The line between keeping fit and gaming has been blurred considerably in recent times, and Nintendo predictably lead the line with a range of titles designed to help you create and stick to an exercise regime.

We were impressed by EA Sports Active on the Nintendo Wii and My Health Coach attempts to translate a similar structure for the DS handheld, albeit with a rather limited set of exercises.

The distinguishing feature of the software is that it's designed predominantly to work alongside a pedometer. A proprietary model is supplied that fits into the Game Pak slot of the handheld so that results can be synchronised with the package to update a fitness record.

This process is explained clearly during the introductory dialogue, where a stick-figure character that will become your personal motivator/trainer talks you through the software and how to begin recording results. Age, weight and height are requested and BMI (body mass index) is calculated during this initial process, which then becomes the main form of guidance to help get you into shape.

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The supplied pedometer is overly bulky in our opinion, being a little smaller than a pack of cigarettes, and considering most typical pedometers are smaller than a matchbox it's disappointing that a company as forward-thinking as Nintendo couldn't have made this a bit more portable. In practice, though, it's extremely accurate and the size is unlikely to be a problem since it'll be clipped to clothing most of the time and is still light and comfortable enough to go unnoticed.

There's a clear emphasis on ‘walking' as the primary exercise here, with the pedometer designed to help work out how many steps you'd typically take in a day and then find ways to improve this to burn more calories. Motivation comes in the form of daily challenges, which vary from taking a certain number of steps to exercises such as sit-ups and press-ups, tailoring your diet and inviting a friend out for a stroll.

Challenges must be accepted and completed to unlock other areas of the game, which include quizzes to test knowledge on healthy living, general tips and facts and additional exercises. There is also a nutritional calculator built in to help work out whether you're eating too much or too little, but the food categories are quite broad and the quantities fixed, so any results that are calculated are likely to be a rough estimate at best.

While much of the advice is presented in an interesting an easily-absorbable way, a lot of it is common sense and there's nothing here you wouldn't learn online if you wanted to find out a bit more about healthy living.

For this reason, the pedometer attachment is by far the biggest draw of the software and it does work well as a way to calculate and record the amount of exercise you might be doing on a daily basis. Those who do a lot of walking will no doubt see some benefit, then, but unlike EA Sports Active, this is really more of a general interest package with limited long-term appeal. If you're not motivated enough to exercise and watch your diet already, this is unlikely to get you off the sofa to start.

My Health Coach DS is more of an informational guide than a motivational tool and even in this light the results and dietary advice on offer mostly consist of ball-park estimations that will have little impact on fine-tuning a lifestyle. Shop around and you'll find it available cheaply, however, so DS owners who may have considered buying a pedometer could do far worse than pick up this application for its additional feedback and ability to record and store daily activity.