Thank you Aksys Games for providing us with a review code!

Fitness Boxing released on the Switch in 2019 and it was well received. In fact, a second and third iteration have been released since. Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU has the same mechanics but has Hatsune Miku and her friends as exercise partners.

When starting the game, you’ll have to create your fitness profile by entering in your age, weight, and height. You can password protect your data if needed. From there, you can specify your area of focus. You can do an all body workout or concentrate on areas like your biceps, chest, core, legs, or calves. You can also specify if you want to do a light, regular, or heavy workout.

You can customize workouts for yourself or with a second player. When playing with another person, it will prompt to connect to their Nintendo account. There’s an option to play as a guest, too.

No matter which mode you play, the scoring works the same. There are two boxes, one for each hand. Movements will scroll up to the box, and you want your punches/jabs/uppercuts to land when the icon is centered in the box. You’ll be given the most points for perfect. If the timing is a little off you’ll get an OK. Finally, there’s Miss if your timing is way off, or the controller movement wasn’t strong enough to be detected. Sadly, this happened quite a bit. There are times when a string of moves are connected in a combo and you’ll earn bonus points for executing them correctly. Having a Miss in a combo will ruin it.

At the end of your workout, your points will be tallied and you’ll be given a fitness age. The best age I got was twenty-eight, and the highest age score I earned was a forty-nine. I believe these age ratings factor in how many less than perfects and misses you have accumulated throughout your workout.

Twenty-four of Hatsune Miku’s songs will gradually unlock and be purchasable with the exercise points that you’ll accumulate by doing workouts. There are thirty Fitness Boxing songs available to unlock as well. Additional Fitness Boxing song packs are available as $4.99 DLC packs. You can also get additional outfits/styles for Hatsune Miku for $4.99 apiece. There’s a $9.99 exercise editor available, and it’s a shame that it’s not included with the base game.

Here’s the track list of unlockable Hatsune Miku songs:

Ai Dee
Hated by Life
The Vampire
8HIT
Alien Alien
God-sih
Just Be Friends
Shoujo Rei
Double Lariat
Teo
Tell your World
Miku Telecaster b boy (long ver.)
THE END OF HATSUNE MIKU
Bitter Coco Decoration F
Fire Flower
Burikinodansu
Po Pi Po
I Will Make You Miku (Miku Miku no Shiteageru)
melancholic
Melt
BRING IT ON
Lost One’s Weeping
Romeo & Cinderella
World’s End Dancehall
Let’s Mikusercise!!
RiseupRise Up Rise Up
OVER LIT
Champion Road True Love
Lovesong ni Shukuhaiwo!
Medic: A Doll

These songs are completely sung in Japanese, and there are no subtitles, so I have no idea what they’re talking about. All of Hatsune Miku’s dialogue is in Japanese, and you can read the translation on top if you’re fast enough!

If you’re not a fan of Hatsuni Miku music, you can do workouts using music from the Fitness Boxing series if preferred. All of your training partners (Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, and Megurine Luka) are from the Hatsune Miku series. There are two trainers, Rin or Evan. The voice acting for Rin is inconsistent during the optional warm-ups and cool downs. During the workout, the voice acting is fine. Evan’s voice acting is more consistent, and my only nitpick is that when he says “Boom!” it sounds like “Blue!” and it’s a little jarring.

The visuals are decent, and there’s a good amount of variety in the backdrops. The exercise partners are nicely animated. The instructors have a few face avatars that change, but they don’t always match the mood.

No matter which trainer you have, they’ll have the same dialogue. Some of their sayings I found a bit humorous. I like how they tell you to work at your own pace and literally tell you to move in rhythm for their next line. They both will say “Don’t forget to breathe!”. Have gamers been forgetting to do this during beta testing?

Other than some outfits revealing some skin, there’s little to complain about morally in Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU.

If you enjoyed previous Fitness Boxing games, are a fan of Hatsune Miku, or are just looking for a nice workout, Fitness Boxing feat. HATSUNE MIKU is worth looking into. It’s a shame that some handy features are hidden behind DLC pay walls. Hopefully the DLC packs will go on sale soon.