Quell Hero is a new fitness-focused platform game from award-winning industrial design and innovation studio Morrama, and it immediately draws comparisons to the excellent Ring Fit Adventure on Nintendo Switch.
However, it's already clear to me that Quell Hero won't topple Nintendo's title to become the next big hit in fitness gaming.
Available to pre-order for a fairly reasonable $219 (approximately $160 / AU$305), Quell Hero promises to deliver a gym-quality home fitness experience and uses the same principle as Ring.Fit Adventure to help users stay fit: interactive and gamification software that makes training more fun.
Dubbed "the world's first dedicated fitness gaming system," the Quell Hero uses two motion-sensing controllers that look like a cross between the Quest 2 Touch controllers and the Wii Nunchuk, and a smaller sensor to track your movements when you hit. the air. jump and run on the spot.
Where the Quell Hero sets itself apart from other fitness gaming products is its resistance bands that make the air strike more intense. Attached to a belt, you can adjust the resistance level to make each hook even more tiring. The belt also has haptic feedback, which should mean you feel every hit from enemies on screen. You can check out a trailer for Quell 2 below.
Punch
So who is going to buy the Quell Hero? Honestly, I'd be surprised if someone chooses this device over the Ring Fit Adventure for a variety of reasons.
For starters, the price already seems like a sticking point. Yes, $219 is cheaper than buying a Nintendo Switch and Ring Fit Adventure, which will probably set you back around $379. But a $150 saving isn't exactly impressive, especially when you can often get a Switch and Ring Fit Adventure. Fit for less on Black Friday.
You also get a lot more bang for your buck if you choose the Nintendo system over the Quell Hero. Not only will you be able to play Ring Fit Adventure, which I'm 100% sure is a better game overall than the high-contrast title Quell Hero, but you'll have access to all the other games that have contributed to the success of the switch.
The Quell Hero also seems extremely limited when it comes to training. Unlike Ring Fit Adventure, which has countless different types of exercise, mini-games to pick up and play, and some clever tech like using the infrared sensor on the right Joy-Con to track your heart rate, boxercise isn't exactly the most exciting amount of exercise you can do. There's also no guarantee that Quell Hero's motion tracking will be up to scratch, which would ruin the entire experience.
It's also worth noting that we've been flying furiously since Wii Sports back in 2006, so the addition of resistance bands isn't exactly a groundbreaking innovation. I spent a few weeks playing Wii Tennis with heavy bracelets back then, which I found to be much more appealing to play than pointless boxing.
And that's probably my biggest concern with Quell Hero. I don't know how interesting it will be to hit the same on-screen enemies after the first few sessions of play, and running on location and jumping through the air is barely enough to mix things up.
If the software isn't well designed and drilling doesn't have any weight or feel, why shell out $200+ to do something you could do for free? Or better yet, play on Nintendo Switch? There are plenty of boxing games out there, each of which uses the Joy-Con controllers' reliable motion tracking.
appease your surprise
The Quell Hero might seem like an ambitious product if you read the marketing spiel behind it, but it's actually incredibly conservative. There's no reason to choose this over Ring Fit Adventure, Quest 2, or even Wii Fit. Nintendo's top fitness games and VR games do a fantastic job of keeping you engaged and playing, which is essential if you want exercise to be fun. Nintendo and Meta's hardware isn't just designed around fitness games, which means the value proposition goes way beyond what Quell Hero could ever hope to achieve.
While I may not have been successful in starting my own Ring Fit Adventure diet, the Quell Hero has already passed the first hurdle: there is no way I am going to buy this product. In fact, I'm much more interested in working hard while playing Beat Saber in VR.
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