Hands On With Kinect’s Answer to Wii Fit: Ubisoft’s Your Shape

I didn’t plan to get sweaty at E3. But my 15 minutes with Ubisoft’s Kinect title, Your Shape, left me a moist mess. It started innocently enough. Upon first starting Your Shape, I stood still while the Kinect analyzed by body shape and displayed my bone structure. After a moment, it spewed out dead accurate data, including things like my chest size, leg length, and shoulder span. Your Shape and Kinect churned through over 1 million pieces of data during my calibration.

Once Your Shape had calibrated me, I was ready to play. Using my arms, I pointed at the onscreen area I wanted to play first, the Zen class. An instructor appeared, along with serene images of trees and flowing leaves. I was asked to mimic her motions. She started with a simple move, making a circle with her arms. I replicated it, and a square box under my image turned green, to indicate my success.

She moved slowly, but the sophistication of her poses increased, and I worked hard to make my onscreen persona match hers.  My movements were tracked by Kinect and reflected quickly, but not instantaneously.

Then things got trickier. She offset her weight to one side, crouched and pointed her arms. I tried to mimic her pose, but I could see my onscreen persona failing to match her. Because Kinect sees my whole body I could self-correct. Further, Your Shape highlighted the bone structures that I need to change. So, when I wasn’t bending my right knee enough, my leg bones turned red, and red text appeared by my knee.

The Zen routine was very calming, and worked like a pre-workout stretching activity. Because these activities rely on full body mapping, they couldn’t be accomplished with the Wii or Move.

Using my arms to navigate onscreen, I headed to a mini-game called Combat Master. I was asked to punch and kick colored cubes that appeared on screen. I was scored based on my reaction time and accuracy of my blows. We’ve seen this kind of game before on the Wii, especially in EA’s Sports Active, but it I still had fun it.

My heart rate was rising. I had burned 40 calories. Moistness was setting in.

I navigated to the personal trainer area of Your Shape. Here, my workout got much more intense. My trainer was waiting for me, and the Kinect placed me next to her. She began performing a handful of exercises from the game’s library of hundreds. I mirrored her moves as best I could. The game rewarded me with increased points (and burned calorie count) when I correctly pulled off moves. Again, the Kinect did a very good job of viewing me and accurately representing my full body moves.

Apparently there is such as thing as celebrity personal trainers.  Your Shape has two of them, Michael George and Michelle Bridges.  They will work with you, remember your workouts, and guide your fitness.

Now the workout gets serious. I’m being asked to do some intense kicks and punches. We did dozens of exercises. My calorie count reached 65. Before long I’m a hot sweaty mess. Not exactly ideal for a crowded E3 show floor.

Of the Kinect products I played at E3,Your Shape was one of the two best (along with Dance Central). When I come home with a Kinect on November 4th, I’m confident that I’ll get a free pass from my wife if I show up with Your Shape.