Another game coming to Kinect this holiday season is Zumba Fitness. While I haven’t actually participated in any Zumba before, I have seen some local places advertising Zumba, so it isn’t surprise it will be a launch title for Kinect. Described as a one-of-a-kind exercise program which pairs Latin rhythms with red-hot dance steps so you can have fun as you dance your way into shape.
In Zumba Fitness, players can learn and perfect nine different dance styles: Reggaeton, Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, Hip-Hop, Mambo, Rumba, Flamenco and Calypso. The game features 30 different music tracks and routines, and is led by “the” Zumba creator Beto and celebrity instructors Gina Grant and Tanya Beardsley.
Although we have the official trailer above, we couldn’t resist showing off this video of Evolved Gaming‘s Zac trying out Zumba Fitness.
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About The Zumba Program
The Zumba program is a fitness-party with a contagious blend of Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow dance moves that provides an exciting and effective workout to a global community, either at home or in the gym. Through exhilarating, high calorie-burning fitness classes, Zumba Fitness has helped melt the pounds and inches off seven-and-a-half million Zumba enthusiasts in 105 countries. Using simple Latin and urban dance moves, Zumba routines successfully tone and sculpt the body while burning fat. The Zumba program is available in a four-disc DVD collection featuring creator Beto, and offered in 60,000 class locations worldwide. Other offerings include Zumbawear (clothing), Zumba Gold (classes for active seniors and de-conditioned participants), Zumba Toning (body-sculpting classes), Zumbatomic (for kids) as well as additional music soundtracks. For more information, to find a class, or to purchase the DVD Collection, visit www.zumba.com.
I have taken Zumba classes and am going for my certification. I got the game yesterday very excited to have a fun interactive “GAME”. My frustration started almost instantly. We have one other Kinect game and have a blast with it but this game would not read me well for set up. I have two children and a dog…i ended up just turning it off because every time some one walked in front of me it kicked me off and added a GUEST. Then had to start all over to get it back to me and begging it to just read my hand movements. I cant’t even tell if the game is any good because I barely got to play it due to all of the issues getting the Kinect to see me move and the poor memu lay out. At least with the WII you could hit the home button. Save your $60! Go to the gym and take a Zumba class!
Thanks for the heads up, looks like we won’t be recommending this game to anyone!
I tried my new Zumba game today and was extremely disappointed. Having never taken a dance lesson in my life and I was really looking forward to learning how to “Zumba” from the tutorials. They were, however, extremely glitchy with one instructions playing over top of another and jumping irratically from one part of the tutorial to another. Also, there was no real instruction as to how to do most of the moves and it jumped through the steps very fast. The fuzzy instructor who keeps changing colors according to how well you are doing was hard to see at times and the intermittend falling stars (rewards??) were just one more thing that made the whole picture very hard to decipher.
I decided to just start playing the game at a beginner level with no better luck. This game might be okay if you’re a great dancer or at least know most of the Zumba-type moves, but for a beginner, trying to learn, this game is a huge disappointment.
From a poor demonstration at E3, and your review, think we’ll be advising any reader of 360Sync.com to avoid this title. Thanks for the input!
We have several Kinect games and I was really looking forward to Zumba. I work out with a trainer at the gym, trying to get back in shape, and see the classes all the time – I am not nearly that brave but thought I would love it for Kinect, especially after Dance Central. It is the first game that I want to go back to using the Xbox controller to sign in. I have to flail my arms at the screen just to get started – for some reason it registers I’m standing there but not that I’m moving. If you happen to step out of the range of the sensor during your workout, it kicks you back to the main menu where you are right back to flailing your arms, begging to get back in. It has huge potential, but it can’t just be an after thought to Wii and PS3′s platforms – take advantage of what Xbox is giving you to work with!
I have to agree with everyone else who has posted here. I found Zumba to be a huge disappointment. Unlike Dance Central and Body Fitness, both which seem to do an excellent job of tracking body motion, Zumba fails at this right out of the box. I tried recalibrating my Kinect several times, different lighting conditions etc, nothing seemed to help.
