Shigeru Miyamoto is the man! It seems that every time Shiggy picks up a new hobby, Nintendo somehow creates a new video game franchise. When Miyamoto got interested in gardening, we somehow got treated to Pikmin. I’m not really sure what he was doing when they dreamed up the Virtual Boy, but it seems that Miyamoto is back on track and creating all sorts of winners. The Nintendo Wii is home to a lot of great games and these are largely targeted at the traditional non-gamer market. Wii Sports has been a hit, but it’s time for the next step.
So, Shigeru Miyamoto somehow found himself interested in yoga one day and that’s partly where the idea for Wii Fit and the Wii Balance Board was born. In a similar fashion as Wii Sports, Wii Fit is being marketed as a fun way to play games and to keep in shape. Does it live up to this promise? Well, I’ve been at the Wii Fit thing for about a month now, so it’s about time I provide a bit of a retrospective.
Wii Fit At a Glance
In a nutshell, Wii Fit is a collection of several exercises and mini-games that are designed to improve your posture, your balance, your muscular tone, your cardiovascular health, and your overall well-being. Just as you’re supposed to log in some time on Brain Age on the Nintendo DS every day to exercise your brain, you’re supposed to log in some time on Wii Fit each time to exercise your body.
Somewhat ironically, there is a warning on the box that says the Wii Balance Board, which ships with Wii Fit, should not be used by anyone over 330 pounds. Some of those, um, more full figured gamers are probably the people who would have the most to gain from a game like Wii Fit, so Nintendo may want to work on something to be a little more inclusive.
Understanding the Wii Balance Board
When I first heard about the Wii Balance Board, I thought it almost sounded like a glorified bathroom scale. At the same time, I was told that it could recognize not only how much weight was being exerted on it, but also how that weight was distributed. After buying the game, I quickly learned exactly how the Wii Balance Board works.
In each of the four corners is a small “leg” which acts as a sensor. The total amount of weight exerted on these four legs is, of course, the total amount of weight being exerted on the board. How much weight is being pushed on one individual leg relative to others would then represent how the weight is being distributed. Quite a simple concept, really, but Nintendo has executed on this very well. That said, if you have any kind of uneven flooring or if you’re playing on particularly squishy carpet, you may experience some slight inaccuracies.
Tracking Your Progress
Upon booting up Wii Fit for the first time, you will be asked to create a user profile. This is so that you can track your progress over time. The Body Test is critical, because its like your daily weigh-in. Your BMI is also calculated and Wii Fit will tell you that the ideal BMI is 22. I happen to be slightly above that, but well within the normal range.
Along with your weight and BMI, you will also be challenged to complete two balance games. These, along with your BMI and actual age, are used to calculate your Wii Fit age, much like your brain age in Brain Age. Wii Fit lets you set goals for yourself at a minimum of two weeks in the future; they recommend you try to lose about three pounds every two weeks until you reach a BMI of 22.
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Daily Training
Whereas Wii Sports really only gave you five different activities to enjoy, Wii Fit goes much further than that, offering you whole families of daily training activities falling under four broad reaching categories.
Under each of these categories, you will find more than a dozen different things to do. These are not all available right off the bat and you unlock them as you log in more exercise time and Wii credits. This is somewhat unfortunate from an exercise standpoint, but it provides for some motivation to keep training every day.
On a side note, I found the “witty banter” of the animated Wii Balance Board on the screen to be a bit strange. There are some stereotypical “Asian” tendencies to its character, like asking if you have eaten yet or reminding you to brush your teeth before going to bed. It’s a cute character, I suppose, but it’s a little discouraging when it gives out an “Oh!” when you step on the Balance Board for confirmation.
Yoga and Strength Exercises
With the first two sets of exercises, you will be walked through the process with an on-screen trainer. There’s not much customization on this front, so you just get to choose between a male or female trainer (both in spandex and with mannequin-like faces). He or she will then demonstrate each of the yoga poses or strength exercises for you as needed.
For many of these exercises, I’d say that it’s pretty easy to cheat. For many yoga poses, for example, your goal is simply to keep the red dot (representing your center of balance) within the yellow area. There’s no way for Wii Fit to know if you’re doing the pose properly, so you can “fake it”, so to speak. That effectively eliminates the health benefits though, so you probably don’t want to do that.
The variety of exercises is good, but you may find them to be somewhat repetitive after a while. It’s also unfortunate that you can’t really build up a proper exercise regimen or routine in Wii Fit. It’s pretty haphazard, aside from the occasional suggestion that you should pair exercise X with activity Y for a combined benefit of some kind.
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Cardiovascular Element and Balance Games
The yoga poses and strength exercises aren’t so much about building bulk as they are about toning your muscles. They’re not bad at all, but the cardiovascular element in Wii Fit is quite weak. There is a running activity that simply tracks the shaking of the Wii Remote in your pocket as you jog (more cheating possibility here), for example. Even though it didn’t provide much in terms of cardiovascular benefit, I did enjoy the two step training exercises though. Too bad there’s no song selection or variation here, so DDR freaks can apply elsewhere. Yes, those are Mii characters in that activity.
Speaking for myself, the area where I could probably have the most to gain is in the balance games. I have a notoriously poor sense of balance. The yoga poses and strength exercises may help to strengthen my core, but the balance games are way more fun and provide a direct incentive to improving my sense of balance. Running a hamster ball down the river is quite entertaining.
Far more importantly here, the balance games in Wii Fit are what really demonstrate the possibilities for future Wii Balance Board applications. Just as Wii Sports introduced waggle controls, Wii Fit shows us that the Balance Board can be used for skiing, snowboarding, and other balance-oriented activities. Imagine an SSX snowboarding game using the balance board. How about Tony Hawk skateboarding? A motion-sensing boxing game would be pretty intense too.
Final Thoughts
Realistically, I wouldn’t get my hopes up about having Wii Fit completely change anyone’s physique in any sort of substantial way. It’s a fun diversion from a proper exercise regimen, but you can certainly make use of it to improve your balance and work on a few yoga poses. The execution is quite good, even if there are certain areas that are a little lacking. It’s also unlikely that you’ll stick to Wii Fit for an extended period of time, just as it’s unlikely that you stuck with daily mind games in Brain Age.
As it stands, Wii Fit serves as an excellent demonstration of what the Balance Board can do and the health benefits are a definite added bonus. I do sense that my balance is improving, but I certainly did not lose any weight over the course of using Wii Fit for about a month. I just hope that third party developers take advantage of the Balance Board in new and exciting ways.
Pros
- Balance Board shows a lot of promise
- Nice variety of activities
- Balance games are quite fun
- Great tracking of BMI, weight, Wii Fit age
- Nice Mii integration into certain activities
Cons
- Too focused on weight and BMI as indicators of health
- Gets terribly repetitive very quickly
- No way to design a proper regimen
- Minimal cardiovascular element
- No multiplayer at all
Overall Rating: 7.5 / 10.0
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Nintendo Wii Fit – A Month in Review Photo Gallery
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