Parents' Guide to Zumba Burn It Up!

One part dance party, one part aerobics class, Zumba has been a staple of many gyms for the past two decades. Zumba Burn It Up! gives players the opportunity to get their cardio in from the comfort of their own homes, or anywhere else they choose, thanks to the portability of the Switch console. Just how effective it is, though, heavily relies on what the player's looking to accomplish, as well as how they choose to play the game. At its core, the game's little more than a collection of live action video lessons with instructors encouraging players regardless of what they might actually be doing. It's an overlay on top of the videos that actually gives players feedback on their performance, which can cause a heavy disconnect when the two don't seem to mesh. It just feels off to hear how great you're doing from the instructor while the game's telling you the exact opposite.

The way Zumba Burn It Up! measures your performance brings up another issue. While the Joy-Con controllers are great for measuring basic movements, there's no way for them to register exactly what you body position is. Players just looking for a high score can run through just about the entire library of routines without ever getting off the couch. It's just a matter of mimicking certain movements and angles with the Joy-Cons to the correct rhythm. While this is more about the player than it is about the game, it's still becomes an issue when a lack of any real effort is potentially rewarded. It doesn't help that those "rewards" don't do much to measure genuine progress outside of time played and calories counts. Aside from this, Zumba Burn It Up! is essentially an average dance party on the go.