I really respect this game for almost certainly being the best of its kind, but I'm not sure gamifying exercise really works for me. I played this regularly for a while there but the moment I fell off of it I never returned. That's the way of things with exercise, of course, but even when I do feel the urge or force myself to do it I never reach for Ring Fit anymore.

Running through a level now it's immediately obvious why: if you don't already have a healthy relationship with exercise, all this does is give you tons of things to associate exhaustion, embarrassment and negative thoughts about your body with. That ring's voice wasn't annoying when I started, but now it's the most grating thing I've ever heard. Seeing those featureless instructors or the goofy muscley demon brings out only the worst feelings I had during my original run with the game, not the many positive ones that I know were there.

This isn't the game's fault, it's mine. I don't think you can make a game explicitly about exercise without running into this problem. To a mind inhabiting a sufficiently out of shape body like mine, the most minimal of exertion can get the whiny little thing acting like it's reliving trauma. While I have yet to find an exercise routine and claw myself out of the hole I've found myself in, I've found the most success just going outside and trying to enjoy the world around me. The environment constantly changes and the reward of going on a long walk and grabbing a coffee is much more motivating than experience points in a game that only exists to contextualize exercise.

One last thing: I imagine Ring Fit works a lot better if you're starting from a better place than me, which I imagine a significant portion of people who pick this up are. If you think you have a shot with this, please don't let me discourage you.