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Zumba Fitness Impressions

Tom Mc Shea
By Tom Mc Shea, Editor

Dance those pounds away in our first look at the latest fitness game.

Fancy new technology may be the most obvious trend at this year's E3, but if you want one type of game that is being inundated with new releases, then dancing is definitely the choice. With Just Dance 2, Dance Party, and even a Michael Jackson dancing game announced this year, it looks to be one crowded genre in the coming months. Majesco is not a company to sit on its laurels and watch everyone else jump in the pool, though. It has its own dance-themed fitness game coming out this year, set to put the many motion controllers through their paces.

Zumba is a workout regime that focuses on the pound-shedding power of dance to get people off their feet and moving around. Zumba Fitness looks to capitalize on this craze with a new game that takes advantage of the Wii Remote, Move, and Kinect, depending on your weight-loss system of choice. The game has a realistic-looking dancer onscreen performing hip shakes and arm sways, and you follow along in time with the music. Stay in rhythm, and your in-game silhouette shines a brilliant green. Make a mistake, and it becomes yellow or, if you have two left feet, even red.

There are exclusive routines and songs in this game, so even people who make their way to the local gym every Wednesday to dance in their Zumba class will find something new here. There are also multiplayer modes if you're confident enough about your abilities to shake your stuff in front of another person. A two-player mode can be played on the same screen, or you can challenge long-distance dancers to a dance-off.

Zumba Fitness is not really a game, but it is a way to have fun while you lose weight. Although we certainly didn't try it out at the show with so many prying eyes judging us, it looks like another interesting entry in the genre. Stay tuned to GameSpot to see how this dance war plays out.

Tom Mc Shea
By Tom Mc Shea, Editor

Tom Mc Shea loves platformers and weighty moral decisions almost as much as he likes vaseline on toast. Some call him a T-Rex with bigger arms, some call him a gorilla with smaller arms -- you can just call him the jerk who hates all the things you love and loves all the things you hate.

16 Comments

  • enrique_marrodz

    Posted Mar 9, 2011 8:04 am GMT

    @jlwood830
    You may recall Dance genre is not new and, in any case, not for Microsoft. DDR games have been around far before Kinect and Just Dance is a million seller. You may be surprised only if you been denying the casual games had taken over all of us...

  • jlwood830

    Posted Nov 17, 2010 11:25 am GMT

    Well, I don't Zumba but I have an old girlfriend who does and she loves it (at the gym). After playing Dance Central with my X360/Kinect just once she has decided to purchase her own system just for Dance Central. And she's a real spendthrift.

    I think Microsoft has started something here.

  • zakaweb

    Posted Nov 16, 2010 4:49 am GMT

    I'm going to go out on the limb and get this game. I have the move controller and i need some form of exercise.

  • brian376

    Posted Nov 6, 2010 12:34 pm GMT

    its bad when games are now just work at home videos you see on ad's its what we feared games are now just ads

  • colsen77

    Posted Oct 30, 2010 8:47 am GMT

    it say 18 nov next t the picture.

  • willywils

    Posted Aug 30, 2010 3:34 am GMT

    ****Gamespot Please Read**** My girlfriend is hounding me to get this game asap....Any ideas when it will be released so i can get her off my back!

  • isthanametken33

    Posted Jul 19, 2010 12:04 pm GMT

    I have seen some of the stupidest comments concerning this product, made by people that have no idea of what zumba, or have never tried it. Comments about strippers and what not. Total rubbish! Anyone making sly comments A: Has no clue of what they are talking about. B: Probably has never done a dance-fitness workout, C: Is too busy sitting on rear end and watching/drooling over girl in trailer to actually give it a shot. It takes practice and coordination to be good at dancing and fitness. It's actually pretty fun. Instead of the standard workout, you having fun dancing, while at the same time toning and shaping your body. For all you macho men out there who think this is a game solely for the ladies, I dare you to try it. I guarantee it's not as easy as it looks. Zumba is actually a legitimate exercising, fat burning program.

  • drangel_jam

    Posted Jun 25, 2010 7:58 am GMT

    lol at the GS staff. Serious lee? No staff member was able to try out the game.
    Were they too embarrassed 'cause two-left-feet, or completely out of shape? Nerds!!

  • kingswede

    Posted Jun 24, 2010 3:57 am GMT

    oh my lordness...

  • elgrantimmy

    Posted Jun 23, 2010 12:27 pm GMT

    @Poodger I bet that infomercial looked better than this...

  • thesovvolf

    Posted Jun 22, 2010 7:05 pm GMT

    I think I'm going to pass on this one. I liked the other dance game where it shows you step by step instructions. That looked pretty fun for when your at a party. This game however?... Me'h looks rubbish. I'm not into all the gimmicky dance stuff. The only reason the other game mentioned gets a pass is because it can teach you to dance and help make a fool out of you when your drunk and with friends. This just seems strictly for fitness... I didn't buy my 360 for that. I'll go jogging and go down to the gym for that.

  • Poodger

    Posted Jun 21, 2010 10:44 pm GMT

    Oh god. Zumba? I think I saw an infomercial on Zumba at 2 AM once. There is a game coming out based on a product from a late night infomercial? Someone is scrapping the bottom of the barrel for ideas...

  • Jaden_Arbiter

    Posted Jun 20, 2010 2:21 pm GMT

    I'm really feeling bad for Konami now. First come the makers of DJ Hero/Guitar Hero/Rock Band to rip off their new DDR, and now some random company decides to enter the race with their own budget release.

    Konami needs to run these dudes out of business already and take the genre all for themselves. Total destruction is the only way!

  • no_cultureicons

    Posted Jun 20, 2010 11:57 am GMT

    Bah, I thought it said 'Zombie Fitness'. Now THAT would be a game.

  • Masta_Rix

    Posted Jun 19, 2010 12:09 pm GMT

    hehe

  • junor69

    Posted Jun 18, 2010 5:26 pm GMT

    woooo one more fitness game