I have cat like reflexes. Was I born with these? Absolutely not. I’ve developed them purely to survive. Why? Because I have a VERY active toddler. Kids (especially babies) throw and drop stuff. All. The. Time. Over the past few years my ability to catch random things while seeing them start to drop out of the corner of my eye has gotten significantly better. So, when I was recently looking at VR games that I could play while simultaneously getting a workout in I thought Rescuties might be the perfect one for me. Spend some time catching babies and cute animals? Uh, yes please. I mean, I’m 7 months pregnant with number two so it’s probably time I start further honing my catching skills since I’m going to have another baby dropping and throwing things soon. I need to work on being as BA as this mom. No pressure…..
Preparation
To get ready for my Recuties sesh I donned my best maternity workout clothes my running shoes. I put on my faithful Apple watch to do the work of tracking my stats and used “other” since I didn’t quite know what category “catching falling babies” would fall into. When I first got into the game I selected “Free Play” and then “Bouncing Babies”. I also chose the highest difficulty in order to see how intense I could get my workout.
Intensity – 5/10
- Workout duration: 30 minutes
- Calories burned: 184 active / 254 total
- Average heart rate: 105 BPM
- Max heart rate: 114 BPM
Arms – 6/10
You’re consistently catching and throwing in this game. It is a pretty repetitive motion and you’re forced to use both hands to catch/throw once they really start tossing the babies and animals at you. However, there just isn’t much variety to how you’re moving your arms. I found myself reaching up or down and then throwing, but there aren’t really punching or pumping movements which would have added a bit more variety to the movement.
Legs – 2/10
The game doesn’t force you to move your lower body much. You move a little side to side or forward/backward, but I didn’t change my position much. The exception to this was when I found myself in what I’d refer to as “giant mode”. I was almost as big as the building while everything else stayed the same. For the few minutes I played the game like this I was forced to bend or squat down to throw the babies and animals into the ambulances. I had played around with the game a bit and only came across this two times. If they forced you into that mode more often it would definitely bring more attention to your lower body.
Core and Balance 5/10
I would say core and balance workout was average. While I found myself alternating between throwing to the left and right, I didn’t feel like it was really working my core, I was just changing positions. You are forced to look up while babies are being thrown at you which did challenge balance slightly, but I found this to be more of a pain in my neck (literally) than anything else.
Time Perception 8/10
Time dilation was awesome. You progress to different levels every 5 minutes(ish) so I didn’t find myself very bored. There was also a variety to what and how objects were being thrown at me and how I had to get them into the ambulance which really helped. I was very surprised when I stopped to realize I had been in there 30 minutes.
Replayability 9/10
Rescuties is definitely a game you can play over and over. I was in there for around an hour between the two sessions I played it and I barely scratched the surface. There are multiple other scenarios you can play in beyond catching babies and animals from a burning building. I can guarantee I’ll be exploring the other play environments. There’s one where you catch the babies being thrown from a hot air balloon basket that is falling apart mid-air and you have to throw the babies to a safety helicopter as well as throw the flailing passengers parachutes!
Fitness Scalability 4/10
In Rescuties the fitness scalability is focused on the level that the player chooses in the experience. I chose the highest level and I didn’t feel like I could get much harder of a workout than I did. You’d have to really force yourself to make dramatic movements and maybe add in some spin moves to take it to the next level.
Lack of Nausea 7/10
I spend a decent amount of time in VR and didn’t feel too nauseated. However, on a few occasions I found it a bit disorienting trying to figure out where the babies were being thrown from and they would suddenly fly up at me. If someone isn’t used to being in VR I could see this possibly causing a little bit of nausea, but I think it would be very minimal.
Social Competition
Right now there isn’t a multiplayer option in Rescuties, but there should be. It would be fun to save babies and animals WITH someone else! They do keep you motivated in that you can see your score while playing, but I was looking around so much searching for the next flying baby that I wasn’t paying too much attention to the scoreboard. I was too busy uh… saving lives.
VRFI Fit Score 6/10
The Good
- Fun and entertaining
- Variety of experiences and levels to play
- Enough movement and action to get the heart pumping
The Bad
- Minimal variety in arm movements
- Breaks in the action as you move to the next level
- Leg workout capability is pretty minimal
Overall I had a lot of fun playing Rescuties and will be playing more. I found myself laughing out loud (I could hear my coworkers laughing as well) as babies and animals bounced off my hands. I wouldn’t consider this the best workout I have ever had in VR, but if you’re looking for something little more entertaining to just get the heart rate up a bit while having fun, this is a game for you.
