Product Review: Zumba Fitness

I was recently sent a copy of the new Zumba Fitness game from 505 Games.  I'm pretty sure unless you've been living under a rock you will have heard of Zumba. You may not have tried it yourself yet but I bet you know someone who has - Zumba is everywhere!  It's no wonder then that this game has been flying off the shelves like proverbial hotcakes.  Apparently more then 10million people across the globe take part in a booty-shaking Zumba class each week. At present, I am not one of them, are you?

I'm a big fan of the other dance and fitness games out there so I was excited to try out Zumba Fitness.  I tested this on the Wii however Zumba Fitness is also available on Kinect for Xbox 360 and the Playstation3. The first thing you have to do is fasten the specially designed belt around your waist to hold your Wii remote. The belt felt nice and secure - I've used other products like this before with the Wii and have needed to stop a couple of times to refasten or hoist it up a bit but this was fine.  You need a fair bit of space in order to be able to throw your body around freely - for this I also suggest closing the curtains... There are nine different dance styles in all - reggaeton, merengue, salsa, cumbia, hip-hop, mambo, rumba, flamenco and calypso with 30 music tracks. You can even throw a Fitness-Party with up to three other players.

Zumba Fitness is good fun - it's got great music and the routines are energetic. It will most certainly help you get fit and burn calories, I was sweating after about 5 minutes!  I haven't braved a Zumba class yet but having a little try at home with might spur me on.

I'm not going to lie to you, I am not the most co-ordinated of people (which is frankly quite strange as when I was a teenager I danced 4-5 times a week...) and therefore I found it slightly tricky to follow but I know this will get easier the more I do it.   I definitely think if you've attended an actual Zumba class you'd have a head-start on this game but it's no real problem  as there are tutorials and routines at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.  The downside is the lack of verbal instruction - I think that the game would really benefit from this, especially if you've never tried Zumba before.  My advice if you're struggling to keep up with what is going on is just throw yourself into it, you'll soon get the hang of it and believe me, you'll be working up a blummin' good sweat in no time. 

The easiest way for me to show you what the game is like would be for me to upload a video wouldn't it? Ha yes, nice try, never going to happen but you can watch a short trailer for it

and if you really want to see real people having a go at bustin' some moves there's plenty of them on YouTube. Basically my attempt was a lot like this and NOTHING like this.

Why not follow Zumba Fitness on Facebook and Twitter for more reviews, challenges and advice and if you've tried this game, let me know what you think of it!

love & kisses

Mrs M x