# 1096.
This is a number that will stick with me for a while. It’s not a particularly special number, just the number of days in 36 months (including a leap year). It is also the maximum streak Fitness Boxing 1 can record. My actual streak to-date is 1114.
On February 11, 2019 I began my journey with the full version of Fitness Boxing 1 hoping it would be a nice addition to my daily routine. Little did I know that I would continue to play Fitness Boxing 1 *every day* for more than three years. It started with, “Maybe I’ll just get to a year” and developed into “1000 days” and then beyond.
When I first started, I wasn’t particularly overweight, near the BMI line between healthy and overweight, but I was definitely out of shape for what Fitness Boxing demanded of me. I never had an issue with the rhythm game aspect of the game, as I’ve enjoyed plenty of rhythm games prior, but wow this game made me sore from just a small exercise daily. I felt my joints (especially ankles and elbows) pop on certain days, and I had to curtail my movements to prevent it. Eventually, I stopped getting sore and my joints stopped popping. Fitness Boxing worked, so I continued to do it… until now. About halfway through February, I noticed my streak was off by about 18 days. I wasn’t entirely sure why, until I checked the calendar in-game. February 2019 had been deleted, and with that, my flawless, ever-increasing streak was no longer accurate nor ever-increasing, so after playing until the maximum possible streak, I am giving up Fitness Boxing 1, and leaving this as my record. As someone told me, I beat Fitness Boxing 1.
I never expected my time with this game would end due to a technical limitation. It would have been much more probable that I would have accidentally napped through the evening, been hospitalized, or forgotten it for a trip. There are plenty of reasonable expectations for why the streak would have ended, but that’s what kept me going. I have had dreams about breaking my streak — waking up in a panic just to realize it was a dream. I just could *not*, under any circumstance, allow my streak to be broken, but it broke anyway. Perhaps there’s a life lesson in there somewhere.
[Maximum Possible Fitness Boxing 1 Streak – 1096 days](https://preview.redd.it/93qxizb8imk81.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7cb799aa4a0b6f4abbdb79047c27bd23fbad60c6)
This space will be for some side notes I have about the game and my time with it, they may help to spice up your time or just give you some extra information.
Fitness Boxing 1 employs two different types of stamps, full and empty. If you start but don’t finish a daily workout, you get an empty stamp. I didn’t receive any empty stamps, and I only found out about them after testing what happens when you start a daily workout before midnight and finish after (on a different profile, of course). If you want to know, you get a full stamp for the day you started it on *and* an empty stamp for the day you finished it on, counting your streak for both days. You can then do another full daily workout to fill in the empty stamp. I don’t believe Fitness Boxing 2 makes any sort of attempt to differentiate.
I found myself closing my eyes and doing exercises after a while. You can pretty easily get the rhythm down based on what the instructors are saying. In Fitness Boxing 1, all exercises are on a 4-beat pattern and the next combo won’t start until the current one has completely finished, usually followed by an additional 8 beats if there’s a pause. Some things take practice though. I’d do entire exercises facing away from the screen. Fitness Boxing 2 isn’t quite the same and can be difficult since the instructor doesn’t talk as much.
One thing I remember people saying when Fitness Boxing 1 first released is that the instructor talks *too much*. I noticed that early on, they said a lot of things like “remember to breathe,” but after a few weeks they didn’t say some of those lines anymore. I actually can’t remember the last time I heard an instructor tell me to breathe since it’s been so long.
I rotated out instructors monthly. I stuck with Lin for a long time before switching originally. I also used to use a single background. Eventually I switched to randomized backgrounds and it felt like I was playing a new game. The different punch icons are a pointless gimmick. The default ones are the only useful ones, in my opinion; the others all have visual drawbacks that make them fun to play around with for a day but never again. This is probably why this setting didn’t return in Fitness Boxing 2.
Some advice if you’re having trouble. Especially for the steps and ducks, try to keep the Joy-Con vertical and facing forward. Turn off the HD Rumble in the settings. I had issues that stemmed from rumble, while the controller is rumbling, it wont recognize other moves. You quickly get used to not having it, so it’s something I 100% suggest.
# Review
Now, this won’t purely be my gushing about the game, I do intend on reviewing the game and comparing/contrasting it to Fitness Boxing 2. When Fitness Boxing 2 came out, I thought about giving up Fitness Boxing 1, but something about continuing it until I had over 1000 streak seemed too important to give up, as it was my original goal at the time. So I purchased Fitness Boxing 2 and began a streak there while maintaining my streak in the first game. After the update to allow the streak to carry over, I was elated, so I still have that as a valuable record of my time since February 2019. Fitness Boxing 2 records 10 years (120 months) of data.
As for the review, I like these games. Mostly the same game at their core. They’re great if you like having something that guilts you into working out to maintain things like a streak. However, the exercise isn’t on par with exercise you could get elsewhere. I would consider this light cardio, and it doesn’t really go beyond that. You can just do it for longer. Don’t underestimate a 40-minute workout, though.
