The gameplay involves using the Joy-Con motion controllers to perform punches and dodging maneuvers. The workouts recommend a full body stretching exercise both at the start and end of the workouts. The difficulty and complexity of the workouts increase gradually over time. Free exercises are always available, regardless of if daily workout has been completed or not. The score for each exercise is determined by how precise the player is in performing their punches and maneuvers. Fitness Boxing comes with charts that determines estimated fitness age and calorie burn based on the height and weight of the player. The game will periodically request the player to update their height and weight. The routine, length and intensity of daily workouts can be adjusted by the player at any time. The default coach is Lin, and there is a total of 5 other coaches, each with customizable appearances. New costumes can be unlocked by performing achievements. The coaches demonstrate every maneuver involved in each exercise, making them a visual guide for maintaining rhythm. They also provide the players tips both during and outside of the exercises.
Playlist
Fitness Boxing contains a playlist of instrumental versions of popular pop songs that is played with each workout exercise.
Fitness Boxing was first announced by Imagineer on June 14, 2018. In late-September 2018, Imagineer revealed the release date of Fitness Boxing for Japan and in early-October 2018, Nintendo revealed the release date of Fitness Boxing for North America and Europe as well as screenshots of game play. In late-October 2018, Imagineer revealed the track listing for Fitness Boxing and uploaded the first game play video of Fitness Boxing to their YouTube Channel.
Release and promotion
On November 29, 2018, a Fitness Boxing demo was released on the European Nintendo eShop for the Switch and a demo was released on the North American eShop on December 13, 2018. Fitness Boxing was released both digitally and physically on December 20, 2018 in Japan, December 21, 2018 in Europe and Australia and January 4, 2019 in North America. On January 15, 2019, Nintendo held a promotional event for Fitness Boxing at Nintendo New York, which included a group of women led by Instagram fitness influencer Niki Klasnic playing the game.
Reception
Fitness Boxing received "mixed or average" reviews from critics according to Metacritic with a current Metascore of 66/100. Nintendo Life gave Fitness Boxing a 8/10; calling it "no substitute for hard hours at the gym", but still recommended the game as a workout regimen for being energetic, entertaining, and cheaper than a gym membership. Nintendo World Report gave Fitness Boxing a 7.5/10; praising it for having multiple exercises for various skill levels, but criticized the limited number of musical tracks. Nintendo Wire gave Fitness Boxing a 7.0/10, praising it for having a "decent selection of punches to throw" and for allowing the user to track their progress day-to-day, but criticized the game for its "lack of variety" and for having "repetitive music and trainer dialog". DualShockers gave Fitness Boxing a 6.5/10, saying that the game "just suffers from feeling inaccurate, even more so when punches and dodges aren’t correctly registered by the Joy-Cons", but praised the game for being "perfect for those who want to lead a healthy and active lifestyle". Destructoid gave Fitness Boxing a 7/10, saying that "There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun." Reno Gazette-Journal gave Fitness Boxing a 6/10, saying that "Fitness Boxing works great as a fitness app but not so much as a game."
Sales
From January 7, 2019 to January 13, Fitness Boxing placed 20th on Japanese sales charts, selling 3,024 physical copies during that period. In February 2019, Fitness Boxing started experiencing shortages in Japan. In April 2019, Imagineer announced in a press release that the game had shipped 300,000 copies worldwide, including both physical and digital releases. In December 2019, Imagineer announced that Fitness Boxing had shifted 500,000 copies worldwide.
