BattleSuit Runner Will Get You Moving

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeoGMyUDNVA]

Did you enjoy Pacific Rim? If you answered anything other than yes, go join our blogger Alexx in the corner of shame. What about Starship Troopers? Now imagine Pacific Rim and Starship Troopers got together (I know, that would be awesome) and made a running app for your phone. That’s basically how I try to explain BattleSuit Runner to people and I love it. You can watch the video above for the cliff notes version of what I’m about to tell you.

The BattleSuit Runner Fitness app makes you into DeltaSuit, one of a team of BattleSuit Runners, who takes on alien invaders with the help of an exoskeleton suit (vaguely Elysium-esque, come on sci-fi lovers, there’s so many great elements to this game). Once you put in your headphones and load up a mission, you’re given the opportunity to speed up or slow down your pace to affect the outcome – and everyone loves a good choose-your-own adventure story. While out on missions, you collect “Iridium,” which is then used to upgrade and customize your BattleSuit to better yourself for future missions.

If it hasn’t been made clear yet (and even if it has, I’m going to continue beating you over the head with it), I’m a sci-fi nerd and I might just enjoy this fitness app more than the widely-known Zombies, Run! app… please don’t take my zombie-lover card away. One huge reason I like this app more is the ability to customize how long you want your workout to be – from half an hour to an hour and a half. I usually run my neighborhood for forty five minutes, an awkward time for an app like Zombies, Run!, that only lets you choose between a half an hour and an hour for your workout time.

Another thing I love about BattleSuit Runner is the way it’s mostly unobtrusive to your run. There are long stretches of time where the app is giving you instructions and allowing you the chance to speed up or slow down, affecting your game, but there are also long stretches of time where your music just plays and you’re able to get into a nice groove. It balances the actual goal (ugh, exercise) and the action nicely, allowing for a relatively painless app experience.

The app also gives you the ability to customize how difficult you want your “Supercharge Intensity” to be. This makes it easier for you to walk with the app and still get the “sprinting” bonuses and it ranges from 10% (Very Easy) to 100% (Insane Walk-to-Run Intervals), allowing for all activity levels to participate. It can measure your distance in miles and kilometers and does a very nice job of it. As long as you have a playlist ready to go, you can download this app and be on your way as soon as you’ve got your shoes on.

While on a mission, the app keeps track of your workout time, the distance you’ve gone, the speed you’re traveling at, how much Iridium you’ve got, and your armor. This information is all presented on one screen throughout your run (and is easy to peek at if you’re interested in your current speed). The free version of BattleSuit Runner Fitness comes with the tutorial and three missions to complete, while the full version, which costs money, has the same tutorial and nine missions to complete.

With its easy to navigate controls, the app is very intuitive and I can’t say I have many complaints about it. I will say, as I am unequipped with very many awesome workout playlists, I wish it could integrate in an app like Pandora (though I don’t think even Zombies, Run! – its closest counterpart does that anymore). I like the way your own music stops for the Supercharge runs though, giving you a jarring little boost with video game-like music to get you moving.

If you’re on the fence about this app, there’s no harm in trying out the free version to see if you like it and most of us are moving towards Spring (well… that’s debatable…), so there’s no excuse not to get outdoors and try this one out!

BattleSuit Runner Fitness is available in free and paid versions on iOS and Android devices. Nerdophiles was given a copy of BattleSuit Runner Fitness in exchange for an honest review of the product.