Would you work out longer or harder if distracted by video games? A new $99 peripherals pack and set of iOS games, collectively called Goji Play, is taking another shot at exergaming, this time, moving it from the living room to the gym. Goji Play comprises an activity tracker, two controllers that can connect to the handlebars of most cardio machines, and two batons that stand in place of the handlebars when you want to move your arms freely. The idea is to prop up an iPad or an iPhone on your favorite cardio equipment and fire up one of the games. When you start to work out, the activity tracker senses your motion and sends it to the iOS device via Bluetooth. Your motion controls something in the game, such as a character's speed or the amount of power your character has. The handheld controllers have only two buttons each, which means that all the games are pretty simple to play. It's a neat concept, and one that I think we'll be seeing a lot more of in the near future, but I'm reluctant to dole out much praise for this particular implementation.

Goji Play in Motion

I played—er, worked out—using Goji Play on a stationary bike at a gym as well as in the office by simply running in place. The little activity tracker that you wear on your hip only detects motion and its intensity. It's not a very sophisticated device in that sense. The first time I tried the system on a stationary bike, I launched a game, made sure all the Bluetooth connections were intact, and started pedaling. Nothing seemed to work. It turned out my hips were just too steady, and I had to move the tracker to my shoe to get going.

The game I played on that first go, an action/racing title called Smash the Blocks, may very well be the best game for Goji Play at the moment, which isn't saying much. A yellow ball character runs forward as long as you keep moving. If you stop, so does the guy on screen.  The Y button on the left controller turns the character left, the B button right. Press Y and B together, and he jumps.

I got my guy to run the obstacle course, pick up diamonds, smash some bad guys, and get to the end of the course before time ran out. Level completed in about a minute.

When I finished the level, I slowed down my pedaling while I decided whether I wanted to try to beat my score on the same level, move onto the next level, switch modes, or change games entirely. I found that distraction to be the biggest hindrance to working out. It happened every time I played.

Playing works all right on a stationary bike, elliptical machine, or even while running in place, but it doesn't hold up on treadmills because your body isn't in control of the speed. Speeding up and slowing down your actual, physical movement is essential to playing the games, and on a treadmill, you just don't have that control.

Another problem is that the Bluetooth connections often cut out when I switched games (although crucially, never during gameplay). If you're aiming for a 45-minute workout but have to troubleshoot Bluetooth every time you want to switch games, it'll certainly dampen your motivation, as well as your workout intensity. 

The buttons on the controller, which take AAA batteries (the tracker comes with a micro USB cord for charging), felt durable to me, but one of my colleagues said he thought they felt wobbly. They look somewhat childish, though.

The Goji Games

At launch, the Goji Play system has 12 games, 11 of which are free. The Goji Play system is limited to iOS devices, or more specifically: iPad 3 and later, iPhone 4S and later, iPad mini and later, and iPod touch 5th generation and later; all must run at least iOS 6.1.

The current suite of games encompasses a few different styles and genres, but to-date I've only found the racing ones interesting. A bicycling game called Spin or Die was too difficult for me to play for more than about 30 seconds without killing off my character (over and over and over again). A match-three game didn't motivate me to move. And a punch-out game simply wasn't my cup of tea. There's a slots game, but I couldn't even bring myself to play it.

Behind the Curve?

Goji Play isn't a full body, total fitness tracking tool with games and training, like the Wii Fit U system is. Nor is it an all-day activity tracker, like the Fitbit line of products (Fitbit Force and Fitbit One), which don't include games but certainly do try to motivate you to move more overall. And considering the Goji Play's price in comparison with some of the other devices, I think it should do a whole lot more than what it does (such as doubling as an all-day activity tracker).

Fitness games will be part of the future of both exercise tech and video game development, but I'm not sure a $99 set of controllers is the way forward. This is especially true at a time when iOS devices in particular are making it easy to pare down the number of gadgets we buy—I'm thinking in particular of the M7 chip in the iPhone 5S. Plus, other apps designed to motivate you are coming down the pike at a much lower price. A few are already here, like Runtastic's Story Running (think short fiction audio books set to music designed to push you through a 20-minute run). Do you need a $99 set of controllers to implement these concepts? Probably not.