The Recycle Bin

I earned my fifth platinum Trophy earlier today after completing The Sly Collection: Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus. What a major bitch. All in all the game is not really that difficult, but some of the boss battles are … well … a bitch.

No workout today; heading to ATL to watch the Falcons beat down the Vikings.

In order to balance Trophy whoring and real life fitness objectives, I have decided it makes sense to do at least two workouts, instead of one longer routine. This should actually burn calories, keep things interesting, and get me to those ‘complete 20 xyz routines’ that much quicker.

Hopefully I will be able to knock off a couple before Christmas.

Saturday
Started the morning off with a 20 minutes Fitness burn of 159 calories, which was good enough to bump me to Level 65.

Tracing issues on some of the floor exercise probably prevented me from going higher. I normally get solid scores on the various pushups and crunches, but not so much during this 20 minute routine. I am going to chalk this up to the morning lighting in the room interfering with the camera’s tracking.

Next up was a 20 minutes Combat workout, which burned up another 136 calories. I’m a little disappointed that more calories were not burned, but that is OK, because I actually enjoy the Combat workouts. At least the ones that track correctly with the camera + Move.

This was another solid workout, good for a 5% boost to Level 80. My second 5% boots this week; in one day.

I started to do one more 15 minute quickie, but decided to call it off so I could watch the kickoff of the Georgia – Tech game. Go Dawgs!

Friday
As has been normal this week, I started with a 20 minute Fitness workout, which was good for 163 calories.

I followed up with a 15 minute Advance Cardio routine, which, while good for 103 calories, left me huffing and puffing. Talking about being out of shape!

Of all the Mel B fitness levels, Advance Cardio may be my lowest. Some of this is due to periodic tracking problems; the sometimes gets confused and does not seem to track the Move even when I think I am following Mel B 100%. The rest has to be attributed to my poor ‘real life’ fitness level. Working on it. Working on it …

I got a burr in my butt and decided to break out Mel B yesterday. It has been a while; figured it was time to get off my lazy bum and get some exercise going in time to prevent catastrophic holiday weight gain. Or what I like to think of as exercising so I can eat and drink my way through Thanksgiving, Disney, three more Falcons tailgates, Christmas, and of course New Years.

Thanksgiving
I started off with a nice 20 minute Fitness 20 workout, good for 147 calories, which was good for a boots to Level 60. Fitness seems to be the hardest Mel B category for me to increase. Having a few tracking Move issues (too much sunlight) was detrimental to earning a higher score.

Before throwing some Thanksgiving ribs and burgers on the grill, I followed up with a quickie 15 minute Combat workout, good for 93 calories. Tracking issues did me in on at least one exercise, preventing me for earning a higher rating.

Wednesday
Today was my first time back with Mel B in weeks (months?), so I decided to go fairly easy. One 15 minute Fitness workout, which was good for 124 calories, followed by a 15 minute Step workout, which burned off another 116 calories.

Before I started, I weighed in at 174 lbs; the last weight Mel B had on record was 176 lbs, so I feel good that I am not a total nincompoop.

Future Days …
I’ll be at Disney this time next week, so my relationship with Mel B is going to be short lived; at least it will be start, stop, start, over the next 2-3 weeks.

I’m off my rocker, but I want to Trophy whore Mel B. I’m going after some of the repetition Trophies. I would like to earn some of the ‘Complete 20 xyz exercises’ Trophies before the end of 2011. Seems like a reasonable, yet healthy goal.

I picked up Aragon’s Quest a few weeks ago because it was under $20, and I am a sucker for discounted games. I was also interested in the Move support, but unfortunately the controls are on par with a Wii game, not something I have come to expect for Move support (i.e. Sports Champions).

There are plenty of other reviews out there, so I am not going to take a deep dive or anything. As a family game, is this fun? Sort of. As a Move game, is Aragon’s Quest worth a pick up? Nope; after a few hours of honest to goodness attempts to make things work, I abandon my Move and Navigation controllers in favor of the standard Dual Shock 3. If you are a fan of The Lord of the Rings, Aragon’s Quest has some entertainment value, but you may want to wait until the game hits the sub $15 mark.

For the most part, I enjoyed my time with the game, but as I moved into Trophy whoring, the game quickly became a chore. If you are going to go for a Platinum Trophy (I earned mine this morning, thus this post), you better follow a guide because the game can screw you over in a hurry, forcing an additional play-through.

I find it pretty amazing that it took EA so damn long to patch Madden so that we could finally earn the ‘This one is easy’ trophy.

