Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 is a low-budget, celebrity endorsed fitness game based on a trainer (Jillian Michaels, if you haven’t gotten that bit yet) who makes a living yelling at obese people on a TV show. As such, it’s aimed squarely at a specific demographic – one that thinks Gears of War 2 is a 1980s action movie, and Braid is something you do to your daughter’s hair before her soccer practice. You get the idea – this is by no means a “gamer’s game” and it strains to make the definition of “game” in general. It’s really more of a fitness tool – a fitness tool with an unholy dose of The Biggest Loser mixed in.

In fact, the whole affair was probably spawned one night when Michaels called up her agent after she heard of Wii Fit’s phenomenal sales and saw her first video of a happy soccer mom doing video Yoga. Sure, Ultimatum has a few things in common with Nintendo’s cash cow, but it’s quite different in its execution.

While Wii Fit was colorful and fun and had very little to do with actually working out (aside from perhaps the Yoga exercises), Ultimatum is the opposite: it’s kind of ugly, and not always very fun, but you’ll actually burn calories if you play correctly.

I approached the game with tempered expectations - as a gamer and self-confessed fitness freak , I’ve been burned before. It opens up with a video introduction by Michaels herself, followed by the chance to create an ugly character. Then it’s off to “camp” where you navigate a menu between the actual exercise area and other buildings in which Jillian offers tips (for lifestyle, nutrition, etc.). But these tips don’t come free, kids, oh no – you have to work for them.

Here lies the meat of the game – the actual training component. You select your type of workout – weight loss, strength training and so on, and then choose your time from 5-60 minutes, and your preferred intensity – light, medium, or hard. Then, you’re off and running – literally. Jillian starts yelling in your ear as you jog in place – fast – and your character runs down the world’s most boring path. Seriously – running laps on a track offers more of an interesting experience, but I digress. Once you’re done with that, Jillian takes you through a series of other activities (and more running – yay!), some of which are much cooler and better implemented than others. There’s boxing, kayaking, monkey bars, a weird squatting and aiming minigame, and about 12 others. You can also choose to create a custom workout with exercises that you like, and every little bit of progress (from calories burned to the duration of any given activity) is tracked.