Thank you XSeed games for sending us a review code!

Ever since the pandemic closed gyms for an extended period of time, I’ve gravitated towards exercise games on my Switch to stay healthy indoors. Fitness Boxing and Ring Fit Adventure were great Nintendo-published games that helped last year, but I’ve also tried a few more to mixed results. I recently picked up Knockout Home Fitness in hopes to add something fresh to my exer-gaming rotation, and while it’s lacking to its competition, there are a few things here to like if you want a few minutes of daily physical activity.

Knockout Home Fitness is a game that’s more of an interactive exercise video; the recommended gameplay loop consists of a daily mode of 10, 20, or 30 minutes of exercise (the latter which is unlocked through continued play). This mode will consist of several routines, which will last around 3 to 5 minutes each. As a single-player game, players will use two Joy-Con to follow the on-screen instructor as he or she shows which moves one mimics to score points. By doing these moves at the right time, players will earn points which will be totaled at the end with a maximum score of 100.

Those familiar with Fitness Boxing will notice jabs, cross punches, hooks, and uppercuts. However, Knockout Home Fitness goes one step further and includes moves from disciplines other than Boxing, such as Muay Thai. As such, there are things like forearm blocks, elbow punches and even lunges in addition to basic boxing moves. I thought this was a great addition to the regular moveset, and I appreciate the move diversity of the routines.

That said, the game has trouble registering some moves; I had trouble when executing forearm and rising blocks, as the motion sensors would register a move too early or too late, causing my score to decrease. In addition, moves that don’t use the Joy-Con (such as guarding or kicking) aren’t registered at all. I didn’t realize this point until a few days of playing, but I guess it’s better than nothing, though it pales in comparison to Ring Fit Adventure’s tracking. It doesn’t help that you only get a rudimentary tutorial in the beginning and a reference guide for the rest of the moves; it would have been a better option to have group tutorials of all the moves in a specific discipline. While I ended up learning the moves through repetition, the first few times caused some personal confusion since I didn’t know what I was supposed to do for some actions.

I loved the presentation of the game, as the interface is clear and slick, with big hit markers for timing actions. As it’s a solo experience, the game utilizes its screen elements well, and it looks nice whether docked or undocked. However, there are only a few options you can customize, with only four coaches available (all but one being locked in the beginning). They’re encouraging and will help you mirror their movements, but the whole thing feels like it’s missing something. You can’t change out of their default outfits, and there are only a handful of background stages you can choose. It’s strictly an exercise program rather than a gaming experience.

Unfortunately, the “exercise program” part of Knockout Home Fitness is a mixed bag too. The game emphasizes short daily workouts, which is great if you don’t have time to commit to a full workout plan. You can also skip warmups every day if you're pressed for time! Each routine is only a few minutes long, which means you won’t be doing the same actions each day, but therein lies the flaw as well; there isn’t enough here for those wanting more than 30-minute sessions.

While you can pick extra routines via another mode, the daily workout is locked after playing it once a day. Unlike Fitness Boxing, Knockout Home Fitness’s “select a routine” mode doesn’t allow you to queue up a playlist, and unlocking different courses uses a drip-fed method. You can’t power through and marathon unlocking everything, but rather can only get new routines by playing the daily exercise mode. This means that you won’t be able to experience everything Knockout Home Fitness has for a month or two of nonstop playing. Not an inherently bad thing, but because the later routines are much more fun with harder actions, I wish there was a way to unlock routines faster if I plan on exercising more in a given day.

If there’s one thing that Knockout Home Fitness does better than the competition however, it’s the family-friendly cleanliness of the experience. All the trainers are dressed in appropriate sports clothing with nothing that could be suggestive. Other than some of the moves taken from disciplines like Muay Thai (sports violence is present but not used against anyone in-game), there isn’t any other moral content to speak of.

Knockout Home Fitness isn’t the first choice in exercise games for the Switch, but it’s a reasonably fair one at $39.99. Try this one out if you want something to spend 10-30 minutes daily with fun workout routines that are given to you slowly.