Zumba Fitness 2

I hadn’t played the original Zumba Fitness Wii game – in fact, I didn’t realize it existed – when I first heard about the (then-upcoming) release of Zumba Fitness 2.  I had used the Zumba fitness DVD’s, though, and really enjoyed them.

For those who are not familiar, Zumba is a dance-based fitness system.  The dance is primarily Latin styles, but other styles are incorporated, as well.  (That is especially true in this game.)  Now, some of my readers may not be comfortable with dance – particularly Latin dance.  If that’s you, that’s okay.  You can just pass on this one. 🙂  But I find dance to be a fun way to get/stay in shape.  And as long as I’m not in public, I don’t have any concerns about the modesty of my dance style.

This may be played with 1-4 players.  There are a number of songs to choose from, and each is marked with the energy intensity it requires.  Many dance styles are included: calypso, merengue, salsa, cumbia, swing, hip-hop, and more.  Play a single song, or a full class.  If you choose the full class, there are three class lengths to choose from.

There is also a mode which will enable you to learn the steps for the salsa, merengue, cumbia, or reggaeton.  A progress tracker lets you monitor your progress.

As I said, I’d not played the original – but…my sister got the first one for her birthday a week or two before my game arrived, and we tried it out just for a few minutes.  From what I remember of that one, this second game in the series gives you more time to get the Wii remote into the belt before the dance starts.  (When we played the first one, we missed a chunk of each dance because we were still wrestling the remote into the pocket.)  That one, however, is rated “E” for “everyone,” while this one is “T” for “teen,” due to “mild lyrics.”

The one real downside to this is that the choreographers seem to have forgotten that most of us are doing this in our living rooms; some of these dances take up more space than we have available – particularly front-to-back.  It would be helpful if they would keep in mind that if we’ve moved backward, we need to move forward again before repeating the sequence, so we stay in a more defined space.

This is, overall, a really fun addition to a fitness routine, especially for those of us who can’t get to the gym due to finances or because we have little ones in the home who need us.

approx. $40

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Disclosure: I received a copy of Zumba Fitness 2 to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions are entirely my own.