Excited like it was Christmas, I was basically hanging out by the door waiting for my review copy of the new virtual fitness program from Ubisoft: Your Shape.  Starring Jenny McCarthy as your “virtual training guide”, it is the first Wii exercise game to come equipped with a camera that scans your body (it’s not as scary as it sounds).  You then do the exercises with the game (Jenny’s character) encouraging you to correct your moves, helping you adjust to the right tempo, activity level and positions.

I got the girls involved too.  Here’s what we love!!!

• No need for any type of remote or balance board to operate the device.  It’s all you!  You have the option to use a balance ball, step, or weights.
• The game works both on the Wii and your computer.  Exercise anywhere, any time.
• You can select the body area you want to work on, and it creates a program just for that.
• You see your actual body workout on the screen (because of the camera) in a split screen with the virtual character.

Set up is easy as the camera scans you from the side and front.  It’s best to have an uncluttered background free of movement (move the dogs) and make sure the camera is set at the right angle.  We had to fidget with this.

We tried several levels of exercise found some things that could be improved:

• There seems to be a delay between your movements and what shows up on the screen.  I’m not sure if this contributed to all the corrections we were getting or not.
• You can’t have any movement in the background and an uncluttered area.   If you have little kids or animals this could be difficult (not sure you could fix this, but it is a potential problem).
• We are still having trouble figuring out the levels, scoring, and precision.  We weren’t quite sure where we stood.  Or it seemed like we were not scoring very well.
• Having used other Wii games before, we found the exercises to be fairly plain- not easy, just plain…good for someone who just wants a good aerobic workout, but not enough for someone used to a variety within the game.

All in all we are anxious to see how we progress with the game.  Get ready for a good upper body as well as aerobic challenge.  Jenny lets you take a water break, but other than that, it’s high energy and moving all the time!