Accessibility Review: Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition has just arrived on Nintendo Switch 2, and thanks to Nintendo Europe via CDMedia, both Alina and I had the opportunity to spend some time with the game. This is our first Fitness Boxing game, so we didn’t really know what to expect, but after several workout sessions and more than a few burned calories, we’re really glad we got the chance to experience the series for the first time and to write this review for you.
Fitness Boxing 3 is exactly what its name suggests: a fitness game built around boxing-inspired workouts. Guided by virtual trainers, we throw jabs, hooks, uppercuts and other combinations while exercising to an energetic soundtrack that keeps us moving and active. Whether we want a quick daily workout or a longer session, the game does a really good job of making exercise feel organic, natural, entertaining, and meaningful.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition introduces several welcome additions over the original release. CameraPlay lets us use the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera to track our body movements during supported exercises. Advanced Scoring analyses our punches in greater detail and gives us more accurate feedback on our technique, while the new Boost Up Mode increases the intensity for anyone looking for a more demanding workout. Combined with improved visuals and smoother performance, this is surely the best way to experience Fitness Boxing 3.
The game also includes several virtual trainers to choose from, daily workout plans, instructor customization and plenty of upbeat music that keeps us sweating throughout every session. Everything comes together to create an experience that’s engaging, challenging and rewarding.
From an accessibility perspective, Fitness Boxing 3 really impressed us.
Although the game doesn’t include built-in text-to-speech for navigating the menus, that’s really the only thing preventing it from being fully accessible.
Let me guide you through the entire process. Before we can create our profile, the game walks us through a short interactive tutorial that teaches the basic punches and controls. Advancing through the tutorial is simple, requiring us to press either the A button or the L and R buttons together. During gameplay, it’s important to keep our thumbs resting on those buttons, as they naturally help us form the correct grip around each Joy-Con while boxing. And one important piece of advice: always wear the wrist straps. Once the workout begins, we’ll be throwing plenty of punches, and the straps are there for a very good reason.
After completing the tutorial, we’re asked to create our profile by entering our age, height and weight so the game can properly calibrate each workout and to be able to give us accurate information about calories burned. We have used our Apple Watches during the sessions, and the game gave us 90% of the calories that the Apple Watch said that we had burned. That’s a good thing considering the Apple Watch has direct access to our heartbeat and other metrics.
This profile setup is only required once and can easily be completed using optical character recognition or with assistance from a friend or family member. In my case, Alina simply read everything displayed on the screen while I entered all the values myself using the controller.
Once that’s done, navigating the menus becomes much easier. The interface is built around large, clearly organized tiles that always stay in the same position. On the main screen we have options such as Daily Workout, Free Training, Instructor, 2-Player, Basic Training, My Data, Network, Customize and Settings. The Free Training tab follows exactly the same design, presenting large tiles for Exercise, Sit Fit Boxing, Mitt Drills, Boost Up, Tai Chi, Stretch and My Programs. After only a few sessions, the layout becomes easy to memorize, and if we ever need to check something new, optical character recognition can quickly read the menu text and get us back on track.
Once the workout begins, however, the game becomes almost entirely accessible.
Every exercise is explained through clear spoken instructions from our trainer, so we always know exactly what to do next. Even though the user interface relies on visual prompts, those prompts are also communicated through the HD Rumble in the Joy-Con controllers. Whenever it’s time to throw a punch with the left hand, the left Joy-Con vibrates. When it’s time to use the right hand, the right Joy-Con responds instead. These tactile cues make it easy to follow every combination without relying on sight, and after only a short time they become completely natural.
Not every activity in Fitness Boxing 3 revolves around boxing. Some training modes, such as Tai Chi and Stretch, focus on more traditional fitness exercises and don’t provide the same rhythmic tactile cues that the boxing workouts do. In those cases, we really need to pay close attention to the trainer’s verbal instructions, as they become our primary source of guidance. Even so, I never found this to be a problem, as the instructions are clear and easy to follow. Personally, I found myself returning to the Daily Workout and the various boxing exercises the most. Those are not only my favourite activities in the game, but they’re also the ones where the combination of spoken guidance and HD Rumble creates the most accessible and enjoyable experience.
We also have a large number of gameplay modifiers that can be enabled or disabled depending on our needs. For example, the game can automatically award points for certain movements if we’re exercising while seated or if we’re unable to duck or perform some of the faster physical actions.
This means we’re not penalized for physical limitations, making the workouts far more inclusive. It’s another excellent example of how accessibility has been considered throughout the development process, allowing more people to enjoy the game regardless of their abilities.
The game offers a lot of visual customization opportunities, which I am not interested in, but I am interested in the multiple music tracks that we can do our workouts on. A few of them are unlocked by default, and others can be purchased with currency that we earn in game by completing workouts
Both Alina and I have spent quite a bit of time with Fitness Boxing 3 over the past few days, and we’ve definitely burned a lot of calories together. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to buy the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera and an extra pair of Joy-Con controllers so we could continue working out together. Alina especially loves the CameraPlay feature because it lets us double-check our stance during workouts and make sure we’re performing each movement correctly. We just have to leave enough space between us, otherwise I might accidentally land a punch on Alina instead of following the trainer!
This is a fantastic game that’s sure to help us keep in shape while allowing us to have fun at the same time. That’s probably what surprised me the most. We weren’t just exercising, we were laughing, encouraging each other and looking forward to the next session. If a fitness game can make us want to come back every day, I think it’s doing something really right.
I would rate Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition as 99% accessible and 100% playable for blind gamers.
Adding text-to-speech for the menus would make it perfect, but the excellent spoken guidance, the smart implementation of HD Rumble, the thoughtful accessibility options and the overall universal gameplay design make this one of the most accessible fitness games I’ve ever experienced.
Finally, I’d like to congratulate the development team on creating such an excellent example of universal design. From the spoken coaching and tactile feedback to the flexible gameplay modifiers that accommodate different physical abilities, it’s clear that accessibility wasn’t treated as an afterthought.
There’s still one small improvement I’d love to see in the future, with full Menu Narration, but Fitness Boxing 3 already demonstrates how thoughtful design can make a game enjoyable for a much wider audience. I sincerely hope more developers follow this example.
Review copy provided by Nintendo Europe via CDMedia.
Victor Dima
