We knew going into our demo that Zumba Fitness Core, Zoë Mode’s third installment of the popular dance-inspired fitness game franchise, would focus on toning and strengthening our core — but when ZFC’s producer warned us that our selected routine would result in pure torso pain, we confidently thought: “It’s only seven minutes. How hard can it be?”

And as we figured, keeping up with our onscreen instructor went smoothly — we even nailed a pretty good score, thanks to the return of Zumba Fitness Rush’s engine and its solid body-tracking. The next morning, though, attempts to get out of bed resulted in agony as the muscles woven over our ribcages protested…loudly.  Zumba Fitness Core isn’t messing around: it plans to give fans the sleek, trim midsections they’ve been clamoring for, according to Zoë Mode.

If you’re less of a gym rat, you may not be as familiar with the music-based workout regimen that the Zumba Fitness franchise is based on. Zumba — aerobics classes that originally took their moves and music from salsa and other latin dances, but have since branched out to draw on other forms of dance, too — has exploded in popularity since it snuck onto the U.S. fitness scene in the early 2000s.  Now you’ll find it everywhere, from 24 Hour Fitness gym locations to ballroom dance studios.  Zumba first hit 360 as part of the initial wave of Kinect titles, but it wasn’t until this February’s release of Rush that Majesco got the videogame formula right.

And that formula returns in Core — the use of Dance Central-esque visuals, familiar Top 40 songs, variable-length classes, and celebrity instructors is back.  This game is more iterative than revolutionary; its updates revolve around a list of 40 new songs, targeted choreography, and the inclusion of additional dance influences.

It’s thanks to the latter two changes that Core stands on its own — we could discern a difference in how we used our bodies in the ballet- and samba-flavored routines we tried, compared to Rush.  Though you’ll still get a full-body workout, the choreography now requires you to work through your core in order to tone everything else: during the ballet song, we were asked to lift our leg out to the side (a riff on a tondue, for the bunheads out there) — but our instructor did it while elevated on his toes.  In order to copy the move while staying in time to the music, you’ll have to firmly keep your balance, which — surprise! — is maintained by having a strong, tight core.  It’s surprisingly challenging (and humbling, if you think you’re already pretty fit).

While it’ll become clearer when we get more time in one of the 20, 45, or 60 minute classes if Zumba Fitness Core will still provide Rush’s simple, interval-training approach to fitness, anybody looking to bust out a killer set of abs should get a lot out of Core. With all of our favorite holiday foods headed our way soon, we’ll be happy to have something to justify our heaping plates and all-day Halo 4/Call of Duty: Black Ops II marathons.

Publisher: Majesco  •  Developer: Zoë Mode  •  Multiplayer: Yes (offline-only)  •  Release Date: Oct 2012  •  For Fans Of: Dance-flavored fitness, toned bodies, hurting all over for days