Rating Notes: Tennis Equivalent

Until You Fall combines close weapon combat and magical spells to defeat increasingly difficult enemies throughout the game. Exercise comes primarily from a combination of fast-paced, isometric arm extensions to block attacks, wide and rapid sword swings, and squatting and sidestepping to duck and dodge. Players must physically rotate to face enemies from multiple directions, requiring a fair amount of both upper and lower body movement. It also has the option for seated combat. While our raters did not collect metabolic data playing seated, we suspect it will be substantially less exercise than standing.

Rater noted activity was constant throughout the gameplay. During testing, Until You Fall was observed to have an average MET score of 6.50 METs, or an average 6.5x the rater’s base metabolic resting rate. Throughout gameplay, five-minute peak average was observed at 8.10 METs, or up to 8.10x the rater’s base metabolic rate. Studies have found that this is in the range typically seen while playing competitive singles tennis, making it a Tennis Equivalent on the VR Health Rating system.

Rater felt that the game would have likely been greater exercise in the later levels beyond their skill level, as the waves continued to become more difficult.

Until You Fall is rogue-lite. The player begins at the first level at each playthrough and progresses through levels until they die or beat the game. Game difficulty and exercise intensity increase the farther into the game a player reaches, and so average levels of exercise are dependent on skill and progress. However, even at early levels and moderate difficulty, Until You Fall is excellent exercise. Character experience carries over between playthroughs, allowing characters to get stronger over time, with better weapons. This increase in character ability may lead to easier gameplay over time, but the progressive difficulty will make it unlikely to negatively impact exercise for most players for quite some time.

The rater collected data while playing on Relentless Difficulty through the fifth level (repeatedly). There are four difficulty settings: Relaxed, Challenging, Relentless, and Nightmare. Nightmare difficulty unlocks in later play. More intense exercise may have been observed if the rater had been able to play farther into the game.

Rater Suggestions: 

Higher energy expenditure was correlated to length of gameplay time. The more time the player can stay alive in the later levels, the more intense their average exercise will likely be. Dying and restarting less intense early levels interrupts intense exercise. Inversely, staying alive for longer periods, even on easier difficulty, is likely a greater amount of overall exercise than dying and repeating the lower levels over and over. We advise playing at the highest level you find challenging but can progress in for 15 to 20 minutes per session without death.

Temporary upgrades such as + max health points and regenerate health are great options to keep players in the fight. Dual wielding fast weapon types that deal low damage and require lots of movement (Rokari Keenblade, Ritual Dagger, High Arcanist’s Blade, etc.) may increase player exercise, since more swings leads to more energy burned.

At the time of data collection, the developer had just released an update allowing two-handed weapons. Unfortunately, the rater did not have access to these weapons at the time of data collection, and they will have to be rated in a later update. Please note that the developer believes that two-handed weapons likely lead to greater exercise than the dual-wield weapons we used in this rating. 

Additional metabolic data collection will be needed to confirm this by the VR Health Institute… but it doesn’t hurt to try. 🙂

Quick Facts:

Status: Metabolic Rating: This game was tested by measuring oxygen
consumption with a metabolic cart on April 12, 2022.
Peak Observed Sustained MET: 8.10 METs
Average Observed METs: 6.50 METs
Est. calories expenditure per min.: We observed a 30-minute average MET score of 6.5, with a 5-minute sustained peak average of 8.1 METs. This is an energy expenditure of 6.83 kcals to 8.51 kcals per minute during our tests. This estimate is based on the assumption that the subject weighs 60kg, a common research standard for average weight. Please see the table below for an estimate of calorie expenditure for your weight based on the observed METs.
Explanation: Experiences are rated based on their observed Metabolic Equivalent of Tasks score, or a MET score, during testing in the lab. A MET is a multiple of your base resting rate. 1 MET is equal to 1x resting metabolic rate. 2 METs is equal to 2x resting metabolic rate, etc. METs can be used to calculate an estimated calorie burn during that task based on that person’s weight, which is shown in the chart below.

This game’s 30-minute average rating of 6.5 METs means that we observed an average energy expenditure of 6.5x the rater’s base metabolic resting rate over 30 minutes of gameplay. Its 5-minute Peak Average refers to the maximum 5-minute average we observed during testing, anywhere in the game. Together, the two represent the overall average we observed during play, and the maximum peak that we observed, such as during a particularly intense level.

The first is likely more useful for comparing energy expenditure during typical play as a regular player. The second may be more useful for identifying games that, if played for exercise, may have sections that are substantially different levels of exercise than the rest of the game (such as specific game modes, etc).

Link: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2567459230020142

https://store.steampowered.com/app/858260/Until_You_Fall/

http://vrhealth.institute/ratings

Calorie Table: