Ring Fit Adventure

When I was in college, I didn’t have a real exercise routine. I would run laps around the neighborhood, but that wasn’t the launching pad I needed to actually adopt a healthier lifestyle. Ring Fit Adventure launched shortly after I graduated, and while I don’t play the fitness RPG anymore, I don’t think I would have moved onto more impactful exercise routines without it. The first time I played Nintendo’s exercise game, I woke up the next morning sore in a way I’d never been. This game doesn’t put on kid gloves and tell you to just jog-in-place your way to the end of a dungeon, it uses its titular Ring to make you push, pull, twist, and otherwise contort yourself into different poses to take down in-game foes, all with the goal of creating a regular gamified workout routine. Sometimes all you’ve gotta do to get someone to make a lifestyle change is make it a video game first. Now, I’m a self-taught gym rat, and I would probably have never gotten to that point without playing this game.