Ring Fit Adventure
Table of Contents
Since moving to Portugal, and living in a shared situation with the in-laws, being a small town boy in a city environment, working remotely… I have certainly become more unhealthy than I ever was in my 20s. Not with diet so much, but definitely with physical movement.
The remote work body
It hasn’t gotten to the point where I’ve gained weight. But I can feel it some nights. Lumbar, shoulders. The consequences of crappy posture and horrible ergonomics stacking up quietly. Sitting in front of a screen all day and then sitting in front of a different screen all evening doesn’t do your spine any favors.
I’ve also walked my entire life. Back in Sweden that was just how you got around. But here, because Margarida goes shopping with her mom, I just tend not to have the incentive to get out and hit my 4-6000 daily steps anymore. The walks that used to be built into my routine simply disappeared.
Enter Ring Fit
Margarida was about to get a gift from me. I had bought the Nintendo Switch for her and my first instinct was another game, but I wanted it to align more with her recent ambitions. She already works out like a monster, five or more times a week. So Ring Fit Adventure felt like the move. This way we could connect around something physical together and I could actually play with her instead of just watching.
What I didn’t expect was how much I’d end up playing it on my own.
How it works
The game comes with a Ring-Con (a flexible resistance ring) and a leg strap, both housing Joy-Con controllers that track your movements. You strap in and run through a full RPG adventure where exercises ARE your attacks.
The story is absurd in the best way. You team up with a sentient Pilates ring to defeat Dragaux, a bodybuilding dragon with an ego the size of his biceps, across 20+ worlds and over 100 levels. It’s goofy. It knows it’s goofy. That’s fine.
Combat is turn-based. When enemies show up, you attack by performing exercises. Squats, overhead presses, knee-to-chests, yoga poses, bow pulls, planks. Each exercise is color-coded: red for arms, blue for legs, yellow for core, green for yoga. Enemies are color-coded too, so matching your exercise to the enemy type deals extra damage. It’s a simple system that forces you to diversify your workout whether you want to or not.
When enemies attack back, you defend by pressing the Ring-Con into your abs and holding. Sounds easy. It isn’t after 20 minutes.
The workouts that actually hurt
The game tracks “active time” separately from total play time, so it knows exactly how long you’ve been exercising versus navigating menus or watching cutscenes. A 15-20 minute active session can take close to an hour of total play time, and you WILL be sweating by the end.
The ab exercises are brutal. Anything that involves sustained Ring-Con presses will have your core burning. Planks and mountain climbers are rough. But the real killers are the tree poses. Balancing on one leg while pushing and pulling the Ring-Con sounds simple until you’re ten reps deep and your standing leg is shaking.
The difficulty goes from 1 to 30. Higher difficulty means more reps per exercise and tougher enemies, so battles take longer and you work harder. It scales well. What felt challenging at difficulty 15 becomes your warm-up at 22.
There’s also a quiet mode that replaces running in place with squats, which is a nice touch when your in-laws are in the room below.
Not a miracle worker
I’m not going to pretend this replaces a gym or proper strength training. It doesn’t. But what surprised me is just how well the gamification works. The leveling system, the smoothie crafting, the gear upgrades, the feeling of clearing a world boss after a tough session. It triggers the same part of my brain that any good RPG does, except I’m actually moving.
The convenience factor is huge. No commute, no membership, no scheduling. Just grab the Ring-Con and play for 20 minutes. For someone who has been steadily declining in physical activity for years, removing every possible excuse has been more effective than any amount of guilt or good intentions ever was.
Staying with it
I like it. I hope to stick with it. The goal is to finish the entire adventure on the hardest difficulty. Stay tuned for that.
It’s not going to turn me into an athlete, but it gets me moving on days I otherwise wouldn’t, and it does it in a way that doesn’t feel like a chore. For a game about fighting a dragon by doing squats, that’s more than enough.