A serious piece of exercise kit
The version that I tested is dubbed the Gamercize GZ Pro-Sport and the power stepper for Xbox 360, though there are versions available for PS3, Wii, PS3 GameCube or PC, or indeed you can opt to purchase the endurance cycle for a few quid more rather than the power stepper. You can even buy the actual GZ Pro-Sport device on its own and use your own piece of exercise equipment.For its £119 RRP, out of the box, you get a very weighty power stepper, which is sturdy enough to hold a person weighing up to 100kg, or about 220lbs (15.7 stone for you oldies). Held up by its heavy metal frame it has two padded foot steps paved with raised dimples to ensure that you don’t lose your footing. There’s also a bolt attached to it that allows you to easily adjust the height of the steps. It wasn’t the cheap looking gaming accessory that I thought it would be - it’s actually a very impressive, comfortable, safe-looking and serious piece of exercise equipment; so far, so good.
Nestled snugly in the front centre of the stepper is an electronic pedometer display, which displays time and a step-counter. You can also change modes so that you can see how many calories you’ve burnt off.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageYou also get a wired Madcatz Xbox 360 control pad. Personally, if I was buying the product, it’s more than likely that I’d already have an Xbox 360 controller lying around, so I’d rather the price of the pad was knocked off the retail price rather than having an additional controller that I don’t need and, - this is also my own personal preference – I hate playing 360 games with any other joypad other than the official one.
Nevertheless, I’m told that the pads don’t add that much onto the retail price and you can still use other compatible pads with the machine. In fairness, it does complete the package, which comes with everything you need (including batteries) to start your exercise regime. There’s nothing worse than buying something, getting it home and discovering you need to buy something else to make it work.
Finally, you get the GZ Pro-Sport itself, which is the device, the hub, that connects both to the exercise machine and the games console via USB. The GZ Pro-Sport has a number of options that can be changed via the keypad. You can cycle through a handful of options, start off at a gentle level of exercise and work your way through three exercise levels right up to the optimum ‘power level’ or you can choose the ‘play’ option to use the stepper without experiencing interference whilst playing your video game.
