EXP Share: A Ring Fit Adventure

Hello dear readers and a happy new year to you all. It’s now time for Shoot the Rookie’s first post of 2021 and I’m kicking things off this year by taking part in a cool community event called EXP Share, created by the wonderful DanamesX over at Tales from the Backlog. This month the theme of the event is games you have just started for the first time, and for my part I’m going to be taking a look at Ring Fit Adventure. Come join me to find out more about this super fun fitness game!

Before we begin just a quick thank you to DanamesX for coming up with this fantastic event – it’s my first time taking part but I hope to be able to get involved with lots of future editions of it. If any of you don’t know about the event why not hop on over to Tales of the Backlog to find out what’s involved and how to take part!

So! The question for bloggers to tackle this month is:

Share A Story About A Game That You Played For The First Time This Month

As you’ve probably guessed the game I’m writing about here is Ring Fit Adventure on the Nintendo Switch. The reason I’ve chosen this game to cover is quite simple. I got the game delivered on the same day that I read the announcement post for this question and thus thought it was the perfect fit.

After starting it on January 2nd, I’ve now played just enough to be able to form initial opinions and so far it seems like an excellent game with a lot to offer. Those of you who read Shoot the Rookie regularly will know that I have recently been on a journey with another fitness game – Fitness Boxing – which I find provides a great workout despite being pretty sketchy. Ring Fit Adventure however is anything but sketchy.

It has a lovely fun design, easy to follow instructions and so many options that I’ve barely made a dent in them so far. Most of my energy up to this point has gone into the adventure mode, where you team up with a creature reminiscent of companions in the Zelda series called Ring, who guides you through the levels as you try to catch and defeat a baddy called Dragaux.

To traverse the world and defeat Dragaux you have to use a variety of exercises which accomplish different things. Tracked using a pair of joy-cons, one attached to the ring and the other to the leg strap, some of the exercises are attacks, some are defensive and then there is the jogging on the spot option which makes your character run. The faster you jog, the faster the character runs and there are some variations like raising your knees higher to climb stairs.

As it is a fitness game, the most important goal is that it gives you a good workout, and my muscles can certainly attest that it has succeeded in that. So far I’m finding it is more focused on strength than aerobic exercise, but that’s fine as I have Fitness Boxing (and a cross trainer) for that. It has also impressed me in a number of other ways though. One thing I really like is that it has a silent mode, so instead of jogging on the spot you just bend your knees to jog. This is super useful for me as I live in a top floor flat and don’t want to annoy my neighbours! It is also smart at helping you get the right difficulty level as it asks you before the start of your workout how you are finding it.

As I said it is well presented, with nice graphics and very cool music. It has a variety of other options as well as adventure mode, including basic strength training sets, mini games and a rhythm action section that features music from other well known Nintendo series including Wii Fit just in case you are feeling nostalgic. Maybe slightly niche, but one thing I’ve enjoyed doing is turning the language settings to Japanese. You still get English instructions on screen but somehow the voice just seems more fun and motivational.

There are a few things I’ve noticed that I haven’t quite got to grips with yet but it is still very early on in my adventure with the game. One thing that annoys me a bit are the sign in and profile options. It doesn’t get you to sign in when you load the game, and once you’re in it seems only to ask who is playing for some exercises. For adventure mode and custom mode it asks you to pick a user before you start, however for some of the quick play stuff it asks you to pick after doing the exercise and for some it seems never to ask. This is an issue as it is often unclear who’s account an exercise is being recorded against. Also it only seems possible to access your settings within the adventure and custom modes, meaning you can’t control things like language settings from the main menu. My final moan is that when you quit the game it does something weird with the joy cons, making navigating the menu or turning the console off slightly confusing.

All in all though those are pretty minor gripes and possibly even ones that there are ways round that I just haven’t found yet. It seems like a great fitness game which has been well made and contains a ton of content including plenty of exercises I’ve never tried before. I can see this game being a regular part of my life now and a welcome edition to my fitness regime which needs some serious work after the year we’ve just had!

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So that’s my new game for this month, but what about you? Are you already a fan of Ring Fit Adventure? Perhaps there are other fitness games you could recommend? Either way let me know below in comments and don’t forget to check in regularly with DanamesX to see all the other answers to this month’s EXP Share question!

Thanks for reading,

Pix1001 x

All images from Nintendo