Review: Walk It Out!

Walk It Out! is my current game addiction. To play, you just step in place to the beat of the music. When you stay on the beat, you earn credits to spend on Rhythm Island, the game's walking environment. The credits can either buy more things to dress up the island, like trees, flowers, buildings, etc., or you can buy new routes to take which open to new scenery. For instance, you can walk along the beach, on a mountain lookout, into a fountain plaza, etc.

You can also buy constellations (for the night sky), Magic Clock times, or more music. You begin with about 15 or 20 songs, so you have to buy the rest with your credits. This is a great motivator since obviously it can get boring to listen to the same songs. Each song must be purchased in pieces, so you have to buy all pieces (2 or more) before you can unlock the whole song and add it to your play list.

Depending on what time you're playing, the game will reflect the hour (somewhat) in the scenery with a sunset, night sky, full daylight, etc. I haven't been up to see the sunrise on it, yet, nor do I know in what time slot that happens (the sunset is between 4 and 5pm). But you can also purchase different time slots with your credits so that you can jump to them whenever you want (that's the Magic Clock I mentioned before). This is important since many of the song, constellation and time pieces are in different time slots, so you have to go there to get them.

There's a lot to say about this game but it would take forever. It takes quite awhile to unlock the thousands of things they have available, which makes it a nice long-term game. So far I've only unlocked a total of about 50 songs out of 121 available, and I have yet to purchase an entire constellation to see what that looks like.




CONS:

• It's not a high-impact workout, unless maybe you want to jog in place (which you can't do on the balance board).
• Many of the songs are way too slow and I had to take them out of the play list.
• You have the option to not use the balance board and instead just put the nunchuck in your pocket like a pedometer, but I have found this doesn't work very well without exaggerating my steps too much. Maybe if I wasn't worried about bugging the downstairs neighbors I'd try it a little more.
• The "walking" you do for it can be a little weird on the feet at first.
• The personal trainer gets kind of annoying.
• You can't make your character wave at the others on the island, even though they wave at your character. There are constantly people stopping and waving at me while I totally blow them off. It's sad!

PROS:

• Pretty scenery, with the ability to move the "camera" to see all around you as you walk.
• Plenty of new stuff to motivate you to keep playing the game over a long period of time.
• Even if not an awesome workout, it's definitely more tiresome than sitting, and I have found I am way sleepier at night lately. Exercise is exercise!
• Affordable compared to many Wii games, especially if you buy it used.
• ♥
  

Have any of you tried this game? Does it interest you at all? I think I want to play some more right now!  

NOTE: Walk It Out! screencaps were taken from this site. I hope that's okay.