The raging success of Nintendo's Wii Fit has seen a clamouring of companies quickly look to jump on the same gravy train, and mix the generally exercise-free activity of computing with software and games to persuade us to get off our backsides and do something about it.

Focus Multimedia's PC Fitness is certainly one of the cheapest, too, damaging your pocket by less than a tenner and promising help with 500 exercises. “It's the fun way to get fitter”, it gleefully proclaims.

It's also a very Americanised way to do so. When the program loads, your polygon-based personal trainer - Maya - speaks with a rasping American accent as she asks you to input your key details. So you go through the motions: what's your name, when were you born, what fitness equipment do you own, what's your pulse, how much do you weigh, that kind of thing.

While you might not find the US accent grating (and when she yells “Move your body” at you, we defy even the most mild-tempered person not to jump), you would reasonably expect to be able to input your weight in a traditional British way, rather than a three-figure pounds estimate.

To be fair, once you've done the fitness evaluation and decided where you target your work (for instance, towards a specific weight), then the program will generate a fitness programme and calendar of exercises for you to tackle. It's sensible in asking how much time each day you can spare and it also offers to come up with a calorie-targeted diet.

It does, sadly, choose to lecture you quite a bit, but you can't argue with the job it does. There's a healthy range of exercises, including yoga, pilates and cardio work, and the programme it generated for us was surprisingly wide-ranging. Clear instructions are given and there's always the disclaimer about getting expert advice, too. The software does rely a lot on you being near your computer, but its low system requirements make PC Fitness laptop-friendly.

Maya, though, is a bit of a problem, and we couldn't find an option to get her to shut the hell up. “Be here again on Sunday”, she ordered us. “We're going down the pub if you're here”, we were tempted to counter. If you can put up with being virtually nagged and barked at, though, then a tenner is an entirely fair asking price for a useful piece of software. Now you just need to get off your backside and do what it tells you to do.

That's where we, er, struggled a bit...

Verdict
You get a lot of ideas for your money, and you get henpecked by a virtual American into the bargain, too. If you can put up with the nagging, there's some useful fitness information here.

Company: Focus Multimedia

Contact: 01889 570156

Tags: wii fit physical exercise nintendo personal trainer united states exercise equipment fitness health