In September I was on Amazon.com and I found the game Jillian Michael's Fitness Ultimatum 2009.  It was on pre-order for its release in October.  I have Wii Fit and Active Life Outdoor Challenge, and this sounded like a good game to add to my workout routine.  I had an Amazon.com gift certificate, so I impulsively pre-ordered the game.  I normally don't pre-order, but since I had the gift certificates, I figured why not?

The game came out Oct 21 but my copy was scheduled to ship on Oct 28. Within a day of its release there were reviews about how bad the game is.  I gave it a couple days then decided to cancel my pre-order.  But as I sat down to cancel, I saw a shipping notice in my inbox. It was already on its way to me.  So when it arrived to me I figured that I might as well give it a try.

Graphics
Before I even get into aspects of the game, I will mention the graphics, since you will immediately notice them.  The graphics are incredibly outdated.  While graphics are not meant to be the focal point of the game, I can't help but wonder why they are so bad given the technology available.

Starting the Game
The first thing you will see the first time you start the game is to make a character. You can choose male/female, hair and clothing options, and colors of the clothing.  From there you are ready to go.

You will enter the "camp", or main menu. Here you can access:
Cafeteria: where you get fitness and diet tips from Jillian Michaels
Office: choose a character or create a new one
Multiplayer mode
Stats: see your training stats
Training: begin your workout

Training
Your workout can consist of pre-programmed sets of workouts, or you can customize your own workout. From the pre-programmed sets (see Custom Workout below to see the types of exercises involved), you choose from Weight Loss, Intervals, Strength Training or Hill Climb. You can choose anywhere from 5-60 minutes, then select a Light, Medium or Hard Workout. Your custom workout can have up to ten different activities set on your choice of Light, Medium or Hard workout.

Custom Workout: (description from manual)
Paint Grenade Toss - pick up paint grenades and toss them
Cannon Attack - Load cannon balls into the cannon, then aim and shoot them at targets
Handcar Pump - Keep the cart moving by pumping the handle up and down
Tire Trail - Run through a trial of tires
Rowing -Paddle your way through a roaring river
Monkey Bars - Climb across a lengthy set of monkey bars
Log Jump - Jump from log to log to avoid falling in the river
Log Walk - Balance yourself on logs to move across the water
Boxing - Follow the on screen directions and unleash punches and kicks on the bag
Punching Bag Dodge - Dodge a gauntlet of punching bags to make it to the end of the course
Running - Keep up the pace in this warming exercise

Starting your Workout
After you choose what mode to play, you will then choose whether or not you are using the Wii Balance Board. All activities in the game can be played with or without the Balance Board. You are also given a choice of using a Wii Remote in each hand or you can use a Wii Remote and a Nunchuck. I have been using two remotes.

Once you are ready to start your game, a set of instructions for your first workout will come on the screen along with a silhouetted image doing the exercise. You had better read quickly, because the instructions are only on the screen for only 15 seconds, then the game will begin.

My Initial Experience
I started to do some games in the custom workout. I got frustrated very quickly. Some games I could successfully complete, but in some of the games the avatar would move regardless of whether or not I moved. In others my avatar was completely unresponsive.  I put the game away for the day and tried again a day later. I did do some of the exercises successfully, but on others I had the same results. I tried to pause and search for instructions. There are no on screen instructions as to how to pause, so I just started pushing buttons. Eventually I tried the "1" button. That took a while to figure out, since I have never even used the "1" button in any of our Wii games.  Through the "1" button you can exit from the game, or you can see the instructions again for the exercise you are doing.  Even though I followed exercise instructions correctly, some of the games were still not responsive.

On the game screen, when you play with the Balance Board, you will see three gauges. One shows you what I believe to be your center of balance on the Balance Board. The other two gauges were a mystery. If you play without the Balance board, there is one gauge. There are no on screen directions nor is anything mentioned about the gauges in the instruction booklet.

While I was trying to locate the pause screen, I tried the "B" button. I found that the "B" button pulls up music menu.  There is music playing in the background of all the exercises, but I have not recognized any of the songs. The selection is Dance, Rock, Alternative and Country. I still can't figure out how to change the music, since as soon as I release the "B button", the music menu disappears.

Calling Majesco  - the producer of the game.
Hoping to find some tips, I attempted to register my game with Majesco. I had problems with the registration, and my only contact option was to call technical support. While technical support was not much help in the registration area, I decided to ask some questions about the game. (I will refer to the person that I spoke to as "Technical Support".)

