KNOCKOUT HOME FITNESS Definitely Gets You Moving
XSEED Games recently released Knockout Home Fitness on the Nintendo Switch. This is a new fitness video game to help get people off the couch and be active. This is especially nice in these crazy times of quarantine and distancing. XSEED was kind enough to provide me with a code earlier this month and I’ve been giving it a go. You can find my thoughts below. You can purchase a digital copy through the Nintendo eShop or physical copies from XSEED and participating retailers for $39.99. A free demo is also available on the Nintendo eShop if you’d like to give it a try before committing.
Life gets busy and staying fit is always a challenge— Knockout Home Fitness and its four personality-driven trainers are here to help! Each trainer has a different coaching style to help players find the one that’s right for them, delivering customized daily routines to motivate players to meet their personal fitness goals. Deliver a knockout blow to inactivity with 60 different short and intense full body workouts designed by experts to maximize calorie-burning with strikes based not just on boxing, but also other martial arts such as Muay Thai, karate, and kung-fu!
The idea behind Knockout Home Fitness is that you workout using moves from various martial arts with the game tracking your movements via a Joy-Con in each hand. There are 4 trainers that you can unlock to guide you through the workout routines, and you can choose to workout through daily tailored routines or choose your own workouts in the 3-Minute Fitness Mode. There’s also a My Report section that lets you keep track of your progress.
When doing workouts, the game has a similar vibe to games like Dance Dance Revolution where it’s rhythmic and set to songs. You’ll be throwing punches, uppercuts, kicks, and more in no time. Overall, this is a great way to get moving and get some exercise. The game lets you adjust your workout based on your goals (strengthening, losing weight, or just being active), target areas (whole body, upper body, or lower body), and time (10, 20, or 30 minutes) which is a nice way to customize things. Unfortunately, this brings me to my first complaint, the 10-minute workout is a lie. When you do the routines, the game adds about 4-5 minutes of stretching (divided among pre- and post-workout times) and then each set requires 3-5 minutes to complete, and it seems to always throw at least 2 sets in. A lot of the time, when I went to do 10 minutes, it was much closer to 15 minutes with one time even taking over 16 minutes. I don’t mind the time commitment, I just wish that instead of having a 10-minute option, it was just simply a 15-minute option.
When you exercise, you’ll get to unlock 4 different trainers to help motivate you and then you’ll have to go through and decide which one fits your personality and liking. Honestly, I didn’t feel like there was very much of a difference. The most different was Matilda who sounded more intense and like she was semi-shouting at me. The other three are very similar with the tiniest changes. It’s cool that it’s a thing, but I wish there was a bit more in the differences in attitudes.
I’ll be honest, the music is not the greatest. It’s there to get you going and it does that, but none of it is remarkable or noteworthy. I couldn’t even tell you the names of any of the tracks. They also all sound very similar. I wish there had been more of a standout tracklist, but it is what it is. Also, as a quick note, the graphics aren’t very impressive. They’re not terrible, but there are more jagged lines than I expected. Not a deal breaker, but I thought it was worth noting.
The workouts are pretty good. They definitely get your heart going and get your body moving. The stretches feel very minimal, but effective which is nice. I do appreciate that the kicks don’t affect your combo score either. This makes sense since there’s no way to track leg movement. Sadly, the Joy-Con are not exactly the best tracking system for movement. Throughout the sets you’ll throw punches, hooks, and uppercuts, but there’s no way for the game to differentiate between these which means you can really just throw a punch every time. This helps your combos, but definitely makes you a lot more accountable that you’re doing things correctly. Boxing and karate moves are pretty solid, but unfortunately, the muay thai moves that were heavily advertised for the game are possibly the worst experience, especially the elbows. For the knee movements, those are tracked by moving your hands from above your head to meet your raised knee and it can be a little picky. However, when throwing elbows, you have to be extremely exaggerated for it to really recognize it. There were several times where because of time, my elbow was a little more subtle and the game didn’t register it because it’s less concerned about my elbow and more concerned about my hand. It gets a little annoying to be honest.
Overall, if you’re looking for a game to help you get some exercise, Knockout Home Fitness is a decent choice. Don’t expect to get swole, but it can help you get active and feel good about your body. Yes, I would’ve liked some more distinct music and the trainers to be a bit more distinct, but that’s all going to be to taste for a large part. You do run into the problem of not having someone actually monitoring you to ensure proper form, but no game is going to offer that. I do appreciate that the game is only $40 though and there’s that free demo so you can give it a test run before purchase. There’s nothing to lose!
