Saturday Review: Zumba Fitness (Giveaway!) – The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans LLC

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UPDATE:  Congratulations to Misty (@FromFat2Phat2) who is the winner of the Zumba Fitness Game!  Please email me your mailing information and I’ll get the game in the mail to you.

Two weeks ago most of the writers and editors were in Baltimore for FitBloggin‘.  While there, we had a great dancing away a ton of calories in a live Zumba class.  Thea even posted about her Zumba experience.  Today’s post will look at another aspect of the Zumba phenomenon, the Zumba Fitness video game.

Zumba Fitness is available for all of the major gaming platforms:  Wii, Xbox 360 Kinect, and Playstation® 3 (requires PlayStation®Move).  The Wii and Playstation® 3 versions include a belt which houses the game controller to detect body movement.  The Kinect version doesn’t require a belt.  The belt is 50 inches in length and will fit hips up to approximately 47-48 inches since some overlap is needed for the hook and loop closure.

Given my love of Zumba, I purchased the game for my Wii console a couple of months ago.  The first time the game is launched, there is a brief setup for the player profile, but that was pretty painless.  There is also a tutorial section that shows how to navigate through the game and what to expect.  There is also a section called Learn the Steps which breaks down each of the moves to see how they are done.  If you’ve never taken a Zumba class, definitely take some time to go through this section as it will help alleviate the frustration you might feel if you just jump right into the game.  I admit that I personally didn’t go through the section.  I taken several Zumba classes, but I also own their Exhilarate DVD series, so I’m pretty familiar with the basic moves.

The game interface works by having the player duplicate the movements of the instructor on-screen.  If the instructor moves to the left, the player moves to the left and so on.  The instructor changes color to indicate how closely the move was duplicated.  If you did it correctly, the instructor will be green, if not, then the instructor will be red.  If you are close, but not quite 100% on, then the instructor will be yellow.  The more accurate the movements, the more “party energy” you accumulate.  Once you have enough party energy, additional dancers appears on the screen.

Once you’ve got the basic steps down, it’s time to really get moving!  One of the things I really love about this game is all the different options there are within it.  There is a section called Zumba Party which consists of 10 progressively more advanced classes starting at beginner all the way up to expert.  Complete all 10 of the classes to unlock the Zumbathon level (lead by Zumba creator Beto Perez).

There is also a Zumba Class mode. Classes are offered in varying degrees of difficulty with new classes being unlocked as you progress through the game.  Classes last anywhere from 20 minutes up to a full hour for the Zumbathon.

The Single Routine is the last option.  In this mode, you select any of the single routines.  I found this especially helpful a couple of times when I didn’t quite have a particular move down yet.  I knew the basic premise of the move, so I didn’t really need the tutorial, per se.  I just needed to practice it more, so this was a great option.

Zumba Fitness can be played alone or with up to three (3) additional players in multi-player mode.  Please note that if using the Wii or Playstation® 3, you will need belts for each player.  The additional belts can be purchased from the Zumba website for $9.95 each plus applicable tax or shipping and handling charges.

While at FitBloggin‘, I just happened to be the lucky winner of a copy of the Kinect version of the Zumba Fitness game.  Since I don’t own a Kinect console and already have the Wii version anyway, I decided to give the copy I won along to someone else — one of you!  Here’s how to enter:

All you have to do is:

  • Leave a comment telling me whether you’ve ever tried Zumba.  If so, what did you think of it?
  • For an extra entry, tweet about the giveaway using @shrinkingjeans in your tweet and then leave another comment below letting us know you tweeted.
  • For another extra entry, like us on Facebook and then leave another comment below letting us know.

This giveaway will end at 11 p.m. ET Friday night, June 10th. Winner will be announced next Saturday.  U.S. residents only.  Good luck!

Disclosure: I won a complimentary copy of Zumba Fitness that is being provided for this giveaway. We were not monetarily compensated for this post or giveaway.  As always, opinions expressed are our own.