Fixed issue where previous MUT fans could not earn the “This one is easy” achievement/trophy for creating their MUT team in Madden NFL 12.

Not sure what else to say other than about f’ing time this was corrected. The jaded gamer in me thinks that EA held back the patch for this one in order to wait until the season was at least half over, to less the impact of ‘completed’ games being thrown on the second hand market. I cannot think of any other excuse to wait so damn long to offer a fix.

The early F1 2011 reviews are mostly positive, which is to be expected based on F1 2010 being well received.

It is interesting reading TheSixthAxis reviewer’s take on the game. Before the summary, the reviewer discusses new F1 technical ‘innovations’ that are included in F1 2011 (KERS and DRS), but also mentions that casual gamers are not likely to notice. I would go so far as to say that casual gamers should stay pretty away from this title and go after a more mainstream racer.

Now the tricky part – is F1 2011 worth picking up if you already own 2010? That’s a question that only the individual can really answer – there’s certainly a good, extensive and solid game here but then a good chunk of it is clearly based on last year’s code and visuals, even most of the menu interface remains the same. The improvements are all for the better – that’s for sure – but perhaps we’d have liked to have seen more of them. Anyone that bypassed 2010 and held out for this years can relax easy, though, this is probably the best Formula One game we’ve seen for years.

An improved AI, along with the addition of offline split screen and co-op Championship mode have me pretty excited.

Eurogamer has a remarkably similar take on the marginal year-over-year improvements in Codemasters F1 franchise.

Now comes the tricky third test; can it do enough to establish a yearly franchise, an exercise that’s normally the reserve of publishers with a little more clout?

F1 2011’s answer to that particular question is, sometimes, not too convincing. Some areas remain sparse and many of its improvements can be measured in tenths rather than seconds. Still, it’s a sport where every little detail counts, and the finite changes do undoubtedly make for a better game.

Now I just have to decide if I attempt to whore any of the many remaining Trophies in F1 2010, or if I call it a loss, flip it on eBay while the flipping still has marginal value, and see if I can stay focused on F1 2011. Last year I lost interest – really don’t know the reason why because I gushed about it during the first few weeks after it was released. At least I didn’t play F1 2010 half as much as Sony’s last F1 outing (Formula One: Championship Edition).

The ridiculousness continues. Next week (Sep 20) sees the release of F1 2011, while the following week (Sep 27) gives us FIFA 12, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection, and Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, and Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland.

F1 2011
I’ll be honest; I love F1 games, but I didn’t really get enough out of 2010. No particular reason other than I suck or something. F1 2011 looks to be the perfect F1 gaming experience:

After watching the promo videos all these months I had the feeling that F1 2011 will be strictly for the hardcore, people who are gamers and who also follow F1 races every year. After playing a solid 2 hours with the preview build I believe that this game will only attract fans, resulting in to low accessibility.

Let’s hope that there are enough F1 fans who appreciate racing sims to support F1 2011 and continue to push the series forward.

FIFA 12
One of the top sports franchises; the Madden development team could learn a thing or two from the FIFA guys. I cannot say enough good things about this series – tons of replay value; I played the snot out of FIFA 10 and to some extent FIFA 11. The newest yearly release should not be any different. Platinum be damned; I’ll never get it due to the various online requires.

Thanks to Amazon, this one comes with a nice $20 credit, some sort of MLS Fathead (for the kids) and of course release day delivery.

ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
I’ve written about this one a little over the last couple of months, so I am not going to go very deep here. I’ll just say that I have had this one on pre-order since Thanksgiving last year, so I am eagerly anticipating giving both of these classics a go.

Another Amazon release day arrival. I expect this one to go to the top of the play heap; let’s see if that actually happens.

Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny
In a weak moment, I pre-ordered this one site unseen. Mostly for the Move support, partly out of curiosity, and ultimately because I probably had one too many cold ones that night, which resulted in an Amazon clicking frenzy.

Tides of Destiny is coming out later this year in North America for the PlayStation 3 and Wii, which isn’t a combination of release platforms you see very often. I’m not complaining, especially when the PlayStation 3 version ends up looking this pretty. I can’t wait to buy this game, play it for a few hours, get bored, and move on to other things!

Replace bored with distracted and that will be me. Too many other gems in my gaming treasure trove waiting to be caressed and loved, and whored for Trophies.

Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland
Of course I had to get the ‘Premium’ version bundle complete with art book and CD soundtrack. This one has niche written all over it, but I expect Atelier Totori to be fun based on my typical enjoyment of quirky games and deep down love for JRPGs.