If you start like me, you will certainly see an improvement in your body. Not necessarily weight-related. The 50-300 Calories you burn from a session is most likely not going to be enough to make you lose weight long term without additional diet/lifestyle changes. You will not be bulking or increasing your metabolism significantly doing Fitness Boxing. Most of my body changes can be described by lack of soreness. I can do more things nowadays and fewer things result in lasting soreness. I don’t get any lower back pain anymore, and I used to be plagued by it.
They’re both easy to get into, easy to maintain, and fun (with some admitted frustration early on while you learn how to position your hands). Fitness Boxing 2 is probably the superior purchase of the two, even if I personally liked Fitness Boxing 1 more. I only disliked Fitness Boxing 2 because I had played Fitness Boxing 1 and could recognize ways they made steps backward. I wish FB1 had received DLC updates instead of them pushing a second game out the door. C’est la vie. Fitness Boxing 2 has more longevity, including the potential for a longer streak, more customization, instructors, unlocks, and achievements. You can read more of what I thought were strong and weak points of each game below. I strongly suggest reading both as content is mixed.
**Fitness Boxing 1 pros:**
* Portability. This game is accessible on-the-go. One reason I never got Ring Fit Adventure was because you basically have to bring equipment with you when you want to leave. For me, a digital download of Fitness Boxing 1 could come with me on whatever trip I had planned.
* Accessibility. Part of that is how easy the game is to be played in tabletop mode. The text in this game is much larger than Fitness Boxing 2. Fitness Boxing 2 made an adjustment to this, but it only touched some things.
* Streak. A great way to keep people invested in their daily routine, comes with a downside of demotivation when broken, however.
* Music. This game is my preferred of the two games when it come to music. FB2 does have a wider selection of songs, but the genre they went with doesn’t stick with me quite as well as the music selection in FB1.
* Low impact. You can easily have a chill workout with this game. This was very important when I was going through recovery from my wisdom teeth removal or on days when I was sick or not feeling well. The shortest daily workout is under 6 minutes if you get “lucky.”
* Multiplayer. You can play multiplayer in the games so maybe you and your SO or friends can get a workout in concurrently. Simultaneous workout is not a feature of Ring Fit Adventure, so that might be a selling point. Unfortunately, multiple users cannot track their progress at the same time within the game. The second player doesn’t have their own streak, data tracking, or weight tracking.
**Fitness Boxing 1 cons:**
I’m actually not going to make a long list for this. I don’t think Fitness Boxing 1 had many true cons besides not being an intense workout or having lag in places that didn’t matter much (like the instructor switch screen). There are things Fitness Boxing 2 did better, but that doesn’t make it a con of Fitness Boxing 1. One more unfortunate thing is that Fitness Boxing 1 doesn’t allow video recordings at all, whereas Fitness Boxing 2 allows them but disallows them during some exercises if they’re using copyrighted music.
* Rhythm. Fitness Boxing 1 encourages you do move back and forth while standing by between actions. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t show you how to keep that rhythm. Fitness Boxing 2 alleviates this with an onscreen indicator.
* Metric. Now, many of you won’t have an issue with this, but Fitness Boxing 1 does not support the imperial system of measurement, meaning if you live in an area where your scales or tape measurers are not in Metric, expect to do some calculations. This actually stopped me from inputting weight data. I never found it necessary to “track” my weight. Fitness Boxing 2 corrects this. I do not think having this counts as a “pro” as it should have been there from the get-go.
There is one main con that applies to both iterations of Fitness Boxing:
* Grossness. This game has you grip your Joy-Con for extended periods of time doing relatively strenuous levels of activity. It is not uncommon to sweat and even more common for your hands to sweat. This is horrible for your controllers. I play with plastic bags on my controllers. The small Joy-Con-sized bags that new pairs of Joy-Con come packaged in are perfect, but you can almost as easily use small sandwich bags (resealable or otherwise). [My Joy-Con setup](https://imgur.com/a/VEnDRsQ) This does carry with it the implication that I do not use the protective straps, and that is correct. I don’t think it’s unfeasible to make that work, but keep it in mind. I never once let these slip from my hands.
**Fitness Boxing 2 pros:**
* More content. Plain and simple, they turned Fitness Boxing into more than a daily workout simulator. They added more rewards from playing and diversifying that play. More instructors, more songs, one new move, more customization options and achievements.
* More more content. The game has seen the addition of paid DLC packs for more music, and has received free updates for No Mercy and a new instructor. It is seeing more support than Fitness Boxing 1 ever saw.
* Accessibility. While be a bit more difficult to work in tabletop mode, Fitness Boxing 2 does cater to some of the more difficult moves by making them auto-complete if you choose to let them. The sensitivity of moves was also turned up, so you can more easily actuate the move. I didn’t have an issue with Fitness Boxing 1’s movement, but I do this that this will come up later in the cons section.
