Get a Move On

Moving up the exertion scale, we next tried "EyeToy: Kinetic" from Sony Computer Entertainment America. The EyeToy is a tiny camera that plugs into the PlayStation 2. It sits on the TV and projects your image onto the screen. Then, in rather a cool bit of technological whiz-bang, your movements somehow interact with the onscreen video. You kick and punch and duck and weave, and frankly, watching the off-screen EyeToy-player flailing about as though plagued by a cloud of imaginary insects is pretty funny.

Sony has created a number of games to work with the EyeToy, most of which appear to be aimed at the youth market. The 2005 game "Kinetic," however, is more fitness-program-with-a-game-element than the other way around. Matt -- buff and vaguely multi-ethnic -- and British-accented fitness babe Anna are our computer-animated onscreen hosts.

"Kinetic" includes combat, cardio, toning, and mind and body zones and offers customizing features, such as a Personal Trainer mode that will build you a 12-week training program. Of course, the kids went straight for the combat zone and rapidly thereafter for pure goofiness, but later I put "Kinetic" through its paces in more detail and certainly worked up a reasonable if not exhausting sweat in the process. In cardio and combat zones you try to hit, jab or touch certain moving objects onscreen while avoiding others, and each session gets progressively more difficult.

The good and the bad of "Kinetic" is that I was concentrating more on taking out the moving objects than on registering how hard I was exercising. If you're looking simply for something that gets you up and moving, then you'll find that in "Kinetic," but I decided that the game would take some getting the hang of before I, at least, could pull off the smooth -- and more exerting -- maneuvers demonstrated onscreen by a shadow-outline Matt or Anna. I'm sure my neighbors, if they'd caught sight of me through the window, would have had a good and hearty laugh. I advise drawing the blinds.

My Maya

Marrying interactive technology with more traditional fitness programming is "Yourself!Fitness," which creator Phin Barnes dreamed up when he was training for a triathlon and using a software program that came with his heart-rate monitor. "After every workout I would download all the information and see the graphs and so forth. It really helped me train," he says.

Barnes's concept was "a fitness game that would bring health and fitness guidance to the broadest segment of the population as possible -- the video-game-console-equipped household."

Behold, then, Maya, your interactive personal "Yourself!Fitness" trainer for Xbox, PC and PlayStation 2. Built by focus group and born of computer animation, Maya gets your height, weight and age, then works you through initial tests of strength and conditioning before offering suggested focus areas such as cardio, upper- and lower-body strength, or flexibility. During each workout, she -- okay, the program -- periodically asks you to assess how hard you're working, then readjusts future sessions to increase or decrease intensity accordingly.

"Yourself!Fitness" builds on a familiar range of Pilates, yoga and aerobics routines, but thanks to the multiple, evolving levels of personalized interactivity, it's about as close as you can get to having a 24-hour on-call personal trainer without actually having one, and all for about $35 for PS2 and Xbox platforms.

" 'Yourself!Fitness' is 100 percent dependent on the profile you build as you use the program," Barnes says. "It specifically targets your needs."

I'll admit it won me over. I've never had much enthusiasm for workout videos, which quickly grow stale, and I'm averse to group fitness classes. But "Yourself!Fitness" let me pick what I wanted (Maya suggested cardio, but I flouted her advice and tried upper body and core first) and allowed me to incorporate my hand weights and balance ball into the routines and increase the intensity as I liked, until I was feeling the burn indeed. I'd definitely use this program.

Assuming I could stop playing "DDR."

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION EXTREME 2 With dance pad for PS2, $59.99. Without dance pad, $39.99. Other versions also available for Xbox and PS2. http://www.konami.com.

QMOTIONS-XBOARD Available in May for PS2 and Xbox for about $100. http://www.qmotions.com/xboard.html.

SONY EYETOY: KINETIC (With camera) for PS2, $49.99. http://www.us.playstation.com/eyetoy.aspx.

YOURSELF!FITNESS $34.99 for PS2 and Xbox. $29.99 for PC. http://www.yourselffitness.com.

CATEYE GAMEBIKE $349. Gamebike Pro, $1,169 upright and $1,600 recumbent, for PS2, Xbox, GameCube and PC. 972-644-8403. http://www.gamebike.com.

When she isn't playing "DDR," Caroline Kettlewell is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Weekend and can be found online at http://www.carolinekettlewell.com.