Personal Trainer Walking
Personal Trainer: Walking tracks your progress and makes going for a walk a little more fun. It comes with two pedometers that you can wirelessly connect to your Nintendo DS system (not included) when your return home. The first thing to do is to check out your activity rhythm, or walking habits, and see if the duration, timing and number of steps are all the best they can be. You can set yourself a Step Target, aiming for as many or as few steps as you think you can manage. Then have a look at the Records section, where your performance result is presented in several clear and concise graphs. The Activity Meter will provide helpful comments on whether you achieved your target and will even compare your walking performance to an animal! The game will also set you fun Mini Targets after your results have been checked, perhaps to avoid fatty foods for the day, or maybe just to relax and treat yourself.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Accuracy of the activity meter
I have only had the product for a couple of days now, but I thought I would share my findings from a test I did. I carried around my Omron pedometer in the same pocket with my activity meter all day. Note that the Omron is a fairly high end pedometer, and is calibrated to my stride for extreme accuracy. At the end of my day when I sync my activity meter with the game It read 13,404 steps, my Omron read 12,691 steps. A difference of 713 steps. I honestly thought the activity meter would have less steps with its needing 10 seconds of activity before registering, however this was obviously not the case. My day consisted of walking to and from work, normal walking in the office, and walking to and from a place for lunch. In my opinion this is a fairly small margin, more so than i was expecting with the cheaper activity meter. It is defiantly more accurate than the previous pedometer DS game. Hope this helps if you were curious of its accuracy.
3 Stars Walking but nothing else
I wasnt a big fan because it is all just walking. And you cant play any games on the DS with it, all you can do is sync it to your ds. it shows you when your most active and when you’ve been sitting and its a legit activity meter, it just isnt the most exciting game.
5 Stars Still Walking….
So I’ve used this game/ds cartridge/activity meter/whatever you want to call it for a few days now. I really love it. I purchased this to enhance my DSi experience, not because I expected to lose weight. I love all these gadgets that make our life better while we fool around on the DS. I didn’t expect some high tech pedometer–just a fun little thing to play with for a while.
I walk around barefoot all the time. I work at home. I never wear shoes, unless I absolutely have to. The activity meter registered my steps just fine. It also registered my steps when I ran as well. Overall, it worked well despite the warnings.
Miis - For the first activity meter, I imported my mii from the wii. I wish there was more interaction back and forth, because my mii on the wii is getting a little porky due to my wii fit activity! However, my mii on the ds is getting a bit healthier looking. Super easy to connect. For the second activity meter, I created a mii, which was also pretty easy and fun. Being the first DS game to use mii’s, I was quite impressed. Like I said, I wish they were more connected to the wii.
Dog- I am waiting for my third activity meter to arrive so I can clip it to my dog. You can’t really leave it on a dog while you aren’t home, but it’s an added little feature that makes the overall experience of Personal Training:Walking fun. Soon, one of pugs will be helping to illuminate the house and joining in on the space walk, with his own little mii to represent him!
Mini-Games - These are like little goals. Keep the house lit and walk the world. Space Walk is a combined game with people from all over the world. While these may not be super fun for children, I enjoy plugging records in to see how far my household and I have progressed. I’m also trying to win some trophies before the other in my household do.
View Worldwide Rankings - Using wi-fi, you can compare and compete with people from all over the world. Seriously, you can despite the other reviews saying you can’t. This could be a huge motivator for some people. It’s also just plain fun to see how you rank globally.
Activity Meter - It’s charts and graphs mostly, but you can rate your day and leave notes. This is helpful if you had a particularly lazy or eventful day. The DS has yet to call me fat, which my wii fit has several times when I don’t weigh in every day. “Why have you gained 5 pounds, is it because you haven’t exercised? huh, huh?” Okay, maybe it’s not quite that bad, but you get my drift. I was called a koala on a particularly lazy day. It’s really fun to go back and see when you were active. Oh that is when I walked to the car. That is when I walked the dog, etc…
Compared to Pedometer - I busted out my old pedometer, which has the same inaccuracy warnings as the nintendo activity meter about being barefoot and running. I compared the results over the course of a day, and they were pretty close, about 60 steps apart. That is a normal day, with some running after dogs, walking, etc… Nintendo does not bill this as a pedometer and it really isn’t…I would not buy one of these instead of a pedometer if you are trying to start a fitness routine. I use my nike+ for that. It allows for calibration and has all sorts of features. The nintendo activity meter is for fun! It just has a natural side benefit of promoting good health and exercise. (Of course, I didn’t give up my yoga routine when I got the wii fit either, to each his own, i suppose.)
Overall, I’m super happy with this game and the activity meter.
EDIT: My partner just checked his first rhythm and was super excited, as he was able to see exactly when he did what by the activity chart. It was obvious when he walked the dog at 7 a.m., when he walked from his desk to the car around 8 p.m., etc… He is also way too excited that he reached his step goal before me today. He’s not so excited that we only generate enough power for a flashlight. Perhaps, if we set our step goal higher, we’ll be motivated to walk more and power something stronger.
Overall, it’s a ton of fun to see how your activity changes through the day. We’ll be working on not being so lazy during the day perhaps…
2 Stars Not What I Had Hoped For
I traded in a bunch of games to get this, so it only cost me $8.00 out of pocket. Had I paid the $50 for it, I would have been VERY upset. The pedometers do seem to count your steps accurately…but that’s it. I was looking forward to using the program, more than anything, but there isn’t much to it. It gives you graphs on how you did for up to a month. No trivia or anything to help you with health habits, no games. My old pedometer gives me more info, like calorie burn estimate, distance, etc. I think Nintendo should have done way more with the software.
3 Stars It works which is a huge step us for DS pedometers
Unlike the Ubisoft entry, the pedometers in this package actually work and register walking fairly well. I’ve had the game for 3 days and while I did not count each step, the hardware seemed to register my movements as I remembered them. The graph functions of the software is nice but the “game” here is pretty anemic. However I will say this has gotten me off my butt and walking and remembering to get up and walk when at my desk, too. It even differentiates between short bursts and active periods - a nice touch. The hardware itself turns green when you reach your step goal until then you will not know how far you have gone unless you sync. I actually found this to be even more motivating to get up and walk. There is a real satisfaction seeing the light turn green, too.
After game trade-ins (including the Ubisoft attempt at the same type of game) I paid around $17 for this out of pocket. At that price I am really happy. At $50 dollars I’m not so sure. It does come with two pedometers and they do work well but if you are expecting an really fun interactive experience with the software you will be disappointed.
Buy/More Info
