'Ring Fit Adventure' on Nintendo Switch will make you sweat

There I was, laying down on a carpeted floor with a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con strapped to my left thigh.

I was in a plank position, face down, ass up, moving my hips up and down alongside a very nice gaming guide who was doing the moves along with me. The Joy-Con on my leg was tracking my movement, and each rep was translated into an attack on a tiny monster that was blocking my path on the screen I currently couldn't see. After I defeated the monster with pure exercise power, I grabbed the Ring-Con, stood up, and got back to jogging in place.

This is Ring Fit Adventure, Nintendo's upcoming Switch game that turns exercise into an RPG adventure.

Using the Switch's Joy-Con controllers and new peripherals — a leg strap and a Ring-Con — players' movements are translated into gameplay. To move forward, you have to hold the Ring-Con in front of you and jog in place. To jump, you face the Ring-Con downward and squeeze it to propel your character vertically with a blast of air. To fight enemies, you have to execute various exercises like squats for your quads, overhead flies that work your shoulders, or planks to target those abs.

I played Ring Fit Adventure at a preview event for about 45 minutes and I worked up a bit of a sweat playing in jeans and a T-shirt. More importantly, though, I had fun.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

First, let's talk about the peripherals that are required for Ring Fit Adventure. The leg strap is pretty straight forward and can be adjusted very easily because it uses velcro. After getting it to the correct tightness, it stayed right in place no matter what I did.

The Ring-Con is the most interesting aspect of Ring Fit Adventure. It's a plastic hoop with soft grips on the sides and fits a Joy-Con at the top of it to connect it to the game. It's flexible, but not super flexible. Squeezing it and pulling on it is not exactly easy, but it's not so difficult that things like jumping are a big strain.

But this is completely subjective. I am an able-bodied person who works out pretty frequently.

Still, I was surprised how much this game got my blood pumping. Between jogging in place and the battles, my heart rate (measured with the Joy-Con's infrared sensor in the Ring-Con) was up near 130 beats per minute toward the end of my session.

The game itself is a colorful, fun adventure. I didn't get a full grasp on the story in my short time with the game but I do know that the villain is a bodybuilding dragon named Dragaux who I was told is the embodiment of bad gym etiquette, and he needs to be stopped. It's some great, classic Nintendo humor.

Along with the story mode, there are two other modes: a mode for competitive minigames where you can try to beat high scores involving some exercises, and a mode where you can just set up some custom workouts. Both were great ways to utilize the Ring-Con in different ways, and I could see them as a fun way to get a little exercise in at home.

Of course, you need a bit of space to play at home. Unfortunately, my apartment's living room is roughly six feet wide, and there's only a couple feet between my couch and TV, so I can't play Ring Fit Adventure where I normally keep my Switch hooked up. That's a bummer.

Ring Fit Adventure comes out Oct. 18.