- Ow. that was really easy for 10 seconds, but not for 30. [upbeat rock music] 

Hey I'm Kyle Orland with Ars Technica, here in downtown New York City, with Nintendo, checking out Ring Fit Adventure. And I'm looking to answer one question. Is this something that'll make me actually want to exercise? [upbeat rock music]

- My name is Ring, by the way.

- Hi Ring. All right, so if I move around like this, it moves around with me.

- [Ring] I see a door up ahead!

- Woo!

- Yes! Already breaking a sweat. A little easier to push, than to pull. Or maybe it's just me.

- [Ring] Way to work up a sweat.

- Whew, thank you for giving me a break. I see an enemy. Oh! Battle mode, up and down. Pretend I'm sitting in a chair. [roars] [exhales] [exhales] I've got eleven more of these? I've got this backup heart rate monitor, to see how my workout's doing. It's feeling pretty good so far. All right, so I like that you get to choose what you could do. If you don't feel like exercising a certain part of your body. Woo, you really feel it.

- [Ring] Amazing!

- Oh, this looks really easy, but I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it right down here, I'm feeling it in here. [whirring]

- [Ring] All right!

- Maybe it would be easier if I was in better shape, of course.

- [Ring] Okay, let's move!

- One.

- [Ring] Keep your knees behind. Well done! [dinging and whirring]

- I feel like I'm focusing so much on the exercise, I can't really tell what I'm doing to the enemy. Whew. I need a break. Straight from level three to level 23. Just takin' in the scenery. Oh, okay. Left, right, left, right, left, right. Flamingos, right, left, right Oops! [laughs] Oh he's dead already, that's good. I did not wanna do that one. [upbeat rock music]

- [Game Voice] Go! [whirring and dinging] [laughs]

- [Game Voice] Nice!

- Oh, I think I went too fast earlier I should've paced myself, there's still halfway to go.

- [Game Voice] Press in.

- I was doing so well early. Oh, come on, get up to 100.

- Amazing!

- Two, three, four five. Ow! [upbeat rock music] [whirring and crashing] 

So I just finished about an hour here with Ring Fit Adventure. Find it really gives a lot of resistance when you push in, or even more if you pull out. I don't know if that's just my muscles, or anything. The adventure mode, you kind of run around, you can point down to jump. You can point at things, it's a little bit distracting. 

What I really liked were the mini-games. There was one where I was doing a turning, and pushing in and out to do like a whack-a-mole type thing. Another, I was aiming on crates, and that was like 60 seconds of just, I'm not thinking about what I'm doing. I'm just aiming at what's on the TV. Makes me totally forget that I'm exercising. 

Apparently there's also a mode where you can take it with you and just do reps like this. And you'll get credit for it when you come back. I don't know if I would really do that, but something you can do if you're not at your Switch. Right now, I'm gonna go get some water, and take a little break. 

The whole Ring Fit system is surprisingly easy to set up. You just slide the controller right in there, You put the leg strap around your leg, and you're good to go. The whole thing took about 15 seconds, and then I was into the game. So far, the story seems pretty simplistic. Pretty hackneyed, as far as these RPG tropes go. But, I'm not sure that's really what's going to be driving things. You wanna be doing this for the exercise value. I'm not sure, getting into a deep world full of lore is going to be the appeal. 

To a large extent, you seem to be able to control how much you want to get out of the Ring Fit Adventure workout. You can jog in place fairly slowly, to go through the world slowly. Or you can sprint, and get through faster. With a lot of the modes you can push in with all your might, or you can just do the bare minimum. While the game does judge your form, it doesn't really penalize you too much if you're not doing super strength, or going super fast. You can just tune it to how you like. 

The Ring Fit is solidly built enough that I think it could take a lot of abuse from kids and adults. The most difficult for me was the thigh squeezing, I think. All in all, Ring Fit Adventure is definitely more strenuous of a workout than I expected. Whether or not it's something I could do, every, three times a week for my whole life, I'm not sure yet. But it's definitely something I'm eager to give a little bit more time to. Right now, Ring Fit Adventure is something I would recommend to people who want to exercise, but really can't find the excuse to do so. I would recommend it to them, more than people who are really looking for a gaming experience that will stand up to traditional RPGs. 

[upbeat rock music] So after trying out Ring Fit Adventure, I thought I'd try out an actual Pilates ring, which resembles it quite a bit. So right away, this thing feels a little bit flimsier, it's easier to press in, it's easier to kinda twist in a way you don't want. So, let's try out some exercises. [upbeat rock music] Right away, this feels a lot easier to stretch out than the Ring Fit did. This is just too easy to push in. I don't feel like I'm getting much of a workout at all. [upbeat rock music] This is a lot simpler, and a lot less interesting. So a simple Pilates ring like this can give you a similar workout, but overall, I think I'd prefer a Ring Fit Adventure. Whew. [upbeat rock music]