This video game review looks at the promising new personal trainer, appropriately named "UFC Personal Trainer". Will it kick your butt and have you sweating up a storm, or are you better off hitting the gym?

When I first saw the commercial for this game, I was glued to my couch, held hopelessly captive in a marathon of 'Bones.' Now normally I would just fast forward past these occasional nuisances but the remote was all the way on the other side of the couch, and you would have had to pry the cool ranch chips out of my cold dead hands to try to get me to move, so I relented and watched the commercial. What I saw was yet another fitness based video game promising to deliver a pro-athlete level workout, so immediately I was skeptical. Others have tried to pry me off of this couch and failed (yes Nintendo I’m talking to you).

Now I’m going to break one of the cardinal rules of reviewing by sharing something of a personal bias regarding these games. It always seemed to me that the target audience for fitness-based games probably wouldn't be glued to a couch in front of the boob tube to begin with. But as my editor often reminds me, we all know what opinions are like. Now that's not to say that I am anti-exercise - quite the opposite in fact - I just happen to fall in the camp of those who like their fitness and recreation separate. However, one cool benefit is that I don’t ever have to leave the comfort of my living room and I can workout in my Batman pajama pants if I want to.

UFC Personal Trainer just happens to be the next game to hop onto the 'home fitness' bandwagon, pioneered primarily by game systems like the Wii. For those of you unfamiliar with this style of 'gaming' it primarily involves a type of interactive motion capture environment where you, as the player, mimic instructions given by a digital avatar of some sort (or those of you hip to the 'Dance Revolution' games, instructional arrow guides).

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty: UFC ultimately delivers on its promise. It does give you UFC-style instructions, only without all the blood and compound fractures. It does work up a sweat, no matter what your skill set may be.
Now before you gamers get any ideas of getting all Oldboy on the next person who ticks you off, I would beg that you reconsider. Let's leave that stuff to the professionals.

Gameplay and graphics are the two areas that UFC Personal Trainer excels in. The interactivity and detail are top-notch, as is the rendering of your UFC coaches, Mark DellaGrotte, Greg Jackson, and Javier Mendez. Players can select any of these three to train with a pre-set workout comprised of sets of individual exercises, complete with warm-up and cool down sets. There's also a DIY setting that allows you to customize and save routines tailor-made to your specific needs.

The functionality of the game is pretty straightforward as well. The start menu has you input your personal stats to give a more 'accurate' account of your progress. I don't know about the rest of you, but I had an easier time guessing the amount of jellybeans in that giant jar at the county fair than remembering my stats; that's just not the kind of info I commit to memory (y'know just like algebra). But no matter what gaming system you play this on the menu interface is very self explanatory and easy to maneuver. So whether you want weight loss, muscle building or endurance, UFC Trainer can customize a routine to your liking. The gameplay also runs the gamut between the more regimented pre-fab workouts to a simpler “Hit the Mitts” routine which doesn’t require much actual boxing knowledge to feel like your accomplishing something.

Now for the downside. The main drawback I noticed was in the area of the coaching, which only had about a handful of instructions that became pretty redundant after awhile. There were even times that I would exceed the counter on the game, only to receive a 'try harder' for my efforts. It was like high school all over again. Also, while I know this may come across as nit-picky, I also found the lack of visual and audio stimulus of the different workout settings bothersome. Anyone who has ever worked out in a gym knows that you’re almost bombarded with constant stimulation whether it’s your physical surroundings or music. It’s just something that I found that I was missing while performing the exercises. And when I would pause the game, the counter on whatever exercise I was doing would keep going. Also, if your form is bad, don’t expect to have it corrected while you workout.

Another major drawback to me (and from what I’ve seen from other users) is the lack of resistance training. I’m not sure how the makers of the game can actually rectify this, but it’s a component that I found lacking. As someone who has actually trained in kickboxing, I honestly cannot say that the routines are worthless -they just seem to be dressed up as something they ultimately cannot be. These routines are meant to push my heart rate and not my fighting or defensive skills. And to their credit, they don’t ever really try to teach you any of that stuff, but let’s be honest: I doubt that anyone would be running out for this game if it were patterned after Jane Fonda or Richard Simmons’ exercise routines. The image of UFC is absolutely an integral part of the games design and structure. A good majority of the routines involve kicking and punching a digital bag. So while your moves are registered, you may find yourself feeling somewhat silly after awhile of what basically boils down to shadowboxing with instructions.

Final Thoughts

UFC Personal Trainer has the best of intentions when it comes to offering a well-rounded fitness and exercise platform but it's not quite there yet. It will definitely provide you with a decent workout that will make you work up a sweat. The digital coaching could benefit from a little more bedside manner in the dialogue department and the lack of intuition in the gameplay could be tweaked. But overall it will give you an interactive workout that is a step above some of the other fitness games out on the market right now.

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