Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 Review: Weight Loss the Fun Way

I recently got my hands on a copy of the new Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 for the Xbox 360 Kinect. I hate to say it, but I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting to see all new classes, especially in my favorite category: Cardioboxing. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The Cardioboxing category has three classes and all of them are from the original game as are the Bollywood and Zen classes. Another downside to the new game is the lack of challenging weight and toning classes.

There has been some new material added. Warm ups and cool downs are now available, although they aren’t what you’d expect. The warm ups are two minute activities such as Hu-la-la where you swing your hips as if you were hula hooping, and kick the ball where you kick a soccer ball into one of three targets, for two minutes. It’s nice to have warm ups, but do they have to be boring?

Update: The cool downs do not come with the game; you have to purchase them through Xbox live and then download them. They are about four minutes long, and are a series of standard stretching exercises. I was disappointed at the form these stretches used. They are awkward to do, and there are many floor exercises that stretch the same muscles, and are much less awkward. Since floor work has been enabled in this game, they should have taken advantage of it.

The addition of the floor exercises, including abdominal and arm classes, has been long awaited. The abdominal classes I have to say are quite challenging. There are crunches, planks and lower abdominal exercises among others. You really feel these too! The arm classes are a series of pushups (knee pushups for beginners) triceps knee pushups and up and down planks just to name a few. These are quite effective and they do build some muscle. There are a few weight-training classes, but the majority of the arm and abs classes are floor work. So if you’re looking for strength training with weights, stick with the older version of the game.

“Run the World” is another new activity. This is rather interesting. You run in place through either New York City or London “sight-seeing.” Each race gets progressively harder and there are challenges throughout the race to improve the cardio benefits of the run. The only problem I have with “run the world” is running in place. If you have flat feet like me, you’re going to end up with shin splints. Running in place is not a good idea for flat feet unless you have orthotic inserts. This applies to the new jump rope activities too. This activity has you “jumping rope” as you alternate between one leg and two for two minutes. This was a tough one!

Update: The new downloadable content has the addition of jump rope survival mode. You start with five lives and if you miss a jump, you lose a life. I lasted a whole 30 seconds.

There are new dance classes as well, including hip-hop, Latin and African. The African dancing class reminds me of the Bollywood classes, but it’s good if you like that sort of thing. The hip-hop and Latin classes are fun and very challenging especially if you’re not coordinated! There is a “rehearsal” class that is 20 minutes long and provides a decent cardio workout. Then there’s the 12 minute “Show it off” class which is more fast paced and really gets your heart rate up.

Next up is boot camp. I’ve only done one of these classes since they seem to be geared toward men. They are fast paced and floor work is included. The “coach” attempts to act like a drill sergeant, but its more comedy than motivation.

There’s also yoga. I enjoyed the yoga classes and saw some improvement in the flexibility of my hips after the first session. Unfortunately, there is only one class and it is broken down into three shorter classes and one long class. Doing the same yoga class repeatedly gets boring, but it is challenging.

The cardio classes are new. However, there are a few mistakes. One class has you doing the “sprint knee up” twice on the same leg. I switch legs in an effort to correct the mistake, but this leads to me being out of rhythm and consequently, I don’t burn as many calories as I should according to the Kinect. There is also the addition of gluteus exercises to tone your butt. They do work, especially the new classes called “shape and burn.” (These are available in all the specialty classes including the abs and arms categories.) The shape and burn is HIIT (High intensity interval training) training with cardio and toning exercises at specific intervals to sculpt your body. HIIT training has been proven to be effective at raising the metabolism more than cardio exercise alone. This was a wonderful addition to the game.

Update: The new downloadable content for Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 is called “Back in Shape” and includes two sets of classes designed to help you lose weight and keep it off. It is meant to be done in an eight week period. There is one HIIT class for each week and each one gets progressively harder. The HIIT training is in the form of four cardio circuits and then two toning circuits. I have to say, this downloadable content, DLC, was well worth the 560 Microsoft points it cost for each bundle. The first class in the eight week program really pushed me. I was drenched in sweat when it was done. Unfortunately, I only burned about 87 calories for the 28 minute class.

I’m disappointed that some of the classes were carried over from the first game to the second. Being able to import your favorite classes from the original game would have made YSFE 2012 completely comprehensive and more personalized. It’s almost like they threw this game together using old classes to cheat and finish quicker. The calorie counting has also changed in this game. For example, the cardioboxing platinum class on the original game burned about 150 calories in 15 minutes. The same class in the new game burns only 60 calories in 15 minutes. This is very discouraging when you’re used to burning close to 1,000 calories per session with the original game, and now you can’t get over 300 with the new one.

All in all, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012 is a decent game for working out and sculpting your body, but don’t expect to build a ton of muscle like you could in the first game. Thankfully, I got it for only $10.00. I really don’t think it’s worth the $50 they charge for it.

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