Look silly on your way to fitness! (Wii Fit (Wii))

Member Name: ChandlerFord

Product:	Wii Fit (Wii)
Date:	02/07/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Balance board accessory, good fun, improves fitness a little

Disadvantages: Takes looking silly for the sake of Wii gaming to a whole new level

Wii fit takes the Wii a step further...

As a console, the Wii is already good for getting you off your sofa, and onto your feet to play video games. We already had a Wii Sporting injury in our household while boxing on Wii Sports, though I maintain the punch wasn't completely accidental! We have already suffered with sore arms the day after a heavy night's gaming. Now it's time to give the legs a bit of punishment!! Introducing 2 items in one, Wii Fit software and the Balance Board accessory (only available with the Wii Fit software sadly.)

The balance board resembles a skateboard with the wheels removed and little feet fitted. It has wireless connection to the Wii, which is essential for games where you're on and off the board a lot (sometimes you're even supposed to step off!) The board has two "footprints" on it, and in most games this is where your feet will go. It has a lot of sensors built into it and can pick up even the slightest movement in any direction. The game is compatible with all sorts of games ranging from snowboarding to music (Wii music can use the board as foot pedals for drum kits,) and this is one reason I think it's a shame that you HAVE to buy Wii Fit to get one... come on Nintendo, sell it on its own, Wii fit isn't quite for everybody. As a peripheral I'd give the board 5 stars without question.

Now to the software. Put the disk in and clear the room of anyone likely to laugh! Now, register your Mii to the game and... the game takes you straight into the dreaded body test. You tell it how old and tall you are, it tells you how much you weigh and your BMI. It also tells you if you are overweight, and by how much! Next you set your own target BMI as you set off on your way to a better body! The software then ask you to stand still... I can do that!!! Next it shows you where your centre of gravity is and how much weight is through each foot. Assuming like me your COG is nowhere near the centre, it challenges you to keep your COG in a small circle on the screen. For me this felt like I was about to fall forwards at first, but after three months it's becoming natural. Finally you get two tests to test your balance and control of this balance with two tests. My first one was standing still... which sounded exactly my cup of tea... I scored 53% embarassingly... now I hit 90%. After the second test you get your Wii Fit age after a couple of sarcastic comments from the software. The aim here is to be either your actual age or lower... I was 15 years older and so out of shape. That's the embarassing bit out of the way, your friends can come back into the room and register, while you roll around on the sofa laughing at them.

After registration it's time for some training. We have a few sections here, Yoga for posture, Muscle Workout (for pain!) Aerobic Exercise (for tiredness) and Balance games (for laughing at each other.) Feeling particularly unfit? Start with yoga. I hit 90% on my first yoga exercise, impressive until I tell you that it was called breathing. The yoga is all gentle, and about holding a position while controlling your breathing. After a few activities, you get to "standing knee" looking at the picture of someone standing on one leg with the other foot on the standing knee ann non-standing knee pointing sideways, I just knew I was going to be falling off. My trainer announced that I was going to hold the position for 30 seconds, I was starting to count the bruises I was going to collect... why did we lay a wooden floor? Amazingly I didn't fall... maybe I actually learnt something from those first few activities. Yoga hurts a little at first, but is low impact, so suitable for most people. Onto muscle workout... here you get some activities that you probably did at school, and if you're anything like me you haven't done them since leaving. In this section it's all about repetition of a movement. At the start you have to do 6 reps... later this can be turned up as you get better. So, all straight forward for a while, and I'm thinking that maybe I'm not that out of shape after all... at this point comes the pain. I'm instructed to get off the board and assume a press-up position with my hands now on the board, but this is Wii Fit, so after each pressup, it's a sidestand... onto one leg and hand stretching the other hand into the air and twisting sideways, or in my case collapsing in a heap. More varied activities follow. After each yoga or muscle workout activity you are shown how you controlled your balance, or not as the case may be. My record is still for breathing!

Onto aerobic excercise and much more embarassing movements. Here you'll find hula-hooping, step aerobics, jogging and other ways of making you look stupid! This section of the game is fun whilst exercising you in a less intense way than the muscle workout. At the end of each activity you either get points or a score... points for each hula-hoop rotation, accurate step etc, scores for jogging.

Finally, the balance games, a good opportunity to get your mates laughing and your face even redder. These games work in a similar way to yoga but with less pain and more laughter. Here you can fall off a tight rope, head football boots, fall off the end of ski jumps, etc... or you can actually be good at them. I think I'm Eddie the Eagle here while my wife ski jumps well over 300m in the two attempts. I try to only hit this last section when home alone!

That's all there is to it. Not all activities are allowed at the start, you unlock the others, and harder versions of the ones you start with, by a combination of time played and skill/improvement. Once it's all unlocked you can really punish yourself each and every day.

The game also suggests combinations of activities to work the same muscle groups, and it's worth doing these combinations as I've found this way I improve faster. Sadly there is a long pause between activities and there's no way of setting a workout up so you can really push yourself... hopefully that will come in the sequal in the last quarter of the year. For this reason, Wii fit will only help you so far, you will need to take other exercise to make any real difference to your fitness or shape. The game bases everything on balance, which doesn't necessarily equate to fitness, but it's not a bad guesstimate I suppose.

I'd recommend the game for everybody, wether you're serious about getting a little fitter or just out for a good giggle with your equally unfit mates. Hopefully the next version will be more independent of other excercise and I'm pretty sure it will contain more games to laugh at your mates while playing.

Summary: Great effort and good fun, looking forward to the sequel.