In the spirit of the infamous Wii Fit series, Nintendo is releasing new fitness software and hardware for the Nintendo Switch.
Stick with us, because this is odd and pretty fascinating. The software is called Ring Fit Adventure, and it serves as the companion to a new exercise peripheral that’s basically a giant, round workout cable (or pilates band) that has a slot in it for your Switch Joy-Con. There’s also a strap that you’re supposed to put around your leg which supports your other Joy-Con. This means it won’t work with the Nintendo Switch Light (at least without extra peripherals).
The gimmick is that you use the band and the strap to play Ring Fit Adventure, which is basically a simplified JRPG that sees you try to take down some kind of fitness dragon that is terrorizing the kingdom. As someone who goes to Planet Fitness, I’m pretty sure I know the bro that they’re talking about.
By performing certain exercises shown on the screen (including running through labyrinths) you’re able to defeat the various monsters that you’ll encounter along the way. Those exercises include running, which you’ll seemingly need to do to navigate some of the game’s labyrinths. While it feels like you can cheat certain exercises, the idea is that you’ll get a full-body workout by following the on-screen commands. You can also adjust the resistance of the band in order to accommodate your personal strength and fitness level. It also supports some minigames for simpler, quicker workouts.
Advertisement
We’ve seen quite a few fitness apps over the years utilize similar ideas, but Ring Fit Adventure‘s basic concept seems strong. We’re not quite sure if this is going to reach the heights of Wii Fitness given that Wii Fitness was kind of a phenomenon on-par with the phenomenon of the Wii itself, but this does feel like a natural evolution of that idea and one of the most interesting things Nintendo has done with Switch technology since the introduction of Labo.
Ring Fit Adventure is set to release on October 18 for $80.
Matthew Byrd is a staff writer for Den of Geek. He spends most of his days trying to pitch deep-dive analytical pieces about Killer Klowns From Outer Space to an increasingly perturbed series of editors. You can read more of his work here or find him on Twitter at @SilverTuna014.