problem in this game, as I have Dance Central and don't have this issue. I wish you could use the XBox controller to navigate through some of these menus. For example, creating your avatar is pretty painful and takes too long. I finally gave up and used the default avatar out of frustration. But again, once I was in the game working out, I didn't have a problem.*Graphics. I realize that I didn't buy this game for the flashy graphics, but instead wanted an excellent workout. While the graphics aren't horrible, they are not the best. Trust me, though, you won't notice when you are working out. :)Overall, I really love this game. In my opinion (as someone who didn't exercise a lot), it is an excellent workout. It's challenging, and although I was a bit sore after a few of the workouts, I feel better. I am only a few weeks into the program and have noticed that when I started, I had a hard time doing the amount of jumping jacks in the routine, now I am able to do double the amount. It's a small victory, but I am proud of it.

I agree with others posting here that it is hard navigate. The icons are simply pictures and you have to hover over them to see what those icons represent. Only thing is that if you hover too long it takes you there. Then it wastes your time with the 'weigh in' ceremony which is a total joke since it relies on you telling them how much you weigh. So far I don't see a way to skip the weigh in. Also, it makes you agree to do things like walking to the grocery store instead of driving or skip second helpings at dinner which I also think is a joke! I only want to lose like 15 lbs total so I already do other things like skip 2nd helpings. And walking to the grocery store with a kid and then having to carry those groceries all the way back home is just not practical. Plus losing those last 15 lbs is really hard so my weigh in sessions don't change much and I get penalized for not losing enough. I never use the recipes on the game either. One of the reasons I bought the game was for the variety in the workouts, but most of them seem fairly similar to me. Either that or I haven't been able to find differrent workouts yet because of the issues with navigation.Having said all that, I do get a good workout and I sweat! I like being able to pick which muscle groups I want to focus on for a particular workout. Then you can also make up your own workouts and save those workouts so you can repeat them a different day.Things that should be fixed include doing a better job at recognizing you and your body movements, incorporating exercises with dumbbells, getting better music that will pump you up and allowing you to get to your workouts quicker.

By way of background, I purchased my xbox kinect in January and have used (and reviewed) Your Shape Fitness Evolved and EA Sports Active 2. I have completed the six week program of EA on "hard" and have worked on and off with the Your Shape Program, but have not completed my personal training goal because I have not used it as consistently.I performed the fitness test and the first day of exercises with Biggest Loser. I believe the program combines the best of Your Shape and EA Sports Active 2, and gives me the best workout with the least headache. Obviously, I have not fully explored the program, and I do agree that the various icons and menus are a pain to use but once you actually get started, the workout really kicks your butt.The calorie counting is not accurate as measured against my Polar Heart Rate Monitor, but neither was Your Shape and neither was EA Sports (which includes its own Heart Rate Monitor). I've never seen the television program, so I can't say how it compares to sitting on your ass, but I can say that the workout on "hard" is very intense. And not so hard on my ankles as EA Sports which has a tremendous amount of jumping and jumping/squatting.The Kinnect tracking is very good, though for some exercises I can't quite figure out why it is telling me to do one thing and the trainer seems to be showing me something different in terms of how far to bend my elbows -- but that is a minor point.I burned 500 calories in 40 minutes and I was out of breath for quite a bit of my first workout. I could not complete all of the push-ups, and could not quite keep up with about 25% of the exercises. On EA Sports, I could go 45 minutes and burn a little less in the calorie department and never really feel like I was totally out of breath. Biggest loser has easier levels which would be less strenuous and one level that is higher than where I'm at now. I like that "Hard" is hard enough with room to grow into "intense" when and if I am ready for it.All three programs are good, in my opinion. The tracking in EA Sports is the worst of the lot but then again, it does not really "grade" you on performance (and with the new update, does not even bother tracking you when you are on the floor). Biggest Loser and Your Shape do great tracking. Your Shape has no floor exercises (push ups, sit ups, planks, etc) and no stretching. Biggest Loser has all sorts of exercises. I am not sure if it has weights, games or classes incorporated into the workouts but I don't really need that as I do my weight lifting separately and really just want great cardio -- this program delivers that in spades.