Preview: Shape Up

Shape Up is awesome fun.

Ubisoft’s no stranger to the Kinect-as-fitness market; Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is definitely a favourite among Stevivor staffers. This time around, Ubisoft’s decided to ditch traditional workouts for something that’s a little less formal.

If you missed it at Ubisoft’s E3 press conference, Shape Up is a series of (actually strenuous) workouts that are disguised as mini-games. At the conference itself, two of said games were shown: “Piano Keys”, where you stand on a simulated keyboard and are tasked with stomping out the correct sequence of notes when prompted, and a push-up challenge that will see how many proper push-ups you can nail out in a couple minutes.

An ice hockey player and lover of Kinect fitness games myself, I couldn’t resist going hands-on with the game at my earliest opportunity.

Well, I should say that I went hands-on with some of Shape Up’s mini-games. Suffering from a dislocated knee that popped out a couple of weeks ago, I opted out of “Piano Keys” and a squat challenge. Instead, I sampled two other games: the aforementioned push-up challenge alongside a Space Invaders-inspired ab blaster game.

Now, I’m not the fittest guy in the world, but I’m no slouch either; as the push-up game began, I started cranking them out as quickly as I could to beat the previously-recorded effort of one of the game’s developers. After all, go big or go home, right?

“Be careful – you’ve got to do this for a couple minutes,” one of the Ubisoft developers warned in a thick French accent, a slight chuckle following her words of caution.

“Nah, I’ve got this,” I offered back, thirty seconds done. Possibly between gasps.

At times, the game asks you to pause, remaining in a fully “up” position until told otherwise. As you complete push-up after push-up, the game will stick objects on the back of your Kinect representation on-screen; I was doing push-ups with a safe on my back, followed by a whale and so on. It’s a neat touch, and also one designed to keep onlookers entertained, I’d say. Shape Up is vibrant and oh-so colourful, embracing graphics reminiscent of 8-bit systems. Actually, in the way that it wantonly slaps a whale on your back, it’s safe to say Ubisoft has embraced the whole mini-game thing to the point that you’re almost surprised this isn’t a first-party Wii title.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

By the one minute mark, I was getting puffed out, but I was determined to beat the developer’s recording. By a minute and a half, I was wheezing, and my knee was throbbing. If I was by myself, I probably would have given up. Since I was in a room full of Ubisoft folk, that wasn’t really an option. I pressed on, pun intended, until the two minute mark, a whopping 56 push-ups under my belt. It felt like I’d been doing push-ups for an hour.

I smashed the developers’ record of 40 push-ups, and was offered to record my likeness and upload my performance so that other media types could challenge me. I accepted, of course, trying to puff out my chest while I struggled to draw air into my lungs.

Next up was the ab blaster challenge, a mini-game that asked for me to sit on the floor and lean back, bracing my abs in the process. Arms held high and palms together, I was asked to watch an on-screen, Space Invaders-like setup and move from left to right, backwards and forwards to blast baddies who were trying to get past me. It wasn’t as tough as the push-up challenge, I did feel my abs working. It mightn’t have worked them as much as a traditional exercise would, but trust me, the game was much better than cranking out boring ol’ sit-ups.

Shape Up is a great little title for those of us who need a little variety in our workout routines, and would make for an excellent title to play with your competitive friends. For those who already struggle to use things like Your Shape or Xbox Fitness, Shape Up might be the type of fitness game that will get your off the couch. That said, I’m a bit concerned that most will try it once and then abandon it shortly afterward. Know thyself if you’re thinking about buying Shape Up.