Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo Switch) Preview

By Neil Flynn 15.10.2019

Review for Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch

Never put it past Nintendo to come up with something different that is engaging, fun, and innovative. Ring Fit Adventure is the evolutionary successor to Wii Fit and Wii Fit U , this time adding in a whole new RPG style of gameplay on top of exercise challenges. But is this enough to cater to the Nintendo Switch's relatively 'hardcore' audience?

Ring Fit Adventure is a fitness filled fantasy quest that requires the trusty Ring-Con and a leg strap ready to take on the evil body-building dragon, Dragaux, by using real world workouts to progress through the campaign. In this instance Ring Fit Adventure is a title that rarely has its moments of doing nothing, and is the epitome of keeping players on their toes.

Players must hold one joy-con— which is attached to the Ring-Con, a large circular flexi-plastic that has an incredible amount of resistance— and wear a leg strap which has another joy-con attached. The Ring-con and the leg strap sensitively recognise real-world movement and translate them to the on-screen world. Utilising the set-up, players can; jog on the spot to move through the landscape, squeeze the Ring-con to attack enemies or breakable elements of the surrounding terrain, or strike some yoga poses to regain health.

Screenshot for Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch

During the preview session, there were a number of levels on display, all of which worked up quite a sweat. The levels themselves are on a single auto guided on-rails track, making it easier to navigate around the world, while turning side to side will point the in-game Ring Con reticule left or right respectively. Being able to turn left or right is vital during levels as there are a number of breakable crates or environmental elements that can be broken. This can be done by squeezing the Ring-Con, which fires off gusts of air to break items. Consequently, stretching the Ring-Con out does the opposite and sucks in any on screen items being pointing at. All the while players must maintain a real world running pace by jogging on the spot. Running faster in the real world means that the onscreen counterpart runs even faster and combining these two elements of running and squeezing the Ring-Con really does give the impression of a full-body work out.

Screenshot for Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch

To break up the flow of running and squeezing, Nintendo have added in RPG battles which occur at set parts of the running track, and just in RPG fashion, the player is faced with a number of enemies and a menu of attack options. The attack options are actually a number of different exercises that can be executed to attack on-screen enemies and each exercise has a colour associated with it. The colour of the exercise corresponds with the colour of the enemy's weakness, so then it is a case of attacking its weak point for massive damage. This does feel quite elementary in its execution thus far and is not a substitute for swapping out beloved traditional RPGs just yet, but it could be a big enough hook to get some people interested in a title that they might have otherwise cast-off.

Screenshot for Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch

If the adventure mode seems a bit too much to delve into, there are a number of additional mini-games where players of any skill level can easily jump in to. These mini-games, like the adventure mode, use real world exercises. There was only time for two mini-games to be played during the preview event— one which involved a crate smashing game by squeezing and aiming the Ring Con as fast as possible to smash as many crates, and the other which involved squatting to launch the on-screen character to collect coins. Both of these mini-games were fun and interactive, and at no point did it feel that the Ring-Con and associated leg weren't responding to movement, nor could the system be cheated by a quick waggle of a leg.

Screenshot for Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch

Final Thoughts

Ring Fit Adventure has done its best to combine both fitness and gaming into an entertaining art form. Early impressions have served up interesting and varied gameplay styles with light-hearted RPG elements involved in the challenges— which should be welcoming enough for the casual audience while still entertaining the most seasoned of gamer. This preview is only the tip of the iceberg as there is so much more to the adventure mode than meets the eye, so stay tuned to Cubed3 for the full review when Ring Fit Adventure launches on October 18th.

Developer

Nintendo

Publisher

Nintendo

Genre

Fitness

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

Comments

Love it! Next up we need a reboot of Wii Sports Club - "Switch Sports Club" Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

It's actually very tiring to play this, but in a good way. The difficulty does ramp up pretty nicely. 

Although Switch lite players will find it difficult to play at all!

I might need to try this out Haha Sounds like great fun!

I own all the consoles, ask me anything

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