Game consoles and exercising/dancing game.. recommendations?

I'm a huge proponent for video games. A game console is an amazing investment. Some of my most cherished memories actually come from games, which I've seriously played since I was about 11 or 12. They can have incredibly vivid stories, environments and characters, and you can learn a lot from them. It's absolutely not all just mindless shooting and violence, there's such a wide library of genres and there are some really wonderful and artistic choices. It's an experience you can't gleam from a movie or even a book. It's wholly unique.

With that said, the cheapest current generation console is the Wii. It features many dance and exercise games, including the Wii Fit, but it's not prime for "serious" and worthwhile non-exercise gaming whatsoever. There are a few fun titles, but it's not considered a "gamer's" console and is more reserved for casual gaming. Therefore, for the most comprehensive experience, I recommend investing in a PS3 or Xbox 360. I frankly don't really like the Wii, lol, though I do the strength training exercises on the Wii Fit quite often.

Everyone has their opinion, but I personally prefer the PS3 and the Playstation Move. The Playstation Move is quite similar to the Wii mote in operation, but it's a lot more accurate (plus the remotes have these cool glowing orbs on top, and they change colors depending on the game/player, it's pretty neat). Most dance and exercise games that are available on the Wii are also on the PS3, and they work much better and often have improved features. PlayStation also has a wider breadth of non-active games, including some of my favorite franchises like Ratchet and Clank, which are great for kids. The PlayStation Network host a variety of games from previous console generations that you can download as well. There are also dance/rhythm games like "Everybody Dance", which is exclusive to the PS3.

I must admit that I am a Playstation "fangirl", and tend to prefer developers who are exclusive to Sony. I still use my PS2 quite often, and it's actually my only console right now besides my PSP. The library of games for the PS2 is HUGE, amazing and games + the console can be bought incredibly cheap. You can even get a nice DDR pad for fairly cheap as well and play Dance Dance Revolution for a workout.

The Xbox 360 has the Kinect, which utilizes your whole body in it's games. I've never actually tried this before, though I'd love to play Dance Central. I've played on the Playstation Move a ton though and I absolutely love it. It kicks the Wii's butt in every way and I'm sure I've lost weight with it in the past. The "Sports Champions" collection of games is super fun, especially the sword fighting and volleyball. It's like you're *really* sword fighting and playing volleyball, it kicks *kitten* and the graphics are wonderful (Wii graphics are AWFUL, lol). And you an even set your own music from the PS3's library to play during, (a feature that's unfortunately lacking from the Wii).

I also love dance games, and my favorite is "Michael Jackson: The Experience". I had SO much fun playing with my 4-year-old nephew and my sister, it's addicting. The PS3's camera will even take footage of you while you're dancing so you can watch how cray cray you look. Fun times. You can also get all the Just Dance games for the PS3, though they're also on the Wii along with the MJ game. As I've said before though, rhythm games are just better on the Move. A pretty fun exercise game is EA Sports Active 2 which is also available for both the Wii and PS3. (people have said the game responds better on the PS3 as well)

I don't know a whole lot about the X-box and available games (or the newly released Wii U), but I can tell you that my experience with the Playstaion Move was awesome, and I highly recommend it. : )

The Wii is real good for exercise. They have tennis and baseball, they have the Wii fit which has dozens of cardio exercises and other stuff and I LOVE my Zumba games.

I bought my boyfriend a kinect for his Xbox at Xmas and it can give you a good work out me and the other half find it hilarious playing dance central so you end up dancing around like a Muppet for hours. The kinect sports is also really good the basketball destroyed me!! had you reaching to the floor to pick up an imaginary ball then jumping with arms up to shoot repeatedly. umm and also kinect adventures had me dripping with sweat from jumping around and had me n the other half in competition pushing us to work harder.

We have the PS3 with move camera/controllers. We have two sport champion games (one in 3-d), zumba and ufc trainer. All can be pretty good workouts, especially zumba/ufc.

I've heard differing opinions on the Kinect, and unfortunately I've yet to experience it myself. I've read that the Kinect isn't as accurate as it should be at times, and that games like Michael Jackson: The Experience have actually been watered down to compensate.

The one thing that annoys me when people criticize the Move is that they say you're only using one hand. I've never just used one hand while playing the dance/sports games. You get your whole body into it regardless of the fact that it's only tracking the wand. Only poo brain people sit around and move their hand only, lol, that totally defeats the purpose. The Move can also be used in conjunction with non-active games like Little Big Planet and such.

In any case, they're both quite different, and it'd probably be best to try them each before deciding on a buy.

I second the PS3. Great dancing games and I only play DDR on the PS2 because the game for PS3 is boring lol. Plus if you get good at DDR you can knock out cardio like nothing lol. I usually play standard/difficult with some challenge mixed in and after 20 minutes I'm drenched in sweat lol.

I agree, every source I've seen says the DDR for the PS3 sucks, so I've never bothered. The PS2 version, as with many other PS2 games, is still awesome and worth playing. However, I've found I enjoy the current dance games much more because it's far more akin to actual dancing, lol.

I've heard differing opinions on the Kinect, and unfortunately I've yet to experience it myself. I've read that the Kinect isn't as accurate as it should be at times, and that games like Michael Jackson: The Experience have actually been watered down to compensate.

The one thing that annoys me when people criticize the Move is that they say you're only using one hand. I've never just used one hand while playing the dance/sports games. You get your whole body into it regardless of the fact that it's only tracking the wand. Only poo brain people sit around and move their hand only, lol, that totally defeats the purpose. The Move can also be used in conjunction with non-active games like Little Big Planet and such.

In any case, they're both quite different, and it'd probably be best to try them each before deciding on a buy.

Kinect is very accurate if you have enough room and is set up properly. To be honest, you can't even compare a move or wii to the kinect. It knows where each hand and foot is as well as your head, etc. And the poo heads can't cheat on the kinect because you can't fake it. I've played on all three including the balance board on the wii and really they should be in same category. That doesn't mean that some games aren't better, like you mentioned the michael jackson game being watered down, but that falls on the developers not the console. Also, the next generation xbox that is coming out this year has an even higher definition kinect sensor that will recognize even more points on the body.

I lost my first 25 lbs just doing Just Dance 4 on the Wii and counting my calories on MFP. Still love doing it with my 2 and 3 year old for fun sometimes, they love it too. It has a Just Sweat mode too but I only used that a couple times. Not as fun as dancing to the songs.