218. Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo, Switch, 2019)

OK, I broke down and bought a new game, but Ring Fit Adventure was a hot commodity this year, selling for about 3x its asking price in the height of the pandemic. So I'm sorry if I had to bite the bullet when I saw it on sale for $10 off MSRP. For those unaware, Ring Fit Adventure is a new game & exercise controller from Nintendo. Using the ring-shaped controller and leg strap that each house a controller, the game is able to track your arm and leg movements, as well as feel the amount that you are pushing or pulling on the ring

The main adventure game mode has you playing through various short (4-10 minute) levels that consist of 2 types of gameplay. The first involves jogging/running in place to move your character forward along a set path, and pointing the ring while pushing or pulling to interact with the world. The motion controls are very responsive, and I love pointing the ring down and squeezing to propel my character up. This part of Ring Fit Adventure honestly feels like cool turn of the century arcade game like Prop Cycle or Panic Park in that the actions are fun and simple and use a weird proprietary controller.

The second part of the gameplay is a more traditional turn-based RPG where you select skills to attack enemies, but in order to perform the attacks, you have to do various stretches / squats / holds / etc. The animations on these attacks are great: as you're holding a squat or ring press, there is a nice visual text that fills as you hold, and in the background there is a corresponding giant glowing fist / foot / abs that charges up to smack the enemy once you release. The combination of releasing an charged up attack while releasing a stretch is a new kind of good feeling in video games.

Because beating a level means you actually had to exert yourself, the feeling of accomplishment is that much greater. When you get to the boss, he's already there working out, which I feel like is something I've been waiting 20 years to see in an RPG. Ring Fit Adventure is also very thoughtful in its presentation, and with the tips you get on various workouts, it's basically a virtual personal trainer. 

I've only played the main  adventure mode bu you can also just do a series of custom workouts, or play various minigames. They even added a rhythm game mode that I'm going to work my way up to. If there's one knock that I have against the game, it's that I wouldn't really want other people watching me play it.

5/5, finally a game that makes me excited to exercise