Unfortunately I’m usually constrained with limited clock cycles to burn on gaming, which means that I may not get around to this one for a while. I did promise myself (sort of) that I would attempt Atelier Totori’s predecessor first, Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland. Will it happen? That’s another article. Seriously, tackling a JRPG is an upcoming article.

The one thing nice about JRPGs, is that historically I have always been able to get my money back from any expensive collector’s edition should I decide to sell them down the road. For that matter, I can usually get my money back from regular editions. That is the beauty of niche gaming; of course you have to pre-order these games or you are the one paying a premium over MSRP.

Happy Saturday!

I knew what I was getting into when I order Kung Fu Rider from Amazon on the cheap a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to try to the game when it was originally released; seemed like an original and innovative gaming experience. Move support was a bonus.

Unfortunately the game was panned. When you see a Metritic score of 36 (45 Critic Reviews) you know there are some issues with a game. Not only was Kung Fu Rider considered awful, it was considered an extremely poor use of the Move controller, which was sort of the point.

You may be asking yourself, WTF is wrong with me? Why did this poor bloke pick up such a piece of shit for a game? Well, I have never been one to have my opinion formed by the pundits, and I go back to that previously mentioned original and innovative gaming experience. I like different games. Not necessarily different games that suck, but in this case the price point was low enough that I figured I would see if I could get some enjoyment from Kung Fu Riders with the kids.

Let’s get this out of the way – the concept is brilliant; however the execution with the Move controller is extremely poor. The game is repetitive (a real grind if you are after some of the Trophies). The graphics are best described as on par with the Dreamcast. In fact, I would say Kung Fu Rider is akin to Crazy Taxi or even Space Channel 5 (Dreamcast – i.e. Kung Fu Rider is very much off the beaten path).

Some of the motion controls with the Move are a pain in the ass to pull off, mostly because of button placement and unresponsiveness. Collection detection is poor; I would say more than 50% of my crashes are due to WTF experiences, leaving me scratching my head wondering what I did wrong.

Except for the language, this play-through video series (I think there are 11) was similar to my experience playing with two of my three boys. The oldest refuses to play – not sure if he has decided the game is too cartoonish (he likes Crazy Taxi so maybe that is not it) or he looked those Metacritic scores and decided to let the score form his opinion (too bad; need to break him of that).

Trophies
The Trophy list is one of the worst I can remember seeing in a game. Some of the Trophies feel like outright luck, while some of the others are going to require a ton grinding.

I’m currently sitting at 47% complete, with four Trophies left.

CHAIRMASTER (hidden – Gold): Attain S rank on all missions. I’m currently going for this one using the co-op mode with my 9 year old son. My 4.5 year old also ‘plays’ but not really; as long as he is having fun, and he is, that is sort of the point.

I’m flabbergasted there is not a Trophy for completing all the levels. My guess is that we will give up on this one before we manage S ranks in all the levels. Really depends on how long I can refrain from cussing, and how long it takes for my boys to give up on the game, moving along to something else more interesting.

BUSINESS NUISANCE (Silver): Destroy 100 red signs. Major grind. I think I have somewhere between 25-35; have not bothered to check my records.

MEDAL COLLECTOR (Silver): Obtain all collectible medals. To me this one is going to be a major grind, and maybe not worth the effort. On the first bonus level, there is a medal on top of a van. Only problem is that for me, it looks impossible to reach. I have wasted at least 20-30 minutes of my life trying to get that 20th medal. Then there are the other bonus medal levels to tackle. I hear ‘screw that’ in my head as I am writing this article.

CHAIN MASTER (Bronze): Achieve a 30 chain. I may be able to eventually get this one, but the controls are so frustrating and the collision detection is so substandard, that it feels like it will take a minor miracle to earn this one. Due to all the issues with the game, this one could have easily have been a Silver.

Summary
Is the game as poor as the ratings indicate? Yes. Is it a hopeless cause? Nope; if you can get past some of the issues, you may be able to find some enjoyment. As I said, the kids are having fun, which is the real point to me.

Kung Fu Rider should have been a PSN title, not a full retail rump. If you pick it up, expect the worst, hope for the best, and look for it as cheap as possible. I actually ‘completed’ the game (i.e. received Rank D or higher in all the main levels) at the 3 hour and 11 minute mark, and that was probably after spending 30-45 minutes in the medal free play levels.

