Walk With Me! Review (DS)

…or the puppy gets it

Looking back on my gaming fitness experience over the past few months, the dust on my Wii Balance Board looks likes it’s all too willing to cloud what little words of praise I put onto this site with hypocrisy. I still regard titles like Wii Fit Plus to be entertaining and highly motivating, but my absence resides in the fact that I am but a weak human being with flexable will power. I was pepped up for a chocolate free Lent until I realised just how long the un-celebrated occasion lasted, quickly altering my sacrifice to Wii Fit Plus. As hard as I pleaded however, Nintendo wasn’t having any of my slothfulness, and thus sent two sentinel drones in the way of Walk With Me! to track every single step I take and remain unsettlingly close to my groin area AT ALL TIMES.

Walk With Me!The unusual looking DS cartridge comes bundled with two pedometers, and the rabid red blinking each permits will be enough to panic anyone into thinking they’re in some form of sequel to Speed in their journey from game store to home. The mechanics of the worrying flashing heartbeat soon become apparent when you flick the DS on, and the weird reddish tint of the game cartridge turns out to be a utensil that can look into the pedometers’ very soul.

Despite practically taking up the size of your thumb, the pedometer can hold a lot of information about your days movements. Reaching a set step target will change the distressing red light green and plans for its impending detonation will be sabotaged for yet another day.

A brief emotional connection between pedometer and DS translates the Morse code into a towering step chart that spans for hours and hours. A friendly pedometer akin mascot talks you through how a bar graph works whilst setting you out step targets for upcoming days, as well as diet, activity and general well being targets to attempt to accomplish. It also remembers your birthday…

At full retail price, it’s too expensive to be deemed a motivational fitness tool

When the day is done and your walking rhythm is compared to that of a small selection of animals, there isn’t a lot else with your plodding progress. A ‘Walk The World’ mode can translate a players’ steps into the outlines of unique items across the globe, from the Eiffel Tower to Narwhals. As pointless as it may sound, at least it’s vaguely rewarding compared to ‘Illuminate!’, where all registered players can, when data collates, use their energy to generate electricity for a small bungalow…perhaps Al Gore’s.

Despite the unforgiving lack of interest fields of data can generate, packing a second pedometer into the bundle is a smart move. Handing this over to a friend or family member can add a competitive edge to treks around Sainsbury’s and least gives the title a drop of persona. You are even encouraged to attach it to your dog in a lifetime battle of roaming the streets.

Walk With Me!In most cases, Walk With Me! only really becomes a convenience when you see it as a novelty. At full retail price, it’s too expensive to be deemed a motivational fitness tool and too cheap to effectively monitor the actions of a cheating partner. Yet its simplicity proves to be its strongest asset. It niggles the ‘Why the hell not?’ brain segment, proving at least some edge of your seat action to those approaching their Guitar Hero laden mid-life crisis. Although it doesn’t quite make the process of progressing forwards particularly fun, it proves an interesting insight into the most basic form of fitness and may pleasantly surprise those who are mocked for tackling the stairs by the sweat less ones who took the elevator. A shining gem in a car boot sale, Walk With Me! skims the skin of gimmick-hood and into the pockets of the casual gamer…and maybe the collar of their dog.

The Good: Impressively comprehensive details for walkaholics, Something of an interesting insight to casual exercise
The Bad: Does absolutely nothing to inspire you to walk that extra mile, Lack of interesting modes of play


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2.5 2.5 / 5

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