Console Corner: Ring Fit Adventure review

No gimmicks, just genius.
Ring Fit AdventureRing Fit Adventure
Ring Fit Adventure

Just when you lazy gamers thought it was safe to step off the Wii Fit platform along comes another genius bit of kit from Nintendo’s best brains.

Before I begin this review I should confess that I am something of a Nintendo fan boy.

Nintendo was my childhood and just seeing the name fills me with a nostalgic glow that only the original PlayStation has come even close to emulating since.

Ring Fit AdventureRing Fit Adventure
Ring Fit Adventure

The Nintendo Switch has meant that Nintendo has now become my adulthood too and enjoying its vast array of superb titles on this award-winning bit of kit has reinvigorated my love of video gaming.

When it comes to weird, wonderful and often wacky creations Nintendo are the industry pioneers and leaders.

And their latest effort - Ring Fit Adventure - certainly does not disappoint.

I consider myself a pretty fit fella. I’m late 30s and exercise around three times a week. So when I cracked open the bizarre contraption that looks like some gimmicky get-fit-quick tool from a home-shopping channel that comes free with an ab-roller, I was sceptical to say the least.

Ring Fit AdventureRing Fit Adventure
Ring Fit Adventure

I imagined it would be great to get the increasingly sedentary younger generation more mobile through gaming like the Wii Fit did so successfully worldwide.

What I certainly didn’t foresee was a genuine, proper workout for a non-smoker who considers himself in reasonably good shape.

Oh how wrong I was.

Not only is the premise of integrating an RPG with temple-running style fitness game a risk. It is so left-field it simply should not work.

Ring Fit AdventureRing Fit Adventure
Ring Fit Adventure

But it does. And it does unfathomably brilliantly, executed with the usual charm and polish associated with the Nintendo stable.

For those that are not familiar with Ring Fit Adventure, the game comes with two physical components: the Ring-Con, a flexible, hard-plastic ring that the user holds and one Joy-Con slots into, and a Leg Strap, a piece of fabric affixed to the user’s leg that holds the other Joy-Con (now you will get the shopping channel reference if you didn’t before).

The main mode has the player complete a turn-based role-playing game, where movements and battle actions are based on performing certain physical activities using the Ring-Con and Leg Strap, with the motion controls within the Joy-Con sensing the player’s movement.

Other modes include general guided fitness routines and party-style games, all centered around common fitness exercises.

Ring Fit AdventureRing Fit Adventure
Ring Fit Adventure

Exercise can be laborious and intimidating for some, especially going to a gym or out for a run. Ring Fit Adventure’s genius is that it gets you sweating but always excited about coming back for me, and in the comfort of your own home.

This kind of innovation and originality should be celebrated and I would even go as far as to say the Ring Fit alone makes the Switch worth getting if you don’t already own one. It’s that good.

And this is only just the beginning.

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