I have had a wii fit for a few years now so when I was given EA Sports Active 2 as a Christmas gift I was pleased as it meant I now had a bit more variation (please note you do not need a wii balance board to use this game).

==Price and Availability==
I was given this by my Mum for Christmas and she paid around £9 for it from one of the eBay daily deals. It is currently £11.94 on Amazon and my sister recently bought it from Tesco for around £15. The game is also available for Xbox 360 Kinect and Playstation 3.

==Whats in the box?==
In the box you get the wii disk, a heart rate monitor for your left arm, a motion sensor for your right leg, a resistance band and a USB receiver which makes it possible for the monitor and sensor to be detected by your wii.

==Setting it up==
The game is fairly quick and simple to set up, you must put the batteries (AAA, included) in the monitor and sensor, connect the USB receiver to the wii and sync them all together. This is easy to do following the simple on screen instructions. You then set up a profile where you create your character and enter details such as height, weight and age. You can either manually insert your weight or if you have a wii balance board you can use that to weigh yourself. It asks for your weight in kilograms.

==Main Menu==
The main homepage has various options. I think it is laid out well and the options are very clear. There is quite a lot of information and options on the page but it is easy to navigate and I don't find it at all overwhelming.

Along the top there is a white bar displaying your current heart rate and the calories you have burned since creating your profile. From here you can access your profile information and make any changes you may need to eg. Changes in weight, changing your characters appearance.

Your selected programme of fitness is displayed directly under the white bar on the left hand side. This is displayed in a large white box and gives information about your programme including which programme you are following and how many days into it you are (you can choose from either a 3 or 9 week programme but there are also options to customise workouts rather than to follow a specified exercise regime). If you click on the fitness programme box you can see lots of information regarding your programme, for example you can see the schedule of your workouts, workouts you have completed or missed and progress. I like the fact that if you miss a workout you can do it the next day or even the following week and it will go off of the 'missed' list and will be marked as completed. I find this really useful when I'm having a day where I'm too busy to go on the game or I just don't fancy working out.

The main menu also allows you to access your personal journal which is supposed to be filled in daily to help you to track your progress. The journal includes information regarding whether you have completed any Daily Workouts, any additional exercise you may have done and a lifestyle survey.

You can also select My Workouts from the main menu where you can either create your own workout or use a trainer generated one.

The main menu also allows you to connect to the games online community where you can join workout groups, this sounds quite good as it means you are not working out alone but I have not actually been online yet on the game so I cannot comment on it.

==Workout Programmes==
You can select from two workout programmes either a three week or a nine week. I have completed the three week programme and am currently working through the nine week programme. The programmes are pre set workouts and you are expected to work out four times a week and you can pick yourself which days to work out on. I like this aspect because if you know you don't want to be working out on a Sunday you can select to have a Rest Day on Sundays.

When you select a workout your selected trainer (you can choose from a male or female) will tell you a bit about the days workout and a brief idea of what is included. You are then given a list of all the exercises included in the workout along with an estimated time that the workout will take and an estimated calorie burn. If you want to shorten the workout or wish to exclude some of the selected exercises from it this is easy to do by simply clicking the cross next to them, as you do this a revised time and calorie burn will be displayed. I think this is a really good option as there are a couple of exercises on it that I simply cannot do and rather than wasting a lot of time in the workout and then still not being able to complete them and having to skip the exercise I can just select for them not to be in the workout in the first place.

When you begin the workout there are always four warm up exercises and these vary depending on what exercises are included in the days workout, these can include Hip Circles, Heel Lifts, Windmills and Good Mornings. After each exercise is completed there is a bar displaying how many exercises you have left, I like this as it allows you to see how far you have got.

After the warm up you go into the main body of the workout, exercises here can range from cardio exercises, stretches and fun games. To give you an idea of some of the exercises that are included...
* Sprint
* Mountain Biking
* Basketball - Passing, Shooting, Running
* Football - Heading, Running
* Boxing
* Stretches using the resistance band eg. bent over rows, overhead tricep extensions
* Skipping
* Step Dance
* Foot Fires
* Stride Jumps
* Mountain Boarding
* Reverse Crunches
* Hip Bridges
Each exercise will have a varied number of reps that you need to complete in order to move on to the next exercise eg. Skipping is 65, Foot Fires are 180, Football Headers are 18. You cannot change the number of reps required but if you cannot complete the exercise you can select to skip it.

