LOOKING LIKE A KNOCKOUT

It's getting close to summer and everyone wants to look their best. One of the recent big fads in gaming has been Nintendo's releases of fitness games to help you burn calories and shed pounds and to continue lasting the vein of last summer's sensation, Wii Fit. The best part of most of these games is they have proven that if you keep up the regimen dictated by the games, you will actually get into better shape and lose weight.

Of course, a lot of these exercises depend on the Wii's Balance Board so it is almost like a gym membership since you're dropping $90 for the board and Wii Fit and another $40-$50 on any supplemental games.

So, jumping on the fitness and working out at home bandwagons, a couple of recent releases for the Wii are trying their best to help you fit into that itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny yellow polka-dot bikini for the ladies or, for the guys, to look good to pick up that lady in the yellow bikini. These two games are Ubisoft's Gold's Gym Cardio Workout and 2K Sports' Don King Boxing.

Don King's Boxing

Now, the Gold's Gym game is an obvious title for a workout game, but Don King Boxing? In order to appeal to a larger audience, yes. One of the key features of this game is a workout mode that has you jumping rope, hitting a speed bag, shadow boxing, doing squats, or hammering a punching bag and the exercises work, especially the jumping rope. My calves were on fire after that. The problem is that the game awards you "fitness points" as you workout instead of just telling you how many calories you're burning so you never know how effective your workout is going and what areas you need to work on more.

Another nice feature about the workout mode is that the Wii Balance Board also acts a scale before each workout so you can track your progress each day, but this feature comes standard with Wii Fit so it's nothing spectacular.

If you can't just get yourself up to working out, even with video games, the game has an interesting story mode to help you get moving and shedding pounds. The cinematic scenes for the story mode are great because they are live action and the story plays out like a documentary feature as you progress. The only problem with the story itself is it sounds like an adaptation of the first four Rocky movies.

You start off as a kid on the streets. You work your way up boxing in dilapidated gyms when the champion gives you a shot after he cannot find any decent competition. You beat the champion and become best friends with him. Then you beat some difficult heavyweight contenders coming after your belt. Then a behemoth boxer from overseas comes out of nowhere and challenges your friend in an exhibition. The behemoth knocks out your friend so hard that he dies in the ring. You then avenge your friend and retain your title by pummeling the behemoth in the ring for the entire world to see. All played out, of course, to "Eye of the Tiger" by Foreigner.

Add to the lack of originality, the fact that you can't even customize your boxer and he has to be known as "The Kid" for the entirety of the game is frustrating.
The only real interesting aspect of the story mode was when you got the chance to get into the shoes of Archie Moore, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, and many other legends and replay some of the great matches of all time in order to teach your boxer a cliché lesson like "it ain't over till it's over". Considering though the licensing rights that have already been snatched up by EA for Fight Night Round 4, the real legends you would want to see like Ali, Tyson, or Holyfield for the more casual fan, are nowhere to be seen.

You would hope from a boxing game for Wii that you would have better controls than Wii Sports' boxing that launched with the system, but the ones in Don King's Boxing might actually be worse. You never throw the punches you want to throw with your motions. Not that it matters since the A.I. is so sad that you can get away with just flailing your arms wildly and still walk away with a win. The entire story mode only takes a maximum of four hours to complete because of its simplicity. At least you'll break a sweat if you play it through enough.

Combine the lack of an original story, awful motion controls, lack of boxer choices, and horrible A.I. and this game is easily my worst game of 2009 so far. Don King is a spectacular promoter so I'm sure he'll find a way to sell a few copies of this, but he once said "You go for the quality of the performance, not the longevity of it." Well, this has no longevity and the quality is even worse. Another bomb from 2KSports.

Ratings are based on a system of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Graphics: 5.0: Visually this game is barely worth your time. There are no real-time effects to the face or body of your adversary as you pummel him. The only saving graces are the live cinematic scenes in-between each bout in story mode.

Audio: 6.5: The audio is barely up to par. Jim Lampley from HBO Boxing does a nice job with the commentary, but his script is ridiculously short and he starts repeating himself by your second or third bout. The music is only great if you are an "Eye of the Tiger" fanatic.

