So, I think I’ve mentioned in passing that I really enjoy my Wii. It’s the first gaming system that I’ve bought since Super Nintendo, back in the 90′s, heh. Needless to say, I’m a very casual game player. I like a lot of the fitness titles that have been released for the Wii, as well as other titles that aren’t fitness-specific, but require a fair amount of movement on the player’s part. I don’t use any of my Wii games as my main workout, but I enjoy them for extra activity during the day and after dinner, rest days, or days when I don’t feel like doing a formal workout. I also have had trouble finding detailed information on some games, though this website is a great resource for many of the most popular exercise games, complete with video clips. I wish would have been able to find out more information about this 10 Minute Solution game for the Wii before I bought it – like activities, modes, ability to earn credit toward new items in the game, etc. Since I couldn’t, I figured I might as well review it myself.

This game has the same name and nearly the same cover as the 10 Minute Solution dvd Knock Out Body with Jessica Smith. I really enjoy that workout, so I was optimistic about this game and bought it before seeing any reviews – or many details at all, for that matter. My first thought on the game is that it’s rather clunky. Bear with me while I try to explain the way the game is set up. And I’ll also note that I haven’t tried any of the balance board activities yet.

There are 16 different activities, each of them 5 minutes long. The activities aren’t exactly all different but I’ll get to that, too. All are unlocked at start up, and it doesn’t appear that you will earn more activities – or outfits, songs, new levels, etc. At the main menu, you can select Instant Workout, Custom Workout, or My Fitness Plan. With Instant Workout, the game seems to randomly select two of the workout games. So, you can get started quickly, but you only have control over your environment, difficulty level, and music track. In Custom Workout, you get to select two activities of your choice to play back to back. If you haven’t played the activity previously, it automatically starts with a training session. You can skip the training session from the pause menu, but I’m not sure if it will start with the training session again if you don’t finish training. My Fitness Plan lets you select six different activities, so you would get the longest workout using this option.

The transition between the workouts is a bit slow, and the music isn’t anything special. But, given the price and the fact that 10 Minute Solution isn’t known for it’s music I wasn’t too surprised about that – the graphics aren’t that great either. You have the option to use two remotes instead of the remote/nunchuk pairing. Selecting activities is also awkward, since the activities are represented by somewhat obscure icons, with no description appearing unless you select one – so you can’t wand over something to find out what it is. You need to select it, and if you’re in the two activity limit mode, it kicks out one of your other choices. Seems like adding a few extra words for the description would have been helpful. I’m also confused as to why Jessica Smith’s name is on this. There it is a still image of her with fitness tips and between screens, but this game has no resemblance at all to her Knock Out Body workout that the cover photo and title are taken from. There is a bonus section on the disc that appears to be the abs workout from Knock Out Body, but it just feels out of place. A shame, since I really like that dvd workout and Jessica as a lead. I just don’t understand why this game is supposed to be similar to that workout.

On to the activities…

Boxing

There are six levels of boxing, each increasing in difficulty and amount of moves used. So that counts as six different activities, even though I would call it one. I tried two (or three?) levels. The format is very similar to Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout, in that uses the scrolling boxing glove format to tell you what move to do. Trouble is, there isn’t a voice prompt telling you cross, hook, uppercut – like in the Gold’s Gym game. And since all of the various Wii boxing games use a slightly different graphic for punches, and I don’t have a lot of patience for Wii tutorials, I was a bit confused about some of the moves. The good thing is that like Gold’s Gym, it’s very forgiving and doesn’t really know the difference between hooks, crosses, and punches and gives you credit for anything similar, heh. On the downside, it took me quite a while to figure out how to get a “bob” to register. I tried all sorts of up, down, and around movements at various speeds and was stuck on “bob” for a while in training. I got to hear all the variations of “keep trying” from the trainer – of which there aren’t very many. Some were funny though, like “I don’t know what that was, but you better try again”. Anyway, after much screwing around, I did figure it out – though it’s nothing like an actual bob. As soon as the down arrows (the graphic for “bob”) get to the start of the target box (like in Gold’s Gym) you need to thrust the remotes quickly up a few inches, then quickly snap them down about the same distance, or slightly more, before the arrow graphic exits the target box – in order produce a significant change for the Wii to detect. Figuring out this pattern increased my accuracy on this move from 0% to more like 85% and up. Makes wonder if I’ll find more puzzles like this to figure out when there are more moves added in. So, to me the boxing activities were similar to Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout, but the controls don’t work as well – and it doesn’t seem like you earn points or money or anything to unlock more features in the game.

AerobicsThis appears to be all balance board stuff – all step aerobics. Again, I’ll call this one activity with six levels. The strange thing about section is that the obscure icons representing the different levels look to be yoga poses. I didn’t have the balance board out, but oddly enough it lets you start these activities, and then seems to run by itself while you stand there – even though it knows you aren’t using the board. Plus, I’m not a much of a step gal – and the Wii versions I’ve played with so far haven’t been fun for me, so this section doesn’t really interest me much.

