Walk it Out for Wii Reviews by Gamers

Adding a character is painfully bad, and the in game trainers prattle on endlessly with their moronic advice and over the top encouragement. I would rather have just been dropped in to the game with my Mii, to figure it out as I went along.

That said, the game itself is fun. Having been over the whole of the Wii-Fit island many times on the virtual bicycling game, I was looking for an alternate venue, and Walk It Out does that and a bit more.

The game world is revealed progressively by clicking on bubbles as you walk in place accumulating points. Revealed features include most of the in game scenery, the in game music, the pathways that you can turn down, and a few game changing elements like magic clock pieces that can change the simulated time of day so that you can pick up the last few pieces you are missing or just dance beneath a midnight sky.

The music is a mixed bag, but I've become fond of several of the unlocked tracks. Not being a fan of the Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow", I quickly started buying new tracks to listen to. Each song is unlocked by finding four matching song icons (each costing between 50 and 150 steps). The icons are labeled with the song number not the track name, so I find it easiest just to buy every song icon in sight and get rid of any I'm not enjoying after a few listens in the game settings menu.

To count as a point each step has to be taken in beat with the music. I find the default settings to be overly tight when used with the balance board, but they are easily changed to drop the penalty for a missed beat, and widen the acceptance window to a usable range. A DDR dance mat might improve the timing accuracy, but I don't own one to test.

Despite its shortcomings, "Walk It Out" has been an enjoyable diversion. Don't expect to build a sweat quickly though, the beat of most songs is barely enough to warm you up until you've been at it for half an hour or so.