She (you can choose the gender of your trainer at the outset) gives plenty of feedback, and the motion controls were almost always perfect. I was shown and told exactly what the proper motion and hand placement was for every activity (thanks to a very sleek picture-in-picture video feature). If I messed anything up, trainer girl immediately gave me advice. At one point, I was making a fool of myself with my lateral rows – and instead of blithely ignoring my incorrect hand placement; my trainer explained exactly what position my hands (and hence my Wii-mote) needed to be in. It’s simple, sophisticated and thoroughly effective.

In fact, the entire presentation is absolutely gorgeous. Unlike another infamous title in the genre (now I’m talking to you, Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum), the graphics are clean and crisp, the music is energetic (and customizable), the audio cues are always spot-on and the constant feedback was thoroughly engaging. Unlike Ms. Michaels’ abomination on a Wii Disc, I was interested and challenged the whole time.

Speaking of challenge – I was expecting a complete cakewalk. I’m a total gym rat and fitness nut, so I was ready for a little soccer mom delight. Not so – the highest intensity level provided me with a very nice workout. I was particularly impressed by the handling of squats and running, two activities that get very boring, very quickly in this kind of setting. Running is done on a track, and the routine changes to include high knees and “butt kicks”. Squats are done as sort of an inline skating simulation – you squat to speed up and jump (physically and in-game) to clear ramps.

Throughout everything you do in the game, your progress (in terms of calories burned and overall time spent in workouts) is tracked, and you’re showered with medals for every achievement. That’s good design – and as any good trainer will tell you, essential to keep folks on the wagon. Working out is like an RPG – you have to grind to get results, but when you do, you feel pretty badass.

Sure, you had something similar, Wii Fit, but instead of focusing on BMI (which isn’t terribly accurate given just a weight and height calculation, by the way), the emphasis here is on rewarding progress, with no negative weigh-ins that could discourage beginners. If I had one issue with Personal Trainer, it was the occasional controller misfire. Generally, everything was incredibly intuitive, especially once I got the hang of the various activities (a few, like the baseball and inline skating, do require very particular timing), though I had a few hiccups along the way. It’s nothing major, and not worth changing my feelings on the game – but they do exist.

My friend, you’d best heed my words: the bar has been raised by a considerable margin. Whether you’ll be content to sit on your laurels and reap the rewards of being the first remains to be seen, but you’d better not ignore the ambitious runner in the first lane here. This is the best videogame workout on the planet – and it makes you look a little flabby in comparison.