Zumba Fitness Core - First Impressions

I am simply fascinated by the fitness gaming revolution. I can remember getting my cardio while playing Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) in the arcade. Eventually bought my own pad and brought the cardio workout home. But, naturally, finding time to workout while having a full-time career and family is hard. You’re always either tired or preoccupied with something that time just slips away. But thanks to the Wii and Kinect, our fitness craving can be easily quenched without ever setting foot into a gym, unless you care to go to one.

So, what exactly is Zumba®?

“Zumba® is a global lifestyle brand that fuses fitness, entertainment and culture into an exhilarating dance-party workout^†” and the games are simply an extension of the worldwide phenomenon. Available soon for both the Wii and Kinect for Xbox 360, Zumba® Fitness Core is taking the feature set that was in Rush and taking it to a whole new level. With 13 new styles that weren’t in Rush; featuring everything from Brazilian Funk to Celtic Blue Grass to Ballet to Jazz and even Disco.

The first thing I noticed right off the bat is the inclusion of more familiar songs.

During the development of Zumba® Fitness Core; they discovered that while people loved the Zumba rhythms, people also wanted more songs that they would recognize. A significant amount of time was spent trying to find songs that would fit the Zumba rhythms but were equally recognizable. Featuring 23 licensed tracks that run the gambit from being a Top 10 hit to Classics and even exclusive re-records. It’s interesting to hear that Don Omar wrote a song, entitled Zumba, exclusively for the game and that it would be included along side other popular artists like Enrique Iglesias, Sean Paul, Karmin, Tiesto, Bob Marley, Kat DeLuna, Nayer featuring Pitbull, Robert Randolph, The Donnas to name a few. Each selected track works in conjunction with the Zumba dance routines. It was cool to see that even “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” seemingly allows the introduction of ballet into the Zumba dance style and is a great core routine. With 40 new routines, 20 designated core and 20 designated cardio routines, it was imperative to create a non-monotonous routine. If there were 40 straight up core, they wouldn’t be fun. You have to remember that you aren’t sitting on the floor doing a boring sit-up. This is a true total body workout, that works out your core and really makes you sweat.

Seriously.

Another great addition is the inclusion of personal community goals. While you are more than welcomed to set your own personal goals but you can work together with the entire online community and try to complete a particular community goal. As a team, you can work towards a technique score to unlock various bonuses, like bonus videos. The bonus videos are absolutely great! Each video provides a window into each Zumba instructor which is interesting because I really wasn’t aware of how popular and important each instructor is. The instructors included in the games are rock stars in the Zumba world and people pay tons of money to take their courses. The bonus videos unlock a particular facet for each instructor like learning about their fitness regimen or their favorite workout styles. These are great rewards for working your butt off. It’s important to remember that fitness can be fun, fitness can be work and it can be also rewarding. Not just through videos but through your overall health as well.

So, let’s recap.

Zumba® Fitness Core is fun total-body workout with a recognizable set list packed with a little bit of everything.
It’s main focus is on your core which is often the part of the body we’d all like to get nice and tight.
Features eight venues that are already unlocked from the start.
Features insightful bonus videos that you can unlock while you play.
It’s great to get people together and earn rewards whether it’s online or off.

Sounds like a winner to me, no?