Plot/Plot Development: 5.0: When a game steals its plot from the first four Rocky movies, I can't even consider giving it a good score. There has to be a different plot out there for boxing fans.

Gameplay: 3.0: The controls never do what you want when you swing and the amount of haphazard punches is mind-boggling.

Replay Value: 6.0: The workout feature does help you break a sweat, but not being able to view how much you should work-out doesn't help if you're trying to use this as a workout tool, which is a shame considering Wii Fit has shown that, when properly applied, these games do work as a mild substitute for an actual gym. Add in a lack of boxing options from the lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight divisions, and the limited "legends" roster and even the vs. mode is disgraceful.

Overall (not an average): 2.5: This is one of 2K's saddest attempts at a license in their, rather extensive, history of badly-licensed drivel. Considering it is out 4-6 months before Fight Night Round 4, 2K could have established a strong position in the boxing genre, however, this game just falls down flat on the mat. This game isn't even worth buying for the die-hard boxing fans. I would steer clear of this at all costs.

Gold's Gym Cardio Workout

Now at least Gold's Gym Cardio Workout doesn't try to pretend it is something it isn't. This is straight up a workout game. I played this game for only an hour and I ached for days after.

I'm going to get my two complaints about the game out of the way quickly. First, there is no feature that weighs you with the Wii Balance Board. This means you have to weigh yourself and enter it in for the game to calculate how many calories you burn off per exercise. It's a little inconvenient, but not a big deal.

The second issue is a bit more personal. For a lot of people it is more a mental struggle than a physical struggle to lose weight, and this aspect got under my skin a little. When you enter your height and weight, your avatar's body shape changes to accommodate what the game feels your BMI and general appearance should be. I admit that I am 5' 9" and 205 lbs, this is a little overweight, but I've kept myself in decent shape over the years so it's not like I'm rolling down the halls here at ESPN. If you looked at my avatar, you might say something different though.

For people who are using these games as the legitimate weight loss tools that they are, this could discourage them right off the bat. You know who else was 5'9" and between 200 and 205lbs.? Tiki Barber in his final year with the New York Giants (at least that's what he was listed as). Muscle weighs more than fat so maybe next time Gold's Gym should remember that, especially considering all the meatheads I'm sure they have in their employ.

Of course, one could argue the opposite: Some people could use this demeaning representation of themselves as a motivational tool; once they see the image the computer spits back out at them they will be more likely to work harder to rectify the insult. And if you're relying on video games to get back in shape then it might be a fairly accurate image for most people.

I digress. The game is a great game for its purpose. Like I said earlier, after just an hour of shape boxing, squats, push-ups, crunches, leg lifts, jogging, and jumping rope, I was ready to collapse and was in serious pain for three days afterwards.
To help motivate the regular gamer, the more you workout, the more you can unlock for your avatar as well. Every gamer loves unlockables.

This game has a purpose and it delivers. It helps you get in shape with a variety of exercises and makes an awesome compliment to Wii Fit's Yoga and Strength Training exercises to help you take that next step in your video game workout (I cannot believe I just typed that).

Ratings are based on a system of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.

Graphics: 7.0: This is a visually average game. It's got that cartoony Mii look going for it, but at the end of the day, the visuals aren't going to sell you on this game if you're looking for a workout.

Audio: 8.0: The audio is solid. It gives a variety of generic music choices and "Eye of the Tiger" because everyone loves working out to that cliché (I guess). A lot of the exercises rely on audio cues because it is hard to look at your TV and do push-ups and everything seems to work adequately.

Plot/Plot Development: N/A: It's a workout game...

Gameplay: 8.0: The controls are accurate and respond properly to your motions and it gives you solid feedback.Replay Value: 9.0: In the end, the replay value is really going to depend on your will to want to keep working out, but the game helps nudge you along by offering unlockable content and a variety of exercises to keep it interesting enough for you to come back a half hour a day or more.

Overall (not an average): 8.0: I still think Wii Fit is the premiere exercise game out right now, but this makes a great complement, especially since it is only $29.99 in most stores. If you're looking to get in shape quick before the weather really starts to warm up, pick up Gold's Gym Cardio Workout, out now for the Nintendo Wii.

-Ray Carsillo