Mixed GamesThere are four different activities in this section, sort of. They are Defender, Badminton, Disc Grab, and Pugil Stick. Defender is your trainer throwing volleyballs toward you, and you need to return them by flailing your appropriate arm – or ducking out of the way. You’re not playing volleyball, there’s no net – just hitting or ducking the ball and the trainer keeps throwing new balls. Trouble with this one is that I couldn’t figure out the prompt timing – there are words on the bottom of the screen, but I didn’t know if that was what just happened or what was coming. I never knew when to duck, and am not sure if it was me or the game. My attention span didn’t last a full training session with this one. Badminton is what it sounds like – controls were pretty responsive, but I got bored quickly. Oh, and you need to hit the shuttlecock over the net, but then your trainer hits a new one to you. No volley action or need to hit it a certain way to keep things going – probably why the controls seemed to work well. Hee… Disc Grab is a weird one. It requires the flailing arm action of Defender to grab discs, but optionally uses the balance board. Even without the board, there were the animated feet prompting you to use the board while grabbing discs being thrown by your trainer. Didn’t like this one much. So, best of this bunch is Pugil Stick. BUT, it’s simply the same as boxing, except that your character has a pugil stick instead of gloves. Same scrolly thing with action box, Same weirdness with “bob”, same punchy-type moves required to make your character hit with the pugil stick. I liked the interaction of the sticks with the trainer, but it’s pretty difficult to watch the interaction and still hit the moves on time. So really, the summary of this section is arm flail with ducking, arm flail, arm flail with optional feet added in, and boxing veiled as pugil sticking.

Bottom LineWell, I’ve played worse, but there are much better games out there, namely Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout since boxing is the only decent offering here, in my humble opinion. Also, since EA Sports Active and More Workouts are on sale so often – they are both much better than this game for sporty stuff. And I love the boxing offerings from the first EA Sports Active, for that matter. I had hope for Pugil Stick, but if you’re looking to get your inner American Gladiator on, the Joust in Celebrity Sports Showdown is a lot more fun, heh. You even get to push the other guy off the platform into the water and everything. Or even the swordplay in Wii Sports Resort – similar swing/smash style. I do dig all things Wii boxing (except Showtime Boxing<<<—this one is really bad ), so I’ll probably hang on to it for the time being. Oh, and as far as getting an actual workout from this one? Eh, I doubt it, especially if you are a regular exerciser. When the combos get closer and faster in boxing you might be able to sweat a bit – and weighted gloves might help burn some extra calories, but since I usually use my Wii as fun bonus activity anyway, effort level is never a big consideration for me. Overall, I found this to be a disappointing offering from 10 Minute Solution and Activision – and probably not worth the money unless you rent it out of curiosity or find it in the bargain bin.

Disclosure: I was sent two samples of Protein Freeze at no cost for review. However, this in no way influences my opinion of the product, nor do I receive any benefit if you purchase it.

When I first heard about Protein Freeze, I was quite curious about it.  I enjoy smoothies (protein or not) regularly, especially during the warmer months. I’ve been using protein powder in my smoothies for many years now, and have tried quite a few different kinds.  I’ve also tried it in many forms – ice cream, pudding, bars, etc. I’ve had various outcomes with protein ice cream, some were good but others were…too icy, too hard, too weird, etc. Would Protein Freeze simplify the process – and taste like ice cream? I was looking forward to finding out.

My sample came with a flyer providing serving and preparation instructions, as well as ideas for mix-ins. I kept things simple by following the basic directions, which say to mix the entire packet with 2/3 cup of water as well as 2 teaspoons of any nut butter. That was interesting, as I had not used nut butter in other versions of protein ice cream unless I was going for a variation of a peanut butter flavor.  Out of curiosity, I decided to make a control batch, using what I had on hand – Met-Rx Chocolate Ultramyosym Whey. I weighed out the same amount of Met-Rx that was provided in the Protein Freeze packets and followed the same preparation instructions using natural peanut butter so I could compare the outcome.

I mixed up each batch in my trusty Ninja Blender, and poured them into single serving dishes for freezing. I also took a small taste of the Protein Freeze before it went into the freezer, and thought it was pretty much what I would expect from most of the other protein powders that I’ve tried. It didn’t have too much of an aftertaste though, so that was a good thing. I was more interested in the texture after freezing.

The next day…

The Verdict

Well, magic protein ice cream? Not quite, as the directions also tell you that you need to let it stand at room temperature or briefly put it in the microwave to thaw. I found that 20 seconds in the microwave was about right for me, as shown in the photo above. I think the peanut butter definitely helped to give it a smoother texture. I wouldn’t call it ice cream texture exactly, but the result was certainly less icy than I’ve had with certain recipes before – and certainly able to be eaten with a spoon. The flavor was good, and I like that they provide lots of recipe ideas on how to change things up. And when compared to the Met-Rx the texture was different, a bit more ice-cream-like than the Met-Rx – though I liked the flavor equally well from all of them.

Bottom Line?

Protein Freeze wasn’t quite what I was expecting, since I didn’t realize that you needed to add some sort of nut butter to achieve the ice-cream-ish results.  I was hoping that this was an all-in-one type product that didn’t require any add-ins unless you wanted to change the flavor.  But, despite that I thought the flavor was as good as any other protein powder that I like. Plus, it makes a tasty, guilt-free (and filling) treat on a hot day. So, overall I thought it was a good product.  Want to try some for yourself? Sign up for a free sample – shipping & handling charges apply. Thanks, Protein Freeze for letting me review your product.

Click on the images below to read the nutrition information, as well as some bonus recipes.

Well, as much as I enjoyed the PowerFit Harmony workouts, I’m getting a bit burned out on reviewing them, and feel like I’m starting to sound monotonous. Not to mention starting to procrastinate on writing the reviews… So, to be fair to myself as well as to the workouts, I’m going to take a break and talk about other things for a bit. I will eventually finish reviewing the rest of the workouts, but I want to talk about some other workouts and things right now.

So…onward!