Zumba Fitness Core Interview
Sean Gibson / Oct 25th, 2012 No Comments
Zumba Fitness Core Interview
Zumba Fitness Core is currently available on Wii and Xbox 360 (Kinect) and touts itself as the first and only video game designed to sculpt your abs. Zumba Fitness Core is packed with 40 new songs and routines with 33 international dance styles. It also comes with fitness goals, nutrition tips and what it claims to be the hottest choreography that targets your entire body. A playable Kinect for Xbox 360 demo is available for download at the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Gaming Illustrated spoke with Andrea Rodriguez, the Associate Producer of the Zumba Fitness Core video game.
Special thanks to Miranda L. Visser for transcribing this interview.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Here at the Majesco booth talking about Zumba Fitness for – I’m also joined by our Associate Editor, Carl Armstrong, who is looking like he’s about to pass out.
Carl Armstrong (Gaming Illustrated): No, I’m fine! I am doing just fine. What are you talking about? I love this.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): I’m sure I will include the 30 seconds of video in this interview of him being up on stage. (Editor’s Note: Here it is!)
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Hi, my name is Andrea Rodriguez and I am the Associate Producer of the Zumba Fitness Core video game.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Now, the first thing I have to say is that standing here, every single female that walked by literally stopped, watched, started to shake it, some of the guys rolled their eyes, but I think you’ve really tapped into what women gamers want to see. They want to see something fun, interactive, and help them with their health.
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Yes, that’s correct. You know our target audience happens to be women, although our game is also designed for everyone. And so we did a research study and from the research study that we had done, the number one thing that women want to work on and strengthen and tone are the abs. So that’s what we decided to really focus on Zumba Fitness Core and make all our game’s the fore-focus be core because we want our audience to know that we’re thinking about them and we understand and we’re excited to be able to show this today at E3.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Now the cover athlete, if you will, is here demonstrating. Talk about some of the Zumba instructors and their guidance that have gone into the core fitness with this title.
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): So, the Zumba instructors: we have right here, Melissa Chiz. Some of our amazing instructors include Beto Perez, who is actually the creator of Zumba, and in the game we also have Tanya Beardsley, Gina Grant, Kass Martin, and then we have two new instructors who are introducing Loretta Bates and Nick Logrea. So, they have all contributed choreography. They did their own mo-cap [motion capture]. So this is truly an authentic Zumba experience because we’re also working with the instructors; it’s their choreography, it’s their mo-cap, so you’re getting a true Zumba authentic experience.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Now I also heard a bit about the music that’s gone into this. It’s about 50 percent licensed music and 50 percent just actual Zumba beats. Is that correct?
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Yes, that’s correct. Zumba originals that range from everything – you know Zumba’s international so some of the rhythms that we have for our new game include Celtic Bluegrass, Polynesian, Techno Cumbia, Brazilian Funk. It’s a nice array of 30 different dance styles in the music included as well as our licensed tracks.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Yeah, that keeps it fresh doesn’t it. Whenever you come to do your routine maybe once a day, there’s always something a little new for you to experience.
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Yes, that’s correct. Some of the great new experiences that we have added to the game are within our ‘Learn the Steps’ mode. From what you will find in Zumba Fitness Rush were the Salsa, Cumbia, Meringue and Reggae Thong ‘Learn the Steps’ tutorials. So we’re actually including Samba and Bollywood in Zumba Fitness Core.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Have there been any announcements for the release date?
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): We’re looking at October of 2012 for the Wii and the Xbox 360.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): That’s good. Just in time for Thanksgiving, right? Get yourself in shape so you don’t have to beat yourself up later.
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Oh yeah, so you know, you want to definitely burn lots of calories and one of our cool new features that we’re adding to the game are community goals. So with community goals if you are on Xbox Live and you also own the game, you and your friends can actually burn calories together. So let’s say, for example, you’re hosting the community goals and, as a collective, you want to burn ten thousand calories? You can do that; that’s possible because you’re working together as a community and that’s one of the values that Zumba emphasizes.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Very nice. Well, it looks like you’ve got a popular title. We’ve got the guys up on the stage for now. It’s good to see both genders up there isn’t it?
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Oh yeah, no, it’s great you know? Because one of the cool things about Zumba is that it’s for everyone and, you know, the men have to move their hips to, you know, because that’s one of the things that the ladies like is when the guys know how to move the hips.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): (Laughs)
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): And you can actually take these moves out into the public. You could take them to a live Zumba class. You can take them to, you know, to the night club. So these steps are – they’re basic steps within the ‘Learn the Steps’ mode, but you actually take those and you can apply them to the choreography that you’re learning on the screen as well as you could take them to, you know, other venues.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): Alright. Well thank you so much for joining us and congratulations on what looks like is gonna be a pretty fun game.
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Oh yeah! And check out your friend sweating over there.
Sean Gibson (Gaming Illustrated): That sounds good. Thank you.
Andrea Rodriguez (MFA Interactive Media): Thank you.
Sean Gibson
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tags: andrea rodriguez , interview , majesco , zumba fitness core
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