Zumba Fitness Core - Xbox 360

I'm a post-bariatric surgery patient, and part of the weight loss has involved commitment to a regular exercise program. At first I was unable to do more than 5 minutes of any video-game based exercise routine, but eventually worked my way up from the competitor's games to the Kinect-based ones. I still use the other Zumba games for variety, but I finally outgrew - or shrunk out of - however you want to think of it - and needed a higher difficulty level. UGH! This game is it. It is still fun, and each time the Zumba franchise releases a new game, they seem to clean up some of the previous things, like now it seems that they've pretty much incorporated a "warm-up" dance as well as the cool-down dances, which is good.For me, the cons are: I'm not as into the music on this one compared to the previous release, and the moves don't repeat as often so it's taken me a while to master them. I find some of the jumping moves a bit difficult/uncomfortable, but I keep trying!The pros: Fast paced - will keep you moving! They seem to be broadening their range of dance styles - there's even some ballet (it's the one that makes me jump the most and my knees aren't fans of it, but I'll get there eventually) this time. It's more challenging - harder to get to the "Legend" status and a 90% or more grade than the previous game, so it keeps me pushing to get to that mythical status, haha.So far, with the help of the Wii exercise system and now the more challenging XBox games - especially the Zumba games, I'm now down 130 pounds in one year. So it is doable by someone who starts out categorized as morbidly obese. I can actually see muscles starting to show!!!! So get up off those couches, try a Zumba game and get sweating! :-) Good luck to all of you struggling with your weight. I know the pain of that one.

This is a wonderful addition to my Xbox kinect games collection. I already own Zumba Rush, and I love it, so this is a wonderful and pleasant surprise for me to find out there was a new Zumba out and to purchase it. Just like Zumba rush, it very responsive to your moves, you can choose your class length, ( routine length)Other reviewers have indicated the improvements and I second that. The routines take some getting used to but you can increase how often the visual queues for the next moves come up, which is very helpful if you need more reminding.I love the new routines and the new instructors. I had to convince my husband that Zumba can be used by men too, and it's great that they added in a new male instructor. Overall I feel a difference the day after this routine, I hold in my core muscle as I walk and although I only received this game two days ago. I am looking forward to the wonderful results in toning and weight loss. Trust me after having bought two Zumba games, I look forward to the routines because I am so caught up in matching the moves and having fun dancing, I don't feeling like it's torturous exercise.

Zumba Fitness CoreI've never really heard of Zumba until a friend at work told me about her part-time job as a Zumba / Hip Beatz (sic) instructor at a local dance fitness studio. I ordered a Kinect for my Xbox 360 Slim and decided to give Zumba Fitness Core a try since it is the latest in the Zumba Fitness franchise, and is supposed to focus on the core muscles.While many people seem to complain about the repetitive dance moves, I find that the choreography of most songs seem to rely on similar routines, which is beneficial for participants since you can piece together some of the familiar movements. I don't know the names of these dance moves but I could recognize them when I watched some videos of my friend's classes on Youtube.The game uses "realistic" models of the instructors, which doesn't really help or hurt the overall experience. What does hurt the overall experience of the game is when the camera moves away from the instructor to make it look more "artsy", as if the game developers wanted to impress you with a 2005-era graphics engine - except the whole point of the game is to follow the instructor's movements. This can be hard to do when the camera pans out at an angle so the instructor is about 0.5 inches tall!I don't recognize most of the songs, but some of the high intensity routines are truly intense. I am breaking some serious sweat after 5 songs (short Zumba workout session). My friend uses a MotoActv for her actual classes, and she will burn 800-900 calories in a 1 hour session as the instructor. Her heart rate spikes up to 199 bpm and maintains that throughout the class. I used my own MotoActv and heart rate sensor, and will manage to burn about 300 calories in a short 20 minute session, hitting some decent heart rate peaks. I'm in decent shape (6'3", 160 lb, runner, cyclist) and didn't feel like I was going to collapse but I could definitely feel it was giving me a decent workout while indoors - it definitely wasn't boring.Overall: 4/5 stars, a great and fun way to work out although not very regimented. It will help you sweat and burn calories dancing to some fun tunes, but the camera likes to pan away from the instructor during certain movements which interferes with matching your movements to the instructor.

I love Zumba. Has great variety of music pieces. Included reggae and Hawaiian, belly dancing, african which I love. I also loved that you can customize your own workouts. Especially for me since I can't do alot of jumping. I was able to find previews of songs in you tube so I would know which songs would be higher impact than others. If you love Zumba I highly recomend. Only suggestion I have is to have patience with the selection process and hand movements. Can be tricky at times. But very workable.