As I move into week four with my Mel B workout routine, things have sort of fallen off the rails. While my weight is still down, which was part of the reason for this adventure in the first place, finding time to commit to daily jaunts with Mel B is proving difficult.

I only worked out two days last week (Sunday and Friday), which means Days 23-26 and Day 28 saw me lazy as Daisy. Thankfully I am managing a couple of non-Mel B workouts by coaching soccer. Yes, I actually run with the nine and ten year old boys.

I committed to making it until the end of August, so expect at least one more update followed by some periodic news; still working out, Trophies earned, calories burned, lbs dropped, etc.

Day 27
Today I decided to go after some medals; have not attempted any of the fitness tests yet and at some point I need to earn the Silver ‘Full House’ Trophy for getting gold medals in all the fitness tests.

Abs of Steel Test – silver medal. First and second reps of 32 were rated over 90%, but the last rep hit in the 50s because of poor camera + Move tracking. I’ll have to practice in order to see what is tracking in correctly. I don’t remember the final calorie count, however my stomach will vouch that it received a decent workout.

Fighting Fit Test – gold medal. I had one really subpar exercise because of tracking issues; however the others were obviously rated high enough to earn a coveted gold medal. This test was actually good enough to burn 230+ calories, so that was a nice bonus.

Day 22
Today I decided to go Trophy whoring. I signed up for a 40 minute Dance Aerobics workout in order to go after ‘Flash Dancer’ (collect over 350 Stars in a Dance Aerobics workout).

Two things of note. First, this was my first 40 minute Mel B workout. Second, I was not sure how much time I would need to hit the 351 mark. In the back of my mind I kept wondering (in a concerned sort of manner) if I would actually make my goal. It would suck in a big way if I came up a few Stars short.

For those keeping score at home, Mel B awards Stars based on your performance during each exercise. Score higher and you are awarded more Stars. While Get Fit tracks total Stars earned, I am not really sure what purpose they serve other than being required for the ‘Flash Dancer’ Trophy. The Stars could play a part in how fitness levels are earned, but I have not done enough research and experimenting to confirm.

For my efforts, I earned 411 Stars (Trophy ding), burned 240 calories, and got a small bump to Dance Aerobics Level 80.

I am now at 50% complete Trophy total. Happy days!

I continue on my no longer so torrid tour of Mel B, but with the kids’ soccer I am only hitting one or two workouts a week.

While Mel B may not be the best Move implementation (there are a handful of exercises that will not register correctly with the camera + Move), Sports Champions seems to be really solid. After putting this one aside for a long time, I returned to it in order to get more Move satisfaction. Pretty decent game, enjoyable by the whole family; Trophies are a complete grind.

I finished up Sam and Max (episodes 4 and 5) this week. Mostly because they were sitting on my HDD waiting to be played, partially because I may let my PS+ subscription expire in a few months, sort of because the series is less stress and semi-entertaining. And I would be lying to you if I did not say the Trophies were an easy bonus. Sam and Max episodes 1 – 5 were free earlier this year for PS+ subscribers.

Pixiljunk Shooter – First one; highly addicting, fun shooter + puzzle combo. In this case I have to say that the Trophies add to the overall ‘experience’ – I could just blow through the game, but how would that be fun? I had to get some help for the ‘Coin Collector Trophy’ – for me it was much more luck than skill.

Not to digress too much, but I think Trophies are kind of like those collection JRPG games. You either are into them or you are not. When Trophies were first introduced, I could care less; however now I am card carrying Trophy whore. To me they add a little extra excitement, as in the case of Pixiljunk Shooter; these are actually fun to try to unlock. For other games, some of the Trophies are just meat grinders. These types I can pass on, and typically do.

Just got the Platinum Trophy for Madden 2011 this morning. Yes, I’m still playing the current (old) one. I have become a certified Trophy whore. I decided to ‘finish’ up the game before the new version is release on Tuesday. Technically Madden 2012 is already out for those that spent the extra cash on the EA Season Ticket crap; obviously I did not.

Speaking of those Trophies, the ‘Pick Up 6’ Trophy, which requires you to win a ‘Fight for the Fumble’ in the end zone was a major PITA. It was not going to happen for me during the course of normal games, and while I attempted some ‘cheats’ to make it easier, I just could not close off this final Trophy until I stumbled across this video. Using this technique it only took me two attempts to close off my third Platinum Trophy.

Looking Forward …
Georgia takes on Boise St. September 3 in the Georgia Dome, so I really need to jump back into NCAA Football 2012. It has been years since I was successful at getting some decent value for my money out of two football titles. With three kids plus work, I bet I am screwed.

