I’ve previously shared on Checkpoint that I’m on a fitness journey after a health scare occurred last year. While there has been improvement in my overall health, one of the suggestions that I’ve been told is to consider doing more exercise at home. Fortunately, there are video games. While many titles out there claim to promote health and fitness, Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer may have the potential to do the job right.

This is the third (or fourth if you include the Japan-exclusive Hatsune Miku: Isshoni Excercise) instalment of the Fitness Boxing series for the Nintendo Switch. Like the previous titles, it’s a sports fitness game where you do boxing exercises alone or with a friend. So, does this game take the punch or will its flaws convince me that it’s better to go outside?

When you start the game, you’ll be introduced to your trainer, Lin. From there, she will ask for some basic details about you, like your age, height, weight, and your fitness goals. Afterwards, you will be taught the ropes on how to do each move before you take your first daily exercise. This game encourages you to come back daily and improve on your boxing exercises as things intensify the further you go along and you will be able to partake in other exercise activities.

First impressions-wise, this game feels like Wii Fit had a baby with the boxing game in Wii Sports. One of the big complaints that previous instalments of this series had were the graphics. Fortunately, Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer has improved its game’s art as it no longer looks like something you see in older-gen consoles. While it could look a tiny bit better, its design feels modern and somewhat reminiscent of Wii Fit mixed with Nintendo Switch Sports.

Not only does the game have good and responsive movement detection, but the main goal is to improve your arm and body movements through boxing. After you exercise, it produces your fitness score and how many calories you’ve burned during your session. You also get to stamp your calendar after doing your dailies.

Your daily exercises are customisable. You can shuffle the songs that get played during the workout, change the background, and when given the option, choose to do harder routines or extend it by just a little bit. What’s also great about this game is that you can set it to your own pace and if you want to do more, you can do so. These workouts range between 10 to 40 minutes, depending on the type of routine you choose to do. For example, on my 3rd daily exercise, not only was I offered a faster routine, but also an extra 2-minute workout because the game believed that I could tackle them. In addition, boxing to the Ghostbusters theme really does get you into the mood. It led to a 30-minute session filled with sweat and water bottles.

While Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer is such a great workout game, there are things it could improve on. Your personal trainer’s dialogue tends to sound like AI, especially for Lin and Guy. Meanwhile, if you listen hard enough, you’ll notice that the sound for some of these spoken lines varies in quality. It’s like I’m listening to the Sydney Train announcements when exercising. Also, when you’re doing the faster routines, the trainer’s voice tends to be sped up, but in the same pitch. This makes sense as workouts have a set duration. However, it makes them sound like they’re rushing and like they don’t want to guide you through them.

While the game does detect your movements, you don’t get penalized if you mistake a hook with a jab as it registers it as the same thing. It’s basically like Just Dance, where you can cheese through the game and not have your body get into the groove. But you don’t want to do that, as you will be doing yourself a disservice. To be fair, all these are nitpicks and will not affect how you progress through the game as all it cares about is you getting your body moving. As long as you are sweating and are motivated to do the workout, then it has done its job.

It’s important to note that despite having the word “boxing” in Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer, it will not train you to become a professional boxer. It does not care about how your arms move or how you’re poised or leg positions, or strength. So don’t expect to compete in a match as this game isn’t a training game for boxing, it’s an exercise game using boxing techniques. I guess some things require the real world.

Do I see this game as an alternative to going to the gym? Of course not! But I can see myself turning on this game between gym sessions to work on my cardio at home. I had my sports watch on when reviewing this game, and it revealed that my heart rate was between 130 and 150 during the daily exercises, the same result when I go on the treadmill or do pull-ups. Overall, I can see this game as part of my home workout routine and can play a role in my health journey. It could also work for you if you’re willing to give it a shot.