JILLIAN MICHAELS FTNESS'09 WII

Ok, I just got my game like everyone else but I guess I am using things differently than they are. We live way out of town so a gym is not an option and we live in snow country so something active in the house is a real benefit for long winters. I wanted things for myself and things for my kids.First, I love my wii fit but doing the same old exercises can get a bit boring. Also, as someone else mentioned, the pause time between exercises in the wii fit can get exasperating. My kids don't really like wii fit very much as there aren't many fun games for them and they don't like just exercising.So I tried the outdoor life. Great for the kids. Fairly easy for them to do the games but not exactly what I wanted.Now, my Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum. I did have a hard time getting the rhythm down. I don't understand games much and ALWAYS have a hard time learning the motions for the new activities. The graphics don't bother me as I am older and my eyes have a hard time with the game if it's too realistic. I am not a game person. I just want some regular exercise.PROS: You can set up the whole workout and not have much of a pause in between. More constant aerobic activity (a real plus). As with all these games, you definitely have to be honest to get the full activity level, I can cheat any of these things and not do a bit of exercise but make my score high. To me this is a mix of wii fit and the outdoor life. I like the different activities. I like that you can change the music and I didn't think the avatar was that bad. She wasn't the chubby little mii that I get in the wii fit. I didn't plan on this replacing my wii fit, just for something different. I also think that I will like the harder work out levels, since the only way I get a harder work out on my wii fit is to work out longer.CONS: Controls are a little hard to work and the screen is hard to navigate until you learn where things are. Instructions go away a little too fast and the print is small, (I don't wear my glasses during exercising). You still get the encouragement during the activities but so far I haven't been called a couch potato while I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do.All in all, I like my new game. It will help me keep exercising when I am tired of the same old same old. It may be better for people who don't care so much about gaming graphics and such. I don't expect my kids to love this one either but it's not for them they have the outdoor life.

First I want to say that I love Jillian. She is an inspiration and the first fitness guru I know of that really encourages the obese to work on getting inside their heads in addition to working out and eating better. I love that about her.But this game, compatible with the Wii Fit, is in many ways disappointing. I should preface that I've only used the game twice so far (1/2 hour on aerobic, and 1 hour on strength), so I may not have seen all the features or issues. 1) I didn't figure out right away how to include the Fit board in the workout. With the help of another user I did get it functioning, but I think for the running in place portions it's a better workout for me to run on the floor. So I'll try that and try using the board only for the other exercises 2) I can't tell the difference between the strength training routines and the aerobic routines. Aerobic intersperses jogging in place with exercises like monkey bars, kayaking and punching bag. As opposed to the strength training routine which intersperses jogging in place with exercises like monkey bars, kayaking and punching bag. And I have to tell you, after an hour workout this afternoon, I've had about all of the jogging in place I can stand. I haven't checked out interval training yet, but I'm betting it involves jogging in place interspersed with exercises like monkey bars, kayaking and punching bag. 3) The controllers are either very slow to respond, insensitive to respond or, in some cases don't seem to have any response. For instance, one exercise involves jogging in place (surprise!) and then ducking to the center, right or left to avoid being clobbered by a punching bag flying out of the trees. My avatar could successfully avoid the bag when ducking to the center, but I was not successful in avoiding any of the side shots. No matter how I "ducked" the avatar was completely unresponsive. As for the jogging in place (and there is a lot of it!) it doesn't recognize swinging of the arms as simulated jogging would be done. You have to actually wave your arms- for instance I pretend like I'm playing the drums- and it works pretty well. Log Balance involves holding arms out to the side (while "balancing" on a floating log- I could do ANYTHING with my arms and the "game" was none the wiser. But, regardless of responsiveness my arms were sure tired by the end of 4 minutes of holding them out at shoulder height! 4) On the Stats page the graphic displays are awkward and hard to view or find the data points.On the positive side- yes, I had to put more effort into it to get the controllers to sometimes respond... but this is an EXERCISE game. So the more effot the better, right? By the end of my hour workout (which really did go by quickly because it was broken up into 3.5 minute segments), my shirt was soaked in the front and my bodybugg tells me I burned more than 400 calories. That's pretty cool! The next day my thighs and butt were really sore. I do also like the soundtrack- it is better than the Wii Fit and better than any of the workout DVDs I have.I'll be looking forward to the improved version of this game. My impression of Jillian is that she would want the best product possible and hopefully because her name is on this she will push to have them fix the frustrating issues. Until then I'll continue to use this game, maybe not every day- but as an option.

After using Wii Fit for several months, I was becoming a little bored. I also did not like the long rest between exercises while I pressed A a whole lot. Well the Fitness Ultimatum does not have any rest periods! You choose which type of workout and how many minutes, then you go right from one activity to the next with only about 10 seconds to read instructions in between. It keeps your heart rate up and the sweat flyin!Some of the activities are difficult to figure out. There is sometimes a delay between your movement and anything happening on screen. The avatar does not mirror your movements, but if you can move your feet and Wiimote in the correct manner the action will continue.There is a lot of running in place, which you have to do very gently on the balance board. But I discovered that you can just dance, rhythmically bounce back and forth, or do the twist and the avatar will continue down the path.The music is much much better than the Wii Fit. It ranges from country to mild hip-hop, all of which have a good solid beat to encourage a steady workout. No one you have ever heard of, but certainly better than electronic elevator music!Overall, I really like this. It is a vigorous workout with no pauses. They need to work on the response time and better instructions on how exactly to move.

Great workout