“ExerBeat,” the latest Wii exercise game, is like one of those “Favorite Hits of the ’70s” collections you see in the checkout line at Walgreens. “Dancing Queen”? “More Than a Feeling”? $1.99? Awesome! You get home, pop it in the CD player, and immediately realize the songs sound a little … off. Then you read the fine print on the back of the CD case: “As sung by the stars of Studio Hollywood.”
“ExerBeat” is your favorite hits from “Wii Fit,” “Wii Play” and “Wii Sports Resort,” as performed by the stars of Namco. This sort of wink-wink plaigarism is a long tradition in video games — Rareware’s successful “Banjo-Kazooie” and “Diddy Kong Racing” pretended “Super Mario 64” and “Mario Kart 64” never existed — but “ExerBeat” is such a blatant ripoff of “Wii Fit,” down the the stamp you use to mark your workout calendar on days you’ve burned calories, I’m surprised it made it through Nintendo’s offices with a license and not a lawsuit.
Still, like with a Walgreens cover of “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” some of the goodness of the source material can’t help but shine through.
| ‘ExerBeat’ |
| » System: Wii |
| » Price: $19.99 |
| » Rating: 2 out of 5 stars |
“ExerBeat” serves up activities from hip-hop dance to yoga to karate, each led by an instructor of corresponding ethnicity, and, in the style of “Wii Fit Plus,” you can program custom workouts so exercises are served up in your preferred sequence, without having to navigate menue screens in between every activity. In the style of “Wii Play,” there’s a mode called Around the World that, like an airline rewards card, converts your exercises into miles. Every time you burn calories, your Mii avatar makes progress on a whimsical globe, and fun facts accompany each destination. Touches like this that tie your workouts together are what separate workout games from workout videos, and this is “ExerBeat’s” best feature.
And, because the Namco folks couldn’t help themselves, the “party” exercises include a swordfighting mode that could hardly be more reminiscent of “Wii Sports Resort.”
The resulting variety pack is head and shoulders above the “EA Sports Active” and “Biggest Loser” games, and it could serve a purpose as a low-cost alternative to “Wii Fit,” or an expansion pack for that game if you’ve played it a million times. But if you’re dead set on a Wii exercise game without “Fit” in the title, “Gold’s Gym Dance Workout,” which also costs 20 bucks, remains by far the best choice.
