t’s a no-brainer: dance-fitness craze Zumba is good exercise. Try not working up a sweat mimicking the up-tempo jigging of a Zumba instructor, successfully or otherwise, and so much the better if you enjoy the cheesy tunes. But what makes Zumba a vigorous aerobic workout also makes it an imperfect match for th

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It’s a no-brainer: dance-fitness craze Zumba is good exercise. Try not working up a sweat mimicking the up-tempo jigging of a Zumba instructor, successfully or otherwise, and so much the better if you enjoy the cheesy tunes. But what makes Zumba a vigorous aerobic workout also makes it an imperfect match for the Kinect in this game. More often than not, the quick steps and booty wiggling on which Zumba Fitness: Join the Party is based defy detection by the Kinect sensor. Alongside iffy detection, there’s a clumsy menu interface to contend with, plus a lack of specific in-game dance instruction, even in the training mode. The jazzy neon visuals count in the game’s favour, and there’s a goodly number of authentic Zumba workouts, but between the accuracy issues and uninspired game-like elements (that is, a basic point-scoring system), there’s not much to recommend this over a DVD of Zumba classes.

The game is based on 30 routines, each 20 or 45 minutes long, split among beginner, intermediate, and expert difficulties. The routines are composed of four- or five-minute segments set to Latin music, such that a set might contain samba, merengue, and cumbia, with some calypso-inspired grooves and belly dancing thrown in for good measure. Some are newly devised for the game, but most will be familiar to Zumba disciples, and they are led by Zumba grandmasters Tanya, Beto, and Gina. You mirror one of these instructors through a routine, and their neon-hued figures change colour according to how well the Kinect thinks you’re doing, in theory turning like traffic lights from green (spot on) to red (way off). In practice, the detection is only consistently capable with simple steps. At higher tempos and with more complicated grooving, the system often comes up short; from time to time it registers as green a move entirely unlike the one onscreen, though more often it comes off as frustratingly over-finicky, ruling as red decent approximations of onscreen actions.

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