I have several games on pre-order including the before mentioned Madden 12, F1 2011, FIFA 12, and the ICO Collection. September is awfully full.

I am also considering looking at WKC II, although I have no earthly idea why because I never got very far into WKC:I. I guess I got distracted doing the needful.

We will wrap up with Kung Fu Rider. I think this one will suck, although I hope to get a few hours of family fun out of it for my efforts.

OK, maybe they are not all crap, not by a long shot. I did do the needful and stock up on several hundred hours of gaming pleasure (and maybe pain and suffering). Why?

• Cabela’s North American Adventures ($25.45): I’m a sucker for these hunting games. I probably over paid. OK, I did. I should have waited until this one hit the sub $20 mark, but in the back of my mind I was thinking that there will probably be a new Cabela title this fall, and I may miss out on this one. Doubt that would happen, but you never know.
• NIER ($14.99): Backordered 2-4 weeks. Not sure what to say about this action RPG, except that it looks interesting.
• Captain America: Super Soldier ($29.99): Backordered 2-3 weeks. My youngest son loves Captain America (and in general, super heroes). This one may be too hard for him, but I’m sure there will be some points where he can just button mash the heck out of the bad guys.
• Iron Man 2 ($14.99): Certifiable crap. See Captain America comments. I did read that for my efforts there are some easy Trophies, so there is that thrown in for good measure.
• Kung Fu Rider ($12.80): Certifiable crap; however Kung Fu rider is something for the Move and something that the kids can enjoy. This one is one of the first Move games; it was panned – highest score on Metacritic is 65. Ouch.
• Majin And The Forsaken Kingdom ($14.99): I’ve always been a little interested in this one, but not for MSRP. For a tick under $15, I’m happy.
• Tomb Raider Trilogy ($19.99): Backordered 2-4 weeks. I wanted to get in some Laura before the re-boot hits.
• PS3 Eye Camera Mounting Clip ($6.68): For good measure, I picked up one of these mounting clips. Not really sure why as I have lived without one since the Move was released.

With the exception of Captain America, I am not sure if I will actually get any of the titles on backorder. Maybe Amazon has a slow boat to China (or elsewhere) where these older discounted titles are being pressed for a fresh batch of suckers.

My gaming needs are stocked for the foreseeable future. Well, at least until all my stuff on pre-order is released, but that is another article.

I gave up on White Knight Chronicles: International (WKC:I) a long time ago. To be honest, I forget why. Too many other games at the time? Got bored with the back story and the game mechanics? Something else? I really don’t remember …

Am I interested in the sequel? Sort of, but only because I am a semi-JRPG junkie. With that said, I can’t see purchasing White Knight Chronicles II (which interestingly enough includes WKC:I) until I actually finish WKC:I or at least make a concerted try to progress the story.

Trophy whores need not apply. If White Knight Chronicles II is anything like WKC:I, Trophies are few and far between and extremely time consuming.

So far I have really enjoyed The Sly Collection; currently in the swamp on Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus. Getting past Muggshot to continue the game and earn the Silver “Giving The Dog A Bone” Trophy had to be one of the most frustrating gaming experience I can recall. Or maybe I am just getting too damn old for platforming games.

At any rate, I have to decide it I am going to double dip on the God of War Origins Collection which feature the two best games on the PSP – Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta. Seeing these two titles in HD, with the added bonus of Trophies, may tempt me … maybe. If you have a PSP and you have never played these titles, for shame!

Rounding out the collection list is the Ico and Shadow of Colossus Collection; the official’ish Sony Blog just released some of the bonus content (videos and two dynamic themes) along with the Trophy list. I have had this on one pre-order since Thanksgiving weekend last year, so I am really looking forward to seeing this one arrive in late September.

While it is not a PS2 HD re-release collection, I thought I would add in one random PlayStation LifeStyle link. Pretty good article and strong reader comments on what XSeed will do with the PSP Ledgend of Heroes series. Me? At this point I am firmly committed to not purchase any more UMDs, although my 9 year-old a PSP … he is not into RPGs, much less JRPGs so I will probably miss out unless these somehow port to the PS3 or get a Vita release.

Wow. I have actually exercised 14 days in a row; first time in my 40 years of existence that I can remember accomplishing that feat. Certainly for the first time in my adult life!

It is not that I am Daisy, a girl who is fat and lazy; or anything like that … I’m not one to hit the gym or work the weight room. I run when my pants start feeling a little too snug because with running I am typically able to drop a few pounds fairly quickly.