To illustrate my frustration – imagine that you are trying to learn a particular style and are going through the teaching portion. You can practice the moves (at full speed) for an almost endless period and make absolutely no progress as far as the onscreen avatar is concerned. Then WALK towards the sensor, and suddenly it thinks you are doing everything correctly. In fact, no matter what you do after this point, it zooms through the rest of the lesson without pausing as new details are added… and there appears to be no way of slowing it down or stopping it from doing this.
ARGHHH!!!!!
After trying to get Zumba to work for the 5th night, we give up! What a let down this one is. Extremely hard to get one person signed in – IMPOSSIBLE to get multi-players to work. We got it to work for about 20 seconds and then it suddenly kicks us off and tries to add a guest. Moving around from screen to screen is frustrating. After waving our arms trying to get this game to cooperate, we give up! The only excercise you get from Zumba is the soreness in your arms from waving and flailing them around trying to get the game to work! Dance Central is so much more fun and it actually works. Certainly would not recommend this to anyone.
The Zumba kinect Fitness needs a part which must be very enlightened to the game detects you. Try again.
Junk….I’m so frustrated with the “hole” xbox scene. Lag on xbox live CoD:BO so we decided to try zumba for a relaxing enjoyable change, and yes we cant connect.. Complete buyers remorse. I’m sick of xbox multiplayer/kinect problem. Looks like its back to “World of warcraft”, Blizzard are the professionals in online gaming.
You must all work for Dance Central as I have had the game working really well for three days. My two kids can jump in and out as guests while i work out and the camera picks them up really well. We are having a blast with this zumba game, you just need to wait for a minute before you start so the camera can size you up and sync you in.
Thanks Jason, for your positive feedback. I am frustrated with it but I’ll persist seeing as you have it working.
When at sign in (controller usually), i go to Kinect tuner and I can see myself fine. But Zumba cant see me wave!
Do you have a lot of light in your room with Kinect/Zumba?
Do you have your curtains open or close? (curtains open for me and it never works)
Roughly how far, when you sign in to Zumba with Kinect, are you from the sensor?
Is there any tricks you have found that helps signing in?
Thanks very much for any help, as “This is a KFC body” hehe
You need to be back at least 8 feet, ten works best. I had to move my couch out of the way. I also lowered the sensor so it was only three feet from the ground. The manufacturer has a just released title update i got downloded fom Live today. Howver I do not see any difference.
I can’t seem to get into tutorial on the zumba kinect and can’t find any info on any web pages. Can you help?
you have to sign in with your profile or else as a guest you can’t do tutorials
I have just recently just bought kinect Zumba fitness and have found some trouble, we can only play single routine or multiplayer rountine game. We can’t play any party games or class games. At first we thought we might have to unlock this however it seems to be a bit weird that we cant do classes before doing routines. We cannot edit profiles either – all of the other options (other than single routine and multplay routine) are greyed out and i cannot select them.
Can someone please help me?
I have just had the same problem! Most of the options are grayed out so you really can’t do any of it. I’m returning it to Walmart tomorrow…hopefully they take it back! Sucks!
We cannot seem to access the tutorial!!! Very limited in what is available. Taking the dumb game back after excitement & then extreme disappointment
I can’t get past the “enrollment” page. The “DONE” button is unselectable and the other two access the Kinect, not the Zumba game. I’ve been doing the DVD’s for about a year and was looking forward to the Kinect version. Trying to find info online and finding nothing. You’d think Sony would have paid some attention to game development!
I have tried twice now to use my Zumba and have not been able to get it to play. The Kinect recognizes me, I get logged in but when I put my hand over the menu selection the hand just has a circle that goes around it and never clicks over. I have read the instructions, looked online and can’t figure this one out.
great idea, horrible implementation. Getting the game to recognize you is a ridiculous task.. The tutorial is HORRIBLE. It is way to fast, it doesn’t actually recognize your movement. It’s useless and you may as well just do this on the wii an fl-ale away.
been using it for 10 days… LOVE it!!! all you ppl up there give up to easily…. its actually a GREAT exercise…If you do it right or even close… I have had no trouble with the signing in and out and enrolling and what not…touchy to someone walking by the screen while in progress…but it just wants to add them to the PaRtY!!! Love LoVe Love it!!!!
