Adidas miCoach Review

This has been a while coming. Adidas miCoach is yet another in the line of training games, which put players through routines to help them get into shape. However, it’s only a part of the number of tools under the miCoach brand that helps people all around the world. And only Adidas would help design a game that requires you to buy real world gym equipment like dumb bells for these virtual exercises. But that’s besides the point. Tailored for the Kinect, does the game hold up and provide the fittest personal training experience that it’s over 400 exercises promise?

To make things clear: I am by no means a fit individual. At all. So when playing miCoach, let’s just say that the exercises are very much real and will put you through your paces. it features several different sports, split up in to different training plans and exercises, like tennis, football, rugby, tennis, running, basketball and more. These same sports are presided over by 13 Adidas-recognized athletes like Dwight Howard, Jose Mourinho, Jessica Ennis and more.

They help provide master classes for the sport, as you start off by performing the basic exercises in the requisite sport to improve your stamina, boost your strength and more until you move on to truly becoming an expert in the sport. And you know what? Kudos to 505 Games for recognizing that you can’t just become fit by waving your arms around in the air. You need resistance and you need to lift actual heavy things. That’s just how it works, even in the real world. Plus, if you’re training, how good does it feel to know that actual experts are there to train you?

Niceties out of the way? Good. For all the good that miCoach does, for all the sports and training and avenues for improving and becoming fit, it’s still a Kinect game. Emphasis on the “Kinect” part, because such titles are subject to things like responsiveness and accuracy of motion. And when that goes, all sense of enjoyment and achievement goes with it. The “game” in question ceases to be that, and becomes a chore. Exercise may be a necessary responsibility but it can still be fun.

Heck, for all it’s faults, look at Kinect Sports. I’ve had a hell of a lot more fun playing that game with friends, even if my flab didn’t go anywhere. For the credit I give the game in trying to utilize real world equipment, how come it can’t recognize when I don’t have it? How come I can’t skip those exercises or, I don’t know, access alternative ones? How do I make do with what I have i.e. my imagination and dwindling sense of patience? If you can imagine a Pilates ball for the successful execution of your exercises, then you are either unnaturally toned already or a friggin magician. Also, for all it’s props in having more than 13 athletes provide training, there are other games out there like UFC Personal Trainer that provide the same, and at least provide you with the comfort of being able to pummel some one into submission at the end of the day.

But really, what do you say when you’re sweating it out, trying to fulfill whatever regime the game has set and it doesn’t recognize your efforts? The motion recognition could have used some serious improvement. Graphics and sound are alright, for a game of this standard, but really, there’s not much beyond the experience other than seeing the motions on screen and trying to mimic them well enough for your trainer to be satisfied. And honestly, if SkyNet has taught us anything, satisfaction isn’t the first priority of the robot race.

Adidas miCoach isn’t fun, it isn’t responsive and while it means well with it’s excessive content and features, it just doesn’t measure up to Kinect fitness game standards.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.