I wanted to give Mel B a go to see if I could actually lose weight from the comfort of my living room instead of braving the 95+ degree temperatures encountered when running around the park. In other words, screw the heat and bring on Mel B!

After another week of getting fit with Mel B, I am holding fast at 175 lbs., which is OK, because to be honest, my diet sucked in week two. That’s right, too much beer and too many chips; my gluttonous weakness. Add in the bad eating at the Falcons game Friday night, a really nasty (in a good sort of way) breakfast at the Marriott Saturday morning, and Mellow Mushroom pizza washed down by some not so light cold ones Saturday night, and I’m actually happy I’m holding even. If I could ever put down the beer and salty chip snacks, I would certainly be well on my way, but that would not be very fun.

Of note, I only ran once in the last week (afternoon of Day 8), which means that all calories burned and no weight gained are attributed to Mel B.

Going forward, I may just follow up with an update of calories burned to date and Trophies gained (nice benefit to Mel B – get fit and gain Trophies). I do plan to keep with Mel be for the rest of the month, but I doubt I will do religious daily workouts, then again, I am now actually in a routine and am looking forward to seeing some progress.

Day 9
I did a 15 minute Pump ‘N’ Tone workout which was good for 106 calories. Yes, I did the needful and purchased a 2lb set of wrist weights (1lb per cuff) and a set of 3lb ankle weights (1.5lb per cuff). Holy crap; I would have never expected pain and suffering from 1lb weights. I was thinking about going with a 3lb and 5lb set; while I could have handled more weight on my ankles, not so much on my wrists. I can definitely see Mel B getting me toned; if my arms do not fall off first!

Get Fit could really be improved by showing how much extra calories were burned, tracking how much you lift by day, etc. All that extra resistance has to be good for more calories, right?

Research shows that the use of extra weight on the arms or legs while walking (no studies on running could be located) can add to the calorie expenditure. In one study of walking with walking sticks, calorie expenditure increased by an average of 23% compared to walking without the sticks. In a similar study where subjects walked on a treadmill with arm levers, calorie expenditure increased by 55% above walking without the levers.

Although opinions seem to be mixed on using weights, with plenty of articles warning not to add in ankle and wrist weights to workout sessions; I have no desire to add them to my runs.

I followed up my Pump ‘N’ Tone workout with a 15 minute Combat session, which was good for 102 calories. Of all the exercises Get Fit offers, I really like Combat the best.

Day 10
Today I added in Step fitness (purchased ‘The Step F1011W Original Health Club Step’); call me ‘all in’ with losing weight with Mel B. 20 minutes; 143 calories.

I believe that Get Fit could be significantly improved if the game tracked and showed overall step count. For that matter, it would be nice to see reps and calories by all exercise types.

After my Step workout, I added a 15 minute Pump ‘N’ Tone workout, which according to Mel B, was good for 113 calorie expenditure. It was also good for spaghetti arms!

Day 11
Today started with a 15 minute Dance workout; 97 calories burned. I really don’t like the Dance stuff; besides looking stupid (as previously noted in past Mel B updates) I know I am not coordinated (or graceful) enough to pull off the moves correctly. The camera + Move does not seem to care. In some cases, just coming close enough makes Mel B happy; for some of the routines there is never any satisfying Mel B.

After dancing like a dumb ass, I took up a 15 minute Advance Cardo session, which burned 95 calories.

At this point the Trophies are becoming increasingly scarce; many of the remaining Trophies are repetition based. For full disclosure, I have to admit that I have “cheated” twice – there are two hidden Trophies that require you to work out between 12AM – 2AM (dance aerobics), and 5AM – 7AM (fitness). F that noise; I did the needful and manipulated the PS3 clock in order to make my workouts trigger these Trophies. I rule. All other Trophies have been earned the right way – with my own sweat and suffering.

Day 12
Today I did a 20 minute Step workout, which was good for 158 calories, and interesting enough the Step Trophy ‘Going up?’ for climbing the equivalent of the Empire State Building? Probably. I thought this one would come much later. Turns out Mel B has counted more than 1,860 steps from yours truly. Shocker!

How many steps are there to the top of the Empire State Building?

There are 1,860 from street level to 102nd floor.

