Review: Personal Trainer: Walking

Lately I've been blasting Olivia Newton-John's dance classic "Physical" in my corner of the GayGamer Castle to help inspire some fitness-related thoughts. When trying to start or, in my case, keep up a fitness routine it's always good to have some positive reminders surrounding you. One of biggest reminders around me right now is my purchase of Nintendo's Personal Trainer: Walking. Just to warn you dear readers, this isn't really a game even in the sense that WiiFit is and because of this it can't exactly be reviewed as one.

The title's main purpose is to get its users to think about their everyday movement with the help of a small pedometer that you carry around in your pocket. It tracks how many steps you take, when you take them, and what this can mean for your health. By tracking this data, you can get a pretty clear picture of your daily rhythm and start get the ball rolling on becoming more active throughout the day. I think one's individual enjoyment or use of the software highly depends on how interesting that last sentence sounded. Personally, I found it useful in tracking where in my daily grind that I was sitting around for hours and picked up some of the tips on how to change that through some small changes.

There are no levels in the traditional sense, but the title will generate a daily step goal and provide the player with daily challenges that seemed aimed to calm people more than "challenge" them. I didn't exactly find it hard to "stop and take in some beautiful scenery" or "listen to some music," but becoming aware of this through daily check ins does make you look at how you move through your day with a little bit more detail.

The title does have some odd and intriguing features that I wish that more DS games would take advantage of. For instance, players are encouraged to bring their Mii of course to use as their avatar. And the game also includes a way for you to attach a pedometer to your pet's collar and calculate their daily rhythms as well. If nothing else, I found it interesting to see just how much walking around my little Chow-Lab pup, Agro, does while no one else is around.

The software's relatively high price tag might scare off some curious folks, but people that are interested in taking a more introspective look at themselves will be pleasantly rewarded by this experience's unrelentingly chipper nature and constant feedback. It isn't a game, it isn't going to melt away the pounds, and most certainly isn't for everyone, but it is something that I feel that a lot people should give a chance so that they can inspire change in their own lives.

8 out of 10