Nintendo is a company known for its creative accessories. The original NES saw the release of devices like the Zapper and Power Glove, while the SNES received the Super Scope. Jumping ahead a few generations, Nintendo even collaborated with Dance Dance Revolution to produce a Mario-themed version complete with its own dance mat. However, by the time the Wii was released, the landscape changed significantly.
The Wii Remote focused on motion control, requiring players to be more "active" and often providing a legitimate workout. Because of this, the Wii saw widespread adoption in hospitals and nursing homes, becoming a highly recommended console for its impact on health and general wellness. While this was a great accomplishment, Nintendo didn't want to stop there.
Wii Fit and the Wii Balance Board launched in December 2007, becoming a game-changer for the health-conscious gamer. Rather than relying solely on motion controls, the Balance Board—combined with Wii Fit—provided a full-body workout. It was designed to help players exercise from home, but it often sacrificed the "video game" element to do so. While it was an excellent tool for those who were serious about fitness, many found it difficult to stay motivated.
That is why, in 2019, when Nintendo released the spiritual successor to Wii Fit, they handled things differently. Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch is designed to be both a rigorous exercise tool and a genuine "adventure." At its core, the game is a turn-based RPG with linear levels, yet it requires full-body movement to play. Using the included Ring-Con (a high-tech Pilates ring) and a leg strap, players perform exercises to traverse the world, fight enemies, and ultimately save the land.
It is a game that pushes players to their limits while providing plenty of "gamified" reasons to return day after day. It manages to make exercising truly fun—a worthy successor to Wii Fit. However, the real question remains: is it the right game for you?
Recommendations Before Beginning Your Adventure:
Although Ring Fit Adventure includes both the leg strap and the Ring-Con, there are a few things players should be aware of before starting. First, the game requires running in place to move forward. However, there is an option to substitute this action with squats for those in living situations where noise or vibrations might be an issue—such as living in an upstairs apartment or playing at night while others are sleeping.
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| (Ring-Con and Leg Strap Included, Joy-Cons are not.) |
Regardless of your setting, it is strongly recommended that players use a yoga mat. Running on a hard floor can do more harm than good, and many exercises require you to sit or lie on the ground. Without a mat, these movements become significantly more difficult and increase the risk of injury.
The second most important factor is your available space. If your workout area doesn't allow for at least a 4’ x 4’ clear radius, you may run into issues. Keeping the play area clear is essential to avoid hitting furniture or injuring yourself.
For health and progress tracking, external tools are a helpful addition. While the game provides a basic estimate of your activity, a smartwatch or heart rate monitor will more accurately track your heart rate and calories burned. Most wearable devices even include a "fitness gaming" or "gaming" workout profile. While not required, these tools provide a much clearer picture of your physical exertion.
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| (Example of a Fitness App, not included in game.) |
Finally, it is important to note that Ring Fit Adventure includes robust accessibility options that can be toggled on or off at any time. If you are physically unable to run or use specific parts of your body, the game provides alternative workout options to assist you. Nintendo clearly aimed to make this experience accessible to as many users as possible, and they succeeded.
The Initial Setup:
When beginning Ring Fit Adventure, players are asked to provide basic information to help customize the experience. This data is kept private and is used solely to develop your fitness profile. Requested information includes age, weight, height, and biological sex.
Once your profile is established, the game begins a calibration phase. You will be asked to push and pull on the Ring-Con with maximum effort, and then perform both a slow and fast jog in place. These steps measure your current physical capabilities to recommend an appropriate starting difficulty level.
Although the difficulty can be adjusted freely at any time, this initial calibration determines the number of repetitions required for each exercise. The game strongly encourages you to challenge yourself; if the AI senses the workouts are becoming too easy, it will suggest increasing the challenge. Conversely, if you are struggling to keep up, it may suggest lowering the intensity.
For those using Ring Fit Adventure to improve their health, build muscle, or lose weight, it is important to listen to the game's feedback and stick to the recommended difficulty. Making the settings too easy defeats the purpose of the program—staying within your recommended range ensures you get the most out of every session.
The Story:
When players first jump into the world of Ring Fit Adventure, they encounter an avatar stumbling across a strange, magical ring. Upon picking it up and activating it, the Ring (the character) informs the player of the dark dragon Dragaux, who is corrupting the world. The Ring needs the player’s help to stop both the dragon and his minions, so together, you set off to save the world.
Along the way, players meet rival characters, assist townspeople suffering under Dragaux's influence, and eventually face off against the dragon himself. While it is an extremely basic story, it effectively serves its purpose: providing a motivation to begin your fitness adventure.
Exploring The World:
Once the game truly begins, players are presented with a world map where they can select different stages. Within a stage, players must jog in place to move forward, though several other actions are required to advance. Pulling outward on the Ring-Con creates a vacuum to suck up nearby coins, while pushing inward releases a blast of air to break objects. Additionally, pointing the Ring-Con downward and pushing inward will launch the player’s avatar into the air. Some obstacles blocking the path may even require specific exercises, such as high-knees or overhead presses, to progress.
The game also mixes things up with environmental hazards like conveyor belts. These will either move with you, providing a brief reprieve, or against you, requiring a full sprint to make any headway.
This entire section of the game is designed to elevate your heart rate, with every obstacle placed specifically to ensure exercises are performed with the correct form. These are curated workout routines that make the game feel like a virtual personal trainer. The stage layouts are balanced to prevent overexertion while still pushing players to their limits.
While you can quit at any time, doing so forfeits your progress in that stage. After spending twenty or thirty minutes working through a tough level, quitting is an unappealing option. This "risk" provides excellent motivation, pushing players to stick it out and finish the workout.