I asked if there were any complaints about the game, and his response was yes, there were some reactions. I told him that I was able to figure out some of the games, but on others I got absolutely no response.  He told me that there is a big learning curve to the game. I responded by saying that, yes, it does take some time to figure out, and the problem is that the instructions are not detailed enough to figure the game out, and that it only leads to frustration.  I was then told that Majesco is considering various ways to provide more detailed instructions for playing the game.  Technical Support then asked me what games I was having trouble playing. I told him a couple of the activities, and he then verbally walked me through the ways to get the game to respond.  We talked about the gauges. The one on the left is the "power up" for the remote, the gauge on the "power up" for the Balance Board. In the games, you must "power up" the Wii remote and the balance board in order to progress with the activities. Gee, it would have been nice to have those instructions with the game.  I later tested out his suggestions, and they did work. In order to get the gauges to power up, there must be constant motion in your arms and/or legs.

One of the activities we discussed was dodging the punching bag.  Technical Support told me that while you do have to lunge left/right with your legs, you also have to move your arms out too, and the remote has to be powered up to get a response.  There are no instructions in the game or the manual to use your arms. When I hear "lunge" I expect that this is an exercise to work your legs, not my arms. When I tried the suggestion, it worked.

I was also told that they do know that the avatar will not respond exactly when I do, and they know that there is also lag time. I responded that the problem with lag time is that players are accustomed to playing with their Wii Fit, where the avatars will mimic the players' motions.

Technical support stressed that this is meant to be more than just a game. It is a workout, and you are really supposed to put in a lot of effort and move your entire body to get results. Hopefully my discussion with technical support will help have an effect on future versions of the game and that they will decide to go forward and have some kind of additional support for this game.

If you choose to get this game and you are still having trouble, do like I did and call Majesco when you get stuck and listen to their suggestions. The website is on the books' booklet, and from there you can find the number for technical support.

Should you use the Balance Board?
I have tried the activities with and without the Balance Board. Some activities will need to be performed differently depending on your use of the Balance Board. For example, if you are doing the running activity, you cannot run on the board, you will only move your legs. But if you choose not to use the board you can do more of a run. The log jump is another activity that will differ with the Balance Board. You cannot jump on the Balance Board, but without it you can do a real jump. The choice is really up to you. 
 
Game Instructions
So as you may have surmised by this point, there is a lack of appropriate instructions in this game.  There is also a lack of directions as to the correct way to do the exercises for both game purposes and for health purposes. Most importantly, there should be screen shots in the book as to how to use the remote and balance board gauges.
 
Multi Player Mode
There is a multi player mode for this game, however I have not had anyone to play against, and therefore cannot review this section of the game.

Overall
While I have only have only had the game a few weeks, I felt like the game deserved an early review, especially with all of the negative reviews I have read on another site. Jillian Michael's Fitness Ultimatum 2009 has flaws from the inability to sync the avatar with your movements to the inadequate instructions.  The gauges are they keys to properly play the game. Figure out how to use the gauges and you can play this game with success. It is definitely frustrating that my avatar does not move along with my movements, and it throws me off sometimes. I have learned that in some games I should try to keep up with my avatar, rather than expect it match my movements.

For the $39.99 it currently costs, there are high expectations that that fall short. But the potential is there, and the workouts can really get your body going.  After my first workouts I woke up the next day feeling very sore - but in a good way. I knew I had worked muscles that hadn't been worked in a long time. I am still playing the game and each time it gets easier to understand and I therefore feel like I am getting a better workout.  However without that call to Majesco I am not sure I would have figured out some of the little tricks. There is a lot to figure out on your own. Hopefully Majesco will be taking some steps soon to make this game easier for its buyers to figure out.

Now that I seem to have figured out the little tricks, I can now focus on getting the most out of my workout.  The more I play, the more I am learning and enjoying it. And I am getting a good workout. If you want to get this game, be prepared to go through some - well, a lot of - frustration as you work through the games' learning curve. I will recommend this game in spite of the flaws. I am giving this 3 three stars because of the lack of appropriate play directions. But if you take the time to learn how to play, even if that means calling Majesco you can get a very good workout from Jillian Michael's Fitness Ultimatum 2009.

Recommended: Yes