EA Active's NFL Training Camp

With today marking the start of the NFL's Regular Season, I couldn't resist trying out EA Active's NFL Training Camp for Nintendo Wii.

I started the 60 Day Workout on Easy and played a few drills.

Here are my first impressions:

First off, it will take a little while to "assemble."  What I mean by that is you have to plug the dongle in, which was no where in the manual or packaging...so if you are like me you are plugging along after creating your character and then you are told to turn the Wii off, insert the dongle (USB Drive), and then power it back on....Things like that are nice to know AHEAD OF TIME!!

Once you've restarted, you go thru a video learning how the sensors should be positioned...it is rather cumberesome, but fairly important and worth watching. 

The Main Menu is a little difficult to navigate and there doesn't seem to be an option to save or exit...you just have to use the "Home" button to exit.  Everything does "auto-save," but it would be nice to have it as an option.

There are a lot of graphs and analytics that while neat to look at, I don't see folks using very often...same with the nutritional journal.  You would really have to have a lot of time set aside and dedicated to this workout to take the time to do that every night...Once a week would be better in my opinion.  That said, there are reward for sticking to them, so I suppose most of us will perservere in attempt to get 100% Completion.

The actual workouts were pretty basic, which isn't a bad thing and this was on easy.  I kind of wish it didn't have repetitive series, but the intent is to have you warm up, workout, and cool down...in that sense it is logical, despite being redundant.

I only had 1 exercise where the sensor didn't register...and that was incredibly annoying.  It was the single arm plank and nothing I did would get it to register that I had gone up...or down...or up again.  Getting scolded by the trainer for not doing 1 of 2 reps when you've just done 15 trying to get it to register sucks.

The running portion was fun and I loved seeing how you ranked vs NFL Players, but it didn't register.  I would speed up and the character would slow.  If I stayed steady, the character would speed up.  Slowing down was consistent, which is what makes the fact that going from a jog to a run doesn't register as fluidly.

I was kind of bummed when I finished the exercise routine because I wanted some real football action, not just had rather basic exercises.  I found them (finally) by navigating the main menu.

The fact you can just turn the game on and do the "fun" football exercises is very nice.  I am thinking they will incorporate a few in each of the 60 Day Workouts, but I'll have to confirm that as I progress.

This segment is awesome, and probably why most people bought the game.  I really do think if you stick to the 60 Day Workout and progress on the difficultly level you could see good results (I kind of previewed the possible workouts and team workouts).  If not, you can play these and have a lot of fun.

There are a lot of unlockables to be had.  You can collect helmets, stickers, apparel, and more.  There are rewards for completing the challengers, working out at every stadium, and more.

Overall I think I will really enjoy this.  As long as the sensors register in 95% of the exercises I think I can deal, albeit begrudgingly, with the inconvenience.  If not, I know I will have fun with the "football" segments and going for some of the achievements.

I don't know about doing a complete playthough on this one.  The workouts get pretty long and I'm not sure who would have a ton of interest in them.  I might do a few and see how they go over.

What I do plan to record is the football portion...That will be the reason most get the game and if they enjoy that portion enough they will no doubt be more likely to take on the 60 Day Challenge.  I would like to mentino that you can create a workout, or take on a team workout without having to do the 60 Day Challenge.  Now that I think about it, that might be worth recording, although probably for a limited audience, lol.

Well this is longer than I intended.  Overall the game seems like it could pay dividends IF you stay dedicated and adhere to the workouts.  If not, I think it will be of benefit when you do workout.  At the very least most anyone will enjoy going thru the position specific drills.