Exercising With Battles:
Although each stage involves plenty of running and movement, the turn-based battles provide the most intense workouts.
Enemies are spaced throughout each level; running into them triggers a combat encounter. In these battles, players and enemies take turns attacking. The player’s "attacks" are actually various exercises, which are color-coded based on their physical focus. Enemies take additional damage if you use an attack of a matching color. For example, purple attacks are leg-based exercises; using them against purple enemies will defeat them much faster.
While some attacks hit multiple enemies at once, they typically deal less damage to maintain balance. Selecting an attack requires strategy, but it also depends on what your body can physically handle and which moves are currently available. To ensure a full-body workout, the game prevents you from repeating the same exercise back-to-back, forcing you to rotate through different moves—even if they aren't the most "effective" for that specific enemy.
When it is the enemy’s turn, players must perform an Ab Guard by pressing the Ring-Con against their stomach to minimize incoming damage. If your health runs low, you can drink Smoothies to restore HP or gain temporary buffs. However, these must be purchased or crafted ahead of time. Interestingly, even crafting smoothies requires effort, as you must squeeze the Ring-Con to "juice" the ingredients.
Falling in battle means you must restart the stage, making preparation and physical endurance vital to your success.
Customization and Skills:
Of course, no RPG would be complete without customization and progression. In Ring Fit Adventure, customization comes in two forms: clothing that offers stat buffs and a Skill Fitness set (skill tree) that increases your overall stats and unlocks new exercises.
Initially, the number of attacks you can equip is limited, but as you level up, more slots become available. You can fill these slots with newly unlocked moves, and stronger versions of early-game exercises eventually become available to keep your damage output relevant. The goal is to maintain a balanced mix of workout types to exploit enemy weaknesses. However, there is no denying that some attacks are better than others—not just in terms of damage, but in the physical benefit they provide to your body.
Unfortunately, not all workouts are created equal, and some feel almost "worthless" from a fitness perspective. While these moves might deal high damage and make clearing stages easier, they often require very little physical exertion, which goes against the primary goal of the game. If you are playing to get fit rather than just "take the easy way out," you should consider the intensity of an exercise before adding it to your set.
While the game doesn't explicitly rank the exercises by their physiological effectiveness, that information is easily found online. There are many health and fitness guides available, and the same principles of exercise science can be applied to Ring Fit Adventure.
Quick Play and Custom Mode:
In addition to Adventure Mode, Quick Play allows players to select predefined workout sets that focus on specific parts of the body. This mode offers all the exercises without the "game" elements, making it ideal for those who want to jump straight into a workout. It works well for its intended purpose and is a mode that many non-gamers may find even more enjoyable than the main adventure.
Alongside Quick Play, a Custom Mode allows you to fully define your routine and save specific sets. For example, if you would like to jog for a mile before focusing on your arms, you can; or, if you prefer to build sets centered entirely around upper-body strength, that is also an option. Those looking to maximize the benefits of Ring Fit Adventure can use this mode to build workouts based on recommendations from fitness experts.
Mini Games and Music:
Finally, the last play options are the Mini-Games and the Rhythm Game. While the mini-games appear throughout the main Adventure Mode, the Rhythm Game can only be accessed by selecting it from the main menu. There are only a few songs to choose from, but each one gets your body moving to the beat.
The mini-games themselves are workouts that focus on specific muscle groups while requiring precise timing and aiming to achieve high scores. These include challenges such as performing squats to clear jumps without overshooting, hitting targets by aiming and squeezing the Ring-Con, or smashing robots by rapidly squeezing and pulling the ring. They are fun little distractions from the typical workout routines, but they can still be quite physically demanding.
How Effective is Ring Fit Adventure?
Ring Fit Adventure can be very effective if used correctly. Generally, it keeps players active and helps maintain overall health, but when it comes to losing weight and building muscles, the game alone isn't enough. Healthy eating habits are a must; those looking to lose weight should ensure they meet their recommended daily calorie intake. Consuming too few calories can be dangerous, and players should always consult a doctor before pushing themselves too hard. Assuming you maintain a healthy diet, Ring Fit Adventure will certainly help you reach your goals. Even if weight loss isn't your primary focus, the game is excellent for building muscle—at least to an extent.
Because there are no external weights involved, there is a natural limit to how much the game can help with significant strength gains. However, it is a long, "uphill battle" before you hit that ceiling, as workouts continuously become longer and more intense. When starting Ring Fit Adventure, the game might only ask for ten reps, but later on, you could be pushing one hundred. While it takes time to reach that level, players who do may eventually want to consider visiting a gym or finding a trainer to progress even further.
Speaking from personal experience, I have always maintained roughly the same weight, but there is a specific range I must stay within due to a medical condition I was diagnosed with in 2015. Prior to buying Ring Fit Adventure, I was actually 20 pounds over that limit. By simply playing the game five times a week and cutting out late-night snacks, I was able to drop those 20 pounds and return to my recommended weight in just over two months—about 45 in-game days. Results will vary depending on the person, but the potential is clearly there.
So, is Ring Fit Adventure effective? Yes. Yes, it is. However, keep in mind that doing the exercises the correct way is also important, and thankfully the game does give tips on how to achieve this.
Should you play it?
Ring Fit Adventure is a fantastic indoor workout tool and arguably one of the best fitness games on the market. The RPG Adventure Mode is addictive enough to motivate players and push them to complete every stage, while the wide variety of exercises provides a great full-body workout, and the inclusion of a pure exercise mode makes it a perfect title for both gamers and non-gamers alike.
If you are looking for an accessible, effective at-home workout to improve your health, then this game is a must.
VERDICT: Essential
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
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