After Stepping, I was brave enough to add in a 20 minute Pump ‘N’ Tone session, which besides making my arms burn, was good for 153 calories. I also hit Step Level 80, who knew I could Step like a mofo – I earned the ‘Semi Professional’ Trophy. I am at Level 75 on the other workouts, except for Advance Cardo and Fitness, both of which are tracking at Level 50. I am not sure if I can improve these with more repetition, or if due to a few camera + Move tracking issues, in-game improvement will never be credited.

After Day 11 I mentioned that the Trophies are starting to get scarce; this time I mean it. Most of the ones left are based on completing 20 workouts of a certain type or based on fitness level increases. Still going for the ‘Driven’ Trophy (exercised every day for two weeks) just to prove a point with Mel B.

Day 13
Since I was heading up to ATL in the early afternoon for the Falcons first preseason game, I did a quickie 20 minute Fitness workout around lunch, which burned 153 calories, and also earned the ‘Pizza’ Trophy at ~2700 calories. I thought this Trophy was awarded around 5K calories, but I will take what I can get.

On a personal note, I really needed to burn 500 calories to make up for all the bad food and beer I am about to consume! The good news is my overall fitness level does seem to be improving; I could have easily put in another 20 minute workout.

Day 14
During my 30 minute Pump ‘N’ Tone workout, the Silver ‘Driven’ Trophy popped! This was one of my main goals when I started – be ‘Driven’ enough to workout two solid weeks. I also burned 221 calories, which was a nice bonus for being brave enough to take on a 30 minute Pump ‘N’ Tone session.

Looking Forward …
My next workout will put me over 3K calories burned with Mel B. Who would have guessed that I would burn in excess of 3K calories with this game? I am now at 46% complete (29 Bronze and 1 Silver Trophies) for my efforts, which is a nice haul since I needed to exercise anyway.

I mentioned several times that Trophies should be few and far between now that most of the basic ones are out of the way. I think I am actually inclined to go Trophy whoring – not cheating mind you – really trying to get good enough to earn some of the remaining goodies that are yet to be earned.

Now that ‘Driven’ is out of the way, I will probably start trying to tackle Fitness to see if I can get my level to increase; I want to be fit, that is the goal. I will also try some of the challenges, which I have not attempted yet – Combat first because that one is fun and rewarding.

Several months ago, on a whim, I picked up Get Fit With Mel B. After all, why not use my PS3 + Move + enjoy Scary Spice doing her level best to get me fit? Like I said, it was an impulse purchase, and the game set on a shelf until I realized that I picked up 5 unwelcome pounds during the miserably hot summer months when I only run once a week at best.

I gave up reviewing games a long time ago, so it is fair play for me to say up front that I have only completed day three with the lovely Mel B. What follows are some random thoughts for your reading amusement, and to give you a decent idea of what Mel B may have to offer.

Let’s be honest; Get Fit With Mel B (Get Fit; or sometimes Mel B as strikes my fancy) is very much geared towards the female audience. Just do a google blog search to see where I am coming from. Besides, what self-respecting guy (much less gamer) is going to get all sweaty with Mel B? Bottom line for any female readers that happen upon this article; I’ll try to refrain from talking about Mel B’s spectacular ta tas and overall great looking body, while at the same time you have to appreciate that I know diddlysquat about aerobics.

Thanks to those unwanted pounds, and because curiosity got the better of me, I finally got brave and fired up Get Fit. You just knew I would sniff the dandelions at some point, right? In the end, I always do.

Get Fit prompts you to enter some basic info – weight, height, DOB, along with your body type (skinny, not as skinny, and overweight). My wife said the not as skinny option was perfect for me, thank you very much, although I think she mistook it for buff, broad shoulders, and overall hunk; not just a little bit chubby around the midsection. Did I ever tell you my wife is too kind?

Next up, Get Fit presents you with a selection of background locations for your workout preference; if Get Fit sells at a decent clip, I could see more backgrounds being added in future DLC packs. I picked a nice yacht club background; beautiful water … picturesque for my viewing pleasure.

Mel B also offers a dietary plan of sorts; at least you can look at a daily menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and deserts, complete with recipes and preparations instructions. To this end you are given the opportunity to enter some items you don’t eat. I started to put in lamb; I love lamb, but it is not as if I can find any around here … just not a common staple.

Next up you get to pick an overall diet goal – weight loss, detox (i.e. junk food; I thought it meant no more drinking, which would suck), lower cholesterol, and finally healthy heart.