Is there a way to turn the instructor around to they are not facing you? I am having trouble following the steps when they are facing me. I don’t like doing the opposite of them. In my real life Zumba class she stands with her back to us so we are all moving the same way.
comment: I know I’m really late answering this but just incase you’re still having trouble. You should be mirroring the instructor. If she moves to the left side of the screen, you move to your left.
Personally, I have to disagree with most of you. I think the game is a lot of fun. Even if you are like me and can’t mirror the instructor totally, you give it your best and its a great workout. I say give it a shot.
After playing dance central and two other games for a few days after christmas i couldn’t wait to get zumba! then, i had the same experience as everyone else. i waved and waved- nothing. i checked my kinect sensor and saw myself there but the game wouldn’t register me. i finally got it working but had to bend down to get a dog toy out of the way and BAM! i was signed out! i was so frustrated. i finally did get it to work and had a good 20 min workout (except for a few glitches, the instructor gets stuck and then goes super speed to get up to where she’s supposed to be) the whole time i was wondering why i didn’t just get the dvd set. i’m kicking myself now.
I have to disagree with some of you. I have had it since Christmas and have enjoyed it. I have lost 3 lbs and the kids love it. I am a beach body coach but I took a month off to do Zumba! I really love it didn’t have glitches nor problems syncing with my motion.
I have not bought this game, but borrowed it from a family member. Thank goodness! I was excited to LEARN how to do zumba…but the tutorial does not teach. As soon as it thinks, you’ve done the move correctly, it will speed up OR move on to the next move, even when I have not completled the step correctly OR understood what I was doing. There were times I was just standing there and it would move on to the next step. Not for Zumba beginners at least. Seasoned Zumba dancers may do well with this game, but I do not find it to be used to learn how to Zumba.
How do you get the tutorial to light up?
This Kinect game definitely isn’t for beginners. I have never done Zumba before but I dance rather well. But the lack of tracking and the terrible tutorials make it difficult to learn. I guess this game is meant for people who already do Zumba at the gym and want something to do on their off days when they can’t make it to the gym.
I first exchanged the game at EBGames, believing that it is defective.
The game told me that my room was too dark.
So I raise the lights and the game detect me now.
The control play is really very difficult d’ use, but for those which like the Latin music and the dance do not release, try again, you will have pleasure and you will perspire.
The small green cursor in bottom of the screen is difficult to control.
I made of Zumba in gym during one year and as in the instructor did not take time to explain us the movements.
Then after several training we knew the movements and transitions.
It seems like some of these reviews couild have ben written before the update download that fixes the tutorial. has anyone downloaded that? how did it work for you after you did? I am considering this game but only if the download has fixed the problems
I’m on it a reasonable amount without to many problems now. I’ll share some tips:
Lighting is very important:- Open/close curtains, and try lights on and off
Distance: about 2.5m is the best for me.
When logging on (the wave to activate it), wait for a bit. just stand there and wave every now and then. I have just stood there for up to 2 min. Perhaps its just warming up, not sure.
Glitches- Check for any moving objects behind, no pets on lounge, fans blowing curtains, plants etc
Don’t pause it durning a class, it glitches most of the time while I’m away (e.g. getting a drink), and I have to start again.
I think that is about it.
My personal review, in brief, it’s not for beginners, but I do enjoy it now I have it working every time I go to use it. I do not regret buying it now.
It is a but of mucking around to get it working. Once you have used it a few times and understand its quirks I think you will be fine.
