Game Sporz Wireless TV Boxing

Thanks to a spontaneous early-birthday-present buying decision, I am now the proud owner of a Game Sporz Wireless TV Boxing game. I have used the product several times now over the course of a few days and so I feel qualified to give it a fair and accurate review.

The system plugs straight into your TV. You control your boxer by gripping 2 infra-red controllers wrapped inside cheap plastic ‘boxing gloves’. Your boxer knows whether you punch with your left or right hand. But it doesn’t seem to discern what type of punch you throw (jab, hook, uppercut etc). However it does increase the fun and exercise factor if you ‘mix-it-up’ regardless. There is a small button on each controller which you press to block. That’s basically it – you can punch and block.
Overall verdict

• It is fun to play in short bursts, but the game play is VERY limited.
• It provides a decent upper body and cardiovascular workout, so long as you exert an authentic amount of effort.
• Therefore, I would recommended this product for those looking for an alternate style of workout as part of an otherwise good exercise program, with just a little audio/visual fun thrown in as a bonus.

Pros

• It’ll give you a decent workout. My heart rate got up to a decent rate, probably equivalent to a steady jog. My arms and shoulders and back were quite tender for 2days after my first few games.
• Lost in translation. Although not an intended selling point for this product, the instruction manual and product packaging contain some mildly entertaining Chinese/English translation issues such as:

“Battery got polarity and the children may can not recognize it.”
“It happened that some children play the similar Cables and cause serious damage.”

• There are 23 additional games built into the system that use the included hand held controller. These are all very basic tetris or space invader style games. Some of these are 2-player games.
• It may be possible to increase the intensity of the workout by replacing the cheap boxing gloves with heavier gloves.

Cons

• Limited game play. You can only choose between 2 opponents with no variations in skill level.
• Your computerized self seems to randomly choose what you type of punch you throw.
• I find it relatively easy to KO my opponents before the end of the 4th round. Given that each round is 90sec, that’s not an awful lot of game time.
• This is a cheap product: The gloves seem like they will easily fall apart if treated roughly (by kids), occasionally the game play will freeze requiring a reboot, the sound often cuts out for a few seconds and the graphics are equivalent to somewhere between Atari2600 and (original) Nintendo gaming systems.

I’ll leave you with a sample of the descriptions given for each of the “Deluxe 23 Games play!” Classic…