There is always a cool down at the end of the workout which consists of four exercises. These vary depending on what muscles you have been working and can include Figure 4's, Chest Opener and Heel Lifts. I enjoy the cool down stage as it is relaxing and its nice to have a bit of a rest after all the hard work of the workout!

Whilst completing the workout the calories burned so far are displayed in the top left hand corner along with your current heart rate, the total time of your workout is displayed in the top right hand corner. In the middle there is a counter telling you how many reps you have done. On screen you can see your character reflecting the movements you are making and you can also see your trainer which you are meant to mirror, I find this really helpful as it shows me exactly what I should be doing.

Once you have finished the workout a summary page is displayed showing you how long you were exercising for, how many calories you burned and your average and maximum heart rate.

==My Workouts==
If you do not wish to follow a programme or want to work out separately from your programme you can select the option of My Workouts. In this section you have three options - you can either create your own workouts, you can pick a pre-generated workout or you can make selections based on which part of the body you wish to work out and for how long and the game will generate a workout specified to your requirements.

I have created a couple of my own workouts which I really enjoyed doing as it meant I could select exactly what I wanted and in what order. You can save the workouts so they are easy to use again.

==Weekly Fitness Test==
Each week you are asked if you wish to complete the weekly fitness test where you are asked to perform a cardio exercise (usually Foot Fires) for two minutes and then your heart rate is tracked to see how long it takes to get back to normal. You can skip this but I usually complete it as I like to see my progress. You can also enter your current weight which allows the game to calculate accurately how many calories you are burning.

==My Journal==
This section allows you to give information regarding your lifestyle. It takes less than a minute to fill in daily and includes a section regarding nutrition, you are asked questions such as how many portions of fruit and veg did you have yesterday, how many glasses of water, how much exercise did you get? etc. It also allows you to enter any additional exercise you have done outside of the game and gives you an idea of how many calories you will have burned.

==Opinion==
I really enjoy this game and was very surprised when I realised how little it actually cost as I had assumed it would retail for at least £30, especially with all of the extras you get in addition to the actual disk. It is definitely well worth the money and I like the fact that it can be used with or without the wii balance board, I have used the balance board occasionally with it but usually workout without it and my sister doesn't have a balance board so she always uses her game without one.

I find the workouts challenging and I enjoy working out. I like the fact that the workouts include exercises that are short and intense eg. during a workout lasting approximately thirty minutes you can expect to complete around thirty exercises, often some exercises are repeated throughout (especially cardio exercises) as they raise your heart rate.

You can select what sort of music you have playing in the background whilst working out but these are just instrumental versions of songs rather than full versions. I do recognise some of the tunes and they change regularly which means you aren't finding it too repetitive.

I find that the movement sensor works well and when I perform exercises my on screen character follows my movements. I find that the batteries on the heart monitor run out much more quickly than those in the leg sensor but I have only changed the ones in the heart monitor twice since Christmas and I think I have completed something like 16 hours of exercise on the game. The motion sensor I find occasionally slips down my leg which is annoying if you are in the middle of a workout, but this is only ever sort of once or twice per workout so its not too annoying and I have noticed that it depends on what material trousers I am wearing.

Another slight problem I have found is that when the wii remote is not used for a few minutes (and it is not needed in a lot of the exercises) the game will pause itself telling you to reconnect the wii remote and this can be annoying if you are in the middle of an exercise. I have found that the wii balance board does the same and this is only used a handful of times throughout if you do decide to use it which is one of the reasons why I don't tend to bother because otherwise I spend a lot of time stopping my exercise to turn the wii remote back on or the wii balance board.

One other thing I would prefer is being able to workout with your Daily Workouts as and when you please rather than having to select days in advance. If you change your schedule then this doesn't take immediate effect either which can be a nuisance if something comes up or you know you cannot exercise on your scheduled day for some reason.

==Summary==
I think this is a brilliant game, the price represents very good value for money and there is plenty of longevity in the game. The game can be used by people of all abilities as it is easy to select the intensity of your workouts and also to remove any exercises you are unable to do. The workouts are fun and fast paced and I also enjoy the option of creating your own workouts.