I hope this helps, happy Zumbering
zumba is the game that i have been playing everyday for the past few weeks. i love this game and its helping me keep in shape. i did have problems like waving to sign in so i moved back further and now i have no problems with that. i also wasnt able to do the moves fast enough, but if you take the time to actually learn and not just give up after you fail then you will do fine. i had a hard time doing the moves at the beginning but then i practiced and finally got the moves down now i sweat like a pig during my workouts. the only problem i have so far is my progress bar isnt going up with my moves recently. i get greens and yellows and my bar barely moves. if anyone knows why please tell me so i can get back to having fun on my zumba.
I have been using Zumba now since Christmas and really enjoy it, I was going to classes up until Christmas but find this so much better as I can do it in my own home and at a time that suits me.
The only thing that I am frustrated with is with I don’t appear to be able to do any other class on beginner level other the the nightclub and I can see that there are others greyed out, factory etc.. Can anyone tell me how to access these?
Thanks
Lisa
You might need to unlock the “greyed” out classes. I haven’t done this yet but I will focus on it now. To help you now perhaps investigate the achievements.
First, make sure you are signed in to Zumba. If you go in as a guest, most of the selections are “greyed” out.
You don’t need to go on xbox live, just click ok when it says its not connected.
To unlock stuff you need to do certain achievements. These are just ideas here. It may be just one achievement to unlock the extra classes. This is the order I’m going to try. Some tutorials below may not be available yet, but just check you have them.
To get to the next dance club “Factory” (I think) we need to get “Club Hopper” (10 points): Achieve Full Stage Progression in Nightclub. I just found I have this achievement so getting it wont unlock the next one.
Check you have (or as many that are available) these too (I don’t, so I will focus on these next).
Salsa Sizzle (10 points): Complete all Salsa Tutorials.
Merengue Master (10 points): Complete all Merengue Tutorials.
Reggaeton Rouser (10 points): Complete all Reggaeton Tutorials.
Calypso Cruisin’ (10 points): Complete all Calypso Tutorials.
Cumbia Crackin’ (10 points): Complete all Cumbia Tutorials.
To check your achievements:
Put disk in
Menu “My Xbox” (Zumba picture showing)
Move right (left stick) to “Game Library” and select.
“Recent Games” are showing, and with the Zumba disk in, Zumba will be at the top. See the xx/1000 next to Zumba, that is your achievements you have out of 1000.
Select Zumba now.
Don’t click “Play Zumba”, move one move to the right. This is your achievements. You can click “View All” this will give you a better idea.
I hope this helps. i’ll try and unlock it myself too. Keep us posted with your progress too.
Cheers
I understand having to unlock certain areas. I do not undertand not being able to EDIT a user. My daughter used the game for the first time and logged in as a guest. Now the EDIT USER button is grey???
Was looking forward to a kickass at home work-out. Only to be disappointed that I can’t even get past the set-up stages! It said that it needed to “load” and then it wouldn’t let me continue past getting the first player (and only player registered). It said it recognized me, but then didn’t.
Very sad.
Very Very Frustrated! Love Dance Centeral. I have a toddler so I can’t use this when he is awake and running around the room. Hoping to get in a good 30 minute work or more during naps at this point. More frustration when it kicks you out when you move out of the sensory lane. To start over completely. A 20 min work out can take 2 hours if you have to step away for anything! Don’t buy it too frustrating. Go to gym or run. This sucks when your on a time limit to get it in!!!
Hey, I love Zumba on xbox 360, my only disappointment is that i can only get two people signed in and its very annoying when i have myself and two friends over and we have to make it into a competition to see who plays the next round, but other that trouble signing 3 people in, i have no worries with the game itself
I absolutely love this game. Although, I have been taking Zumba classes at my gym, so I do know a thing or to about Zumba to begin with. Still, I didnt have any trouble getting it to register me. I was a little confused on how to get it started at first, but I figured it out pretty fast. All in all, I broke a sweat. I actually cancelled my membership at the gym cause this is way more convenient and cheaper in the long run. For those beginners out there, Zumba can be hard the first time, it can be hart the second time, it can even still be tough the third of fifth time! You just gotta stick with it and it gets better. Dont worry about getting the moves down to a T just yet, IT WILL COME TO YOU. As long as you keep moving.
