EA Sports Active 2 arrived on November 16, 2010, for the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, and it asked players to turn a living room into a gym. EA Canada developed it; EA Sports published it. The Xbox 360 version used Kinect. It followed EA Sports Active, the 2009 original, and it is a single-player fitness program built on a 30-day challenge rather than a story.
Trailer, via XboxViewTV.
The 30-Day Challenge
The spine of EA Sports Active 2 is the guided 30-day challenge. It tests muscle endurance, coordination and agility across a run of sessions, and it is the mode the whole product is arranged around.
Customized routines target upper body, lower body and cardio. The pitch is a holistic approach to fitness that folds in nutrition and lifestyle factors alongside the activity itself.
Kinect on the Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 build makes use of Kinect, the camera-based sensor that removed the controller from the equation. That version asked players to move in front of the television and let the hardware read the motion.
What EA Sports Active 2 Was Working With
The game is non-fiction in theme and third person in perspective. There is no character to guide and no plot to finish. The player is the subject, which is the point and also the limit.
The Day the Online Support Ended
EA discontinued online support for EA Sports Active 2 on April 13, 2012, roughly seventeen months after launch. Whatever the connected features were worth, they had a shelf life, and it ran out.
How It Scored
| Version | Platform | Motion input |
|---|---|---|
| EA Sports Active 2 | Xbox 360 | Kinect |
| EA Sports Active 2 | PlayStation 3, Wii | Standard motion controllers |
Key facts
– Release: November 16, 2010 (North America)
– Developer: EA Canada
– Publisher: EA Sports
– Platforms: PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
– Online support ended: April 13, 2012
– Critic aggregate: 7.3/10 (IGDB, 5 outlets)
Where the Workout Holds Up
The structure is honest about what it is. A 30-day challenge gives a player a reason to return, and the split between upper body, lower body and cardio covers the ground a home program needs to cover.
The nutrition and lifestyle framing is the softer part. It gestures at a whole approach without the game itself carrying that weight.
A Fitness Program With an Expiration Date
EA Sports Active 2 is a competent exercise tool, and the 7.3/10 critic aggregate is about right: solid, useful, not transformative. The Kinect build was the interesting bet, and it dates the product to a specific moment in motion gaming.
The discontinued online support is the detail worth remembering. A fitness program that depends on a server has a shorter life than the workouts it prescribes. EA Sports Active 2 is a good program with a clock on it.
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