* Intensity. Fitness Boxing 1 had some harder, longer workouts which were great, but Fitness Boxing 2 brought “No Mercy” intensity via free DLC, and while it’s not as great as it could be, it’s still a welcome inclusion to the workout game.
* Communication. Fitness Boxing 2 instructors make more remarks about your progress. “Wow, another 30 straight days!” or “Wow, all perfect!”
* Longevity. Mentioned this elsewhere, but Fitness Boxing 2 will track 10 years of data vs 3 years for Fitness Boxing 1. If that’s something you think matters, this game is for you.
* More of the same from above. Portability, low impact, streak, multiplayer.
**Fitness Boxing 2 cons:**
* Lag. This game released in a horrible state. The backgrounds caused far too much lag during exercise. They remedied this with a future update that added “Light” animation mode, but now you just get mostly static backgrounds. Fitness Boxing 1 did not have this issue and I enjoyed those backgrounds. The lag on the customization screens isn’t appreciated either.
* “Accessibility.” One of my gripes with Fitness Boxing 2 is how sensitive they made some of the movements. This becomes especially apparent when you do exercises with ducking/weaving and some punch immediately after. On your way up from a deep duck, you can trigger the necessary movement for the next punch, netting an OK when you didn’t even punch. Also since the game can auto-complete a duck, if you’re late on the downward motion, you can activate the next punch since it’s already registered the Perfect from the duck and this is now your next movement. Obviously some exercises are almost completely pointless with this functionality. This can mean primarily ducking + body-punch exercises have very few punches you need to throw at all.
* Portability. As stated above, it’s great the game can be brought with you wherever and only needs the Joy Con to function, but there’s a lot more happening on the screen. The menus have a decent amount of text and it’s a downgrade for tabletop mode.
* Voices. They couldn’t get all the same voice actors for Fitness Boxing 2, so they reuse lines from Fitness Boxing 1 and add new lines with new voice actors for new phrases. These can be very noticeable.
# Last thoughts
I have appreciated the time I have spent on Fitness Boxing 1. In game, they say I have about 185 hours of drain time in Fitness Boxing 1, and probably a little more. On the Switch, 340 hours have been recorded for Fitness Boxing 1. Fitness Boxing 2 has 40 hours and 95 hours respectively. Hundreds of thousands, if not over a million, punches/actions done. Definitely tens of thousands of Calories, even if the estimation isn’t perfect. This has kept many pounds off over the years. I’ve attached some media to this post to document some of my time with the game. In these pictures, you will see the maximum Fitness Boxing 1 streak, my current streak, and pictures I took of streak milestones. I’ve included pictures of my Fitness Boxing 1 instructors for fun, and I apologize for white-washing Laura — I modeled her after a friend as a joke. For a bit, I did switch the whole language to Japanese for fun. It lasted a few months before I turned it back. That is why my 200-day streak picture is in Japanese.
For what I plan to do now? When Fitness Boxing 2 came out, I resorted to doing both concurrently, which made me stick with the “light” exercises only in the second game, as I didn’t want to add too much time to my daily routine. So now I have the opportunity to pursue the longer exercises and obtain more of the achievements I have locked myself out of by not doing them. But that’s not all, I think I’ll pick up some other forms of exercise to help with my movement, like yoga.
I know this was a bit winded, and admittedly probably a bit too much investment in a mediocre fitness video game, but I appreciate anyone who took time to read this through. Fitness Boxing 1 has been an integral part of my daily routine for over three years. Of course, I’ll still be around. *Vive la Fitness Boxing 2*. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments, and there is a subreddit for the games if that interests you.
* Fitness Boxing 1 Milestones: [https://imgur.com/a/fv7H6Qj](https://imgur.com/a/fv7H6Qj)
* Fitness Boxing 2 Milestones: [https://imgur.com/a/jEJrhtP](https://imgur.com/a/jEJrhtP)
* Fitness Boxing 1 Calendar: [https://imgur.com/a/52wvPAM](https://imgur.com/a/52wvPAM)
* Fitness Boxing 1 Instructors: [https://imgur.com/a/Zs6MQmA](https://imgur.com/a/Zs6MQmA)
**Edit:** I did experiment last night with the rollover into the next month. At midnight, I watched the calendar shift over to March, and my streak dropped to 1065. However, the “All-Time Record” screen showed the same values, even after a restart, indicating that this number is tracked separately. This means that Fitness Boxing 1’s three-year limit would not seem to be a reason to avoid picking up the game unless you were specifically interested in maintaining a 3+ year streak and/or interested in keeping individual day data from 3+ years prior, which I can assume most players are not. Of course, this does not stop Fitness Boxing 2 from being a better purchase 99% of the time.
**Edit 2:** I removed a line incorrectly describing auto-complete functionality for ducks in Fitness Boxing 2. There are separate selections for ducks and body-punches, but there is not an option for step-punches nor blocks, which is funny because I personally think blocks are some of the hardest moves to get consistently.