Can anyone tell me how to EDIT a user. We opened the game logged in as a guest and now the EDIT user button is grey.
You need to be signed in to your xbox under a profile name, not a guest.
I found this link;
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/dealing-with-multiple-gamers-on-xbox.html
You do not need to be on xbox live to play Zumba. Just:
Start Zumba
Hand over “Sign in†(the “sign in†button appears in the center, it can take a while b4 showing)
Select your profile e.g. Daz
It says “signing in†then errors if you are not connected. Simply press “ok†and it goes back to the main menu with your selected profile (name is displayed above “sign in†button).
Click ‘Doneâ€
Then Zumba starts and “Edit†should be available
Hope this helps
Comment
i have 2 say i LOVE zumba, after u learn the steps and give it your all u really get result and sweat ur butt off! yes the zumba on kinect can give u a hard time if your not to experienced with the kinect its self, but i am a zumba lover!
My husband and I have been playing zumba since Mother’s Day 2011, for 3 days. We have had some problems with the game, but it is still fun and a good workout. It is not glitchy it just requires specific tuning in order for the game to run well.
Cons:
~ Too wide of a spectrum for steps from instructor in game but game doesn’t have enough range to accurately read steps via sensor.
~ Doesn’t pick up two people while dancing unless there is 10-12 feet available and 3 foot distance between people.
~ If I vear too close to the edge of the screen, “sensor range” then it signs in a guest. You must have very good lighting “like full sun” in order to work right and follow you from place to place.
~ Can not go back to my sign-in without going to xbox dashbord and restarting the game.
~ You have to sign in before the game starts with everyone you want to play and stand very still so it recognizes you, then you have to wave with your right hand very fast right and left to sign in.
~ You have to wear form fitting clothes.
~ You have to have good lighting.
~ When you are in game you have to vigorusly do the steps otherwise you are not read, basically “jiggle / wiggle / dance” to the music while doing the dance moves.
~ The game instructions are vague and it is hard to understand where the movements are supposed to be.
~ If you are logged in as a guest you will not be able to use certain functions, if the game has logged you in as a guest it will not allow you to reset or delete guests. The only way to do it is to go to the xbox dashboard and re-sign in, then restart the game. Lame I know.
~ I live in a standard 1000 square foot apartment with a 14′ by 18′ living room and with the couch 3′ and the tv 2′ there is only 8 feet of usable space, but the sensor requires 10′ – 16′ for two players and this game requires 12′ at least. It is hard to come up with the space without moving furniture. I have to move the tv diagonaly in order to play, it is okay.
Pros:
~ Fun in game dance session.
~ Great work out.
~ Enjoyable for my husband and I to work out together.
~ Nice to get up and move to a workout that IS challenging.
~ Available whenever I want to or have the time to work out.
~ I feel the burn and have seen some results in so short a time. Several inches off of my body.
~ I have never sweat so much in my life, but it is a good thing to get out all of those impurities and burn calories.
For all of those people that have an issue with the game options being greyed out, I would suggest reading the back of the game. It states you need 10′-12′ of space, and an xbox gold membership. If you aren’t signed in then it will, sign you in as a gues and not allow you to participate in a calander or other functions of gold membership (basic). This game has a lot of issues, and I would suggest that it be given a patch to repair stated cons. It needs a lot of tweeking in order to work okay, not well.
I just bought myself an xbox 360 w/kinect and the zumba game for my bday. I’ve played it four or five days in the week I’ve had it. I love the fact that it’s fun, it’s motivating (when the sensor actually picks up the fact that you’re doing it right), and you can do it in the privacy of your living room. I run, bike, etc., pretty regularly and I haven’t sweat like this in a long time. Feels great! But….
I just noticed today that it’s been kicking me out and signing me in as a guest every now and again. The whole motivating part for me is seeing my progress/score under my username, but it didn’t record like half my workout every day! I literally have to pause it, sign in, and resume the game after every single level if I want to keep track of my score…which I do!
As far as a workout, it’s AWESOME! A 10, for sure.
