This is ground control to major Tom, you've really made the grade. And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
The primary differences are in the way they look at it, in a lot of ways it's a very east vs. west thing. Wii Fit is more about doing things well, and has a very friendly interface, done in a typically Nintendoian style. EA Sports is more complete as a workout, or personal trainer, but is far more cumbersome and less enjoyable to use. They both have huge flaws that the other one corrects-- Wii Fit constantly breaks up the action by requiring you to navigate menus; EA Sports put such little thought into the interface that you CANNOT use the joystick or Dpad to navigate, and must use the pointer. Combined with the lack of an exercise planner in Wii Fit, and the rather small menus in EA Sports Active, this is a very annoying issue. Wii Fit's environments largely consist of a fairly clinical gym that serves its purpose for yoga and strength, a lively island for jogs (which I dislike in both pieces of software), and much more lively areas for various cardio and balance games. What I've seen of EA sports active seems very homogenous and depressing-- sure, you're exercising outside, but the people around you all seem dead-- on the track, you'll find barely moving gets your character going at a 'too slow' speed, and still whizzing by everyone else.. The environments are flat, the character models are why-am-I-even-trying horrible, the male instructor at least seems like he's contractually obligated to smile at you with the creepiest grin in existence (seriously, he will punch in one direction with a serious look, turn to the camera and smile, punch again, turn back and smile. It is scary.), and none of the areas seem different from the other areas. EASA seems to have more variety in music, but it all seems so bland it runs together. Wii Fit reuses the same music, but I personally never found it to get old, and it actually becomes kinda welcoming-- with the exception of a few rhythm games, you can mute Wii Fit and listen to whatever anyway. Everything is shown on screen, and your trainer's comments in subtitles.
Wii Fit tends to feel somewhat limited by always attempting to use the balance board; EASA has TOO MUCH equipment. It looks nice in videos, but when you're constantly switching between putting something away or pulling something out it gets annoying quick-- and the exercises put no thought into organizing the ones that require certain equipment together. In EASA, the equipment is pretty uncomfortable much of the time, and not in a good Feel-The-Burn way. In Wii Fit, the worst is sections where you are expected to stand on the balance board at length, but if you wear comfortable shoes, slippers, or maybe even socks the hard surface of the balance board shouldn't be a problem. EASA's feedback is far too touchy, and not in a good way. Shaking even a bit after a rep will often cause the game to pause for quite a bit of time to bitch at you to stand up straight. EASA's feedback is also incredibly transparent, to the point of actually saying "I won't register this move properly if you don't point the Wii Remote in a certain direction". The Balance Board is just right, never seeming too demanding or too lax. Wii Fit's exercises can be rough, especially the strength ones, but never seem unreasonable. EASA has times where it seems incredibly poorly thought through; such as expecting you to do squats until your knees hurt, and then later having you play a game where the entire point is to squat, jump from the squat, and go directly back to squatting when you land. EASA's premade workouts also heavily use track things, where the running in place is again likely to hurt your knees more than it should.
The Balance Board is clearly the focus of Wii Fit, EASA's leg strap seems to say "you're too cheap to have a balance board, use this mediocre substitute". The resistance band is functional, but holding on to the straps AND the controller is awkward at best, and frequently becomes uncomfortable when you have to hold the controller at a certain angle for it to recognize things. Wii Fit does a good job of tracking your weight and activity level if you use it consistently, EASA tracks activity and random health related things (nutrition, sleep, stress), but doesn't seem to have any way of tracking weight, or using the balance board to weigh you. Wii Fit can install a channel to the Wii to at least allow you to take your body test without fussing with disks, EASA seems to have nothing of the sort.
Overall, I'd say that Wii Fit has more in common with a piece of exercise equipment, and EASA with a workout DVD with the various chapters on shuffle. Personally, Wii Fit does more to keep me motivated and coming back for more-- the balance board character is minor, and has a tendency to yap about things you already know for the dozenth time, but is likable. As mentioned, the EASA (male) trainer is downright creepy. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with either product, although Wii Fit's flaws are more obvious and stupid and EASA's flaws are more annoying and discouraging.
If EASA works for you, that's great, but personally I have to recommend Wii Fit. Plus, Wii Fit comes with the balance board, which other games use-- I highly doubt any non EA Sports title will use the EASA accessories.
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Topic: (EA sports-active) VS (Wii fit)!
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