While all the selections make sense, and are good ideas for healthy living, the reality for me is that I am not going to follow the actual diet instructions. My wife is a great cook and while she may get some ideas from the various selections presented to get you healthy, I doubt she would ever be constrained by the 150 or so recipes (yet another DLC opportunity). In the end I picked weight loss, although if I stick with Get Fit beyond August, I may switch at some point just to see if I am right about these being more diet focused.

After selecting your overall goal, you are prompted to select one or two goal categories. I believe these goals will ultimately drive the types of exercise presented during each workout. You get to select from general health, lifestyle, special occasions, sports and activities, and shape. While I did not play around with all the options to see if this applied for each goal category, shape had several amusing subcategories – pecs, butt, shoulder, belly, upper body, lower body & core, and just Plain Jane looking good. If you decide to pick two goal categories, you can also setup the percentage to dedicate to each one.

Mel B will also allow you to make use of certain exercise equipment: aerobic step, fit ball, resistance band, wrist weights, and ankle weights. Since I don’t have any of these devices, I am not sure if I am missing out on any interesting fitness routines. I could see me getting an aerobic step, although I have plenty of steps on my front porch that I make use of after runs. I have never been into weights. Resistance band? No idea. I thought fit balls were used to break your back …

I decided to go with weight loss, general health and shape (belly focus), opting for a 50/50 split between general health and the dreaded belly fat.

Get Fit is nice enough to allow you to go with a pre-assigned workout routine, allow you to customize your own program, and you can pick the amount of time you wish to work out. You can also practice any of the exercises and there are tutorials where Mel B gives you the run down on exactly how to perform an exercise.

Day 1
30 minutes of torture. I have a whole new respect for aerobics; no coordination. So much for enjoying Mel B’s ta tas.

Good Lord; I’m out of shape … haven’t run in a couple of weeks, but I haven’t done aerobics since a junior high school physical education class. Let me be honest and admit that I was really dying at the 20 minute mark, but thankfully I finally hit the cool down exercises without hurting myself.

I was disappointed that I didn’t get to do any sit ups (I thought we were going to fix my belly fat), and I did not really enjoy waving around a Move controller. Interesting enough, Mel B never held a Move, so I am not sure what that is about.

While I was huffing and puffing at the end of my 30 minutes, when prompted, I was ashamed to tell Mel B that the advance cardio workout was too hard, so I went with just right. Probably; Mel B just kicked my ass.

For my efforts I did pick up five Trophies. I am afraid to really look and see what is required to platinum the one. Dance aerobics? Probably not going to happen. Back in “real” life Mel B informed me that I burned 196 calories, which just shows you how much good food sucks – Trophies for burning off a chocolate bar, a pizza and Christmas dinner.

Day 2
I decided to go with a 25 minute workout. For whatever reason, Mel B decided to throw some dance aerobics at me. If I thought I was wasted on regular aerobics, the dancing was a little over the top.

My wife unmercifully made fun of me, which was well deserved. I can’t dance; give me some sit-ups, pushups, park running … anything but clunky uncoordinated fumbling around on the screen dancing.

During the workouts, Mel B would encourage me to let me know I am doing the exercise correctly, or offer up some advice – twist your hips, lift your legs higher, follow the beat, not so fast, take it easy, etc. At some point I am going to have to experiment to see if this is Move related, or just camera tracking technology. Either way, I thought it was pretty cool (a tad repetitive) that Get Fit picks up your mistakes and tells you what needs to happen in order to nail the exercises.

By the end of the workout, I burned 130+ calories, and picked up another three or four Trophies. This “game” is a Trophy whore’s best friend or worst nightmare; really depends on your desire to exercise while earning virtual goodies.

The overall workout was OK at best; worked up a decent sweat, but I also know that I didn’t perform the exercises (dances) correctly. In the end I felt dissatisfied and a little silly, so I told Mel B that the workout was too easy. I then decided to go for a quick run around the park to help me burn off the rest of my energy.

Day 3
This time I went back to a 30 minute workout. Mel B kicked my ass ten ways to Sunday with her fitness routine. 204 calories, three more Trophies, and spaghetti arms (I’m push-up’ed out).

For some reason the camera or Move had trouble counting some of my sit up variations; will probably have to experiment with camera and move placement later.

Day 4 and Beyond
My short term goal is to make a sold week of working out with Mel B using the default (suggested) exercise routines. If I can make it into week two, I will probably play around some with custom workouts so I can pick things I actually enjoy; I will probably cry every time Mel B makes me dance.

The question is will I stick with Mel B? Really depends. If burning an additional 130-200 calories a day helps me lose weight, I am all for it despite looking perfectly silly in the process.