As for a video game (well, I’ve never really played video games, much less bought a console. This one got good reviews and I’m using it for exercise as opposed to the gym. But if you buy video games to “beat” the games and the games aren’t recording your progress, isn’t that a fundamental failure?) I’d give it a 1.5, at best.
Sorry, zumba. I think your heart is in the right place….
Not to be disconnected by the game, you should have no traffic in the session.If you drink some water you should not go out of the zone of game. Your cat should not circulate in the environment or your spouse. The zone of game is really tightened. A red bar show at the screen if you go out of the zone of game and you will be disconnected by your xbox session.
It is not to defend the concept of the game, but to play the maximum with this game which is very bad setup for the kinect.
If this game would be create by Harmonix (Dance Central, RockBand) would be really good to play.
ok so i just got zumba and my xbox and when i had FINALLY step everything up it went through the safety instructions and everytime it goes black after that! HELP!!!!!!
i have bought this one, and its okay. it does work a sweat, but i can’t sign into the tutorials, or edit a profile. I also don’t do the xbox live thing, so i don’t have a membership,and wonder if that’s why i couldnt get the tutorials. As far as it sounds, i am not missing much with the tutorials. I work up a good sweat though.
Love it…was really excited to get the ZUMBA, thought I would try the party first, but no dice, I went through all the tutorials (worked up a sweat with that) it made it alot easier for me to do the workouts.. this was great and yes it does read other people but as soon as they left the area it went rght back to me…
got the game and when i turned it on it would only let me play single player it wont let me do the work outs or anything so can someone please tell me how to get it to work
I actually kinda like this game. I’m self conscious, so I hate the gym. I have to do it while the kids are napping and the dog is outside so it doesn’t kick me back. It tracks my movement, but isn’t perfect. But I don’t mind it as long as I feel like I’m actually working out. My only real issue with the game is that when I step away to get a drink of water and come back, it puts me in as a guest. I think that I have gotten up to 12 guests, so it’s not accurately tracking my progress. And I can’t figure out how to get it to go back to my profile without running out of very precious alone time. I really hope they come out with a better version soon.
At least your games open. I put my game in and close the tray and when it’s done saying reading it goes to open tray. It will not play AT ALL! Tried everything the Xbox people said to do but still no luck. After knocking the Xbox a few times while it’s reading the game will begin. I don’t have any trouble with the sign in. Will only let me do the first beginners class and everything else gets stuck on loading screen…
We have tried for 2 hours now to get the game to recongize us…..there are only two of us wanting to play and we now have 8 guest. This games sucks!
Hey, i am sad to see so many bad reveiws of the Zumba game. i have recently purchased it and am thouroughly enjoying it! the local gym zumba class has to be booked 2 weeks in advance because its so popular and i dont enjoy sweating so much infront of others so the idea of dancing in my own home is ideal for me. the kinect is very accurate at reading my body movement and the moves are so fun and funky. ive never danced in my life but the begginer mode is easy enough to follow i even find myself humming the songs while im at work and wanting to dance along
The menu layout is weird, but the other games i got for kinect are equally awkward to navigate, i think its just one of the things you have to get used to with a new game system. All in all i would recomend this to anyone who likes music and wants to break a sweat without getting embarassed.
There are many varieties of Zumba dance fitness really. Obviously I was interested in the subject investigations. Thank you for your article and comments…
I have just recently just bought kinect Zumba fitness and have found some trouble, I can only play single routine or multiplayer rountine game. I want to try the other option but it doesn’t let me get in. Can somebody help me out?
I have the same problem pretty much every time I play which is almost daily. I normally have to go to sign in then sign out and resign myself in again. If that doesn’t work I go to the first option – sorry can’t think of it now but not kinect tuner the first option and have to use the controller to check Internet connection. This normally signs you out and when I go back to Zumba to sign back in it works. It’s a real pain and has sometimes taken me a half hour to begin. I came here hoping for a better solution.
i played last week, but now i cannot get it to start. the done option is greyed out!!! aaarrggghh