Wii Fit (A J!-ENT First Glance Video Game Review)

May 21, 2008 by Dennis Amith

“At first glance, it may seem gimmicky but once you get involved into the yoga, strength and balance training, you realized how the purchase of Wii Fit was so worth it!”

VIDEO GAME: Wii Fit

COMPANY: Nintendo

RATING: E (Everyone): Comic Mischief

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

KEY INFORMATION
Step onto the Wii Balance Board and into a fun way to get fit.

Control on-screen action with your movements on the balance board as you work your way through a variety of challenges aimed at getting you off the couch and into the action. Check your Body Mass Index (BMI), see your Wii Fit Age and keep tabs on your daily progress towards a more fit you.
Get fit with more than 40 activities and exercises, including strength training, aerobics, yoga and balance games. Whether you’re doing a yoga pose or snowboarding down a slalom course, there’s an activity for everyone.
Challenge your family and friends to get in shape! Create your own personal profile and set goals, test your balance, track your progress with daily workouts and unlock new exercises and activities.

Create a Profile: Before you jump into doing exercises and activities, you’ll start by creating your own profile. Choose a Mii, enter your height and age information, and do a few quick tests:

BMI Check: BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that is the standard used by agencies such as the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Health. To check your BMI, you’ll enter your height then stand on the Wii Balance Board and let it read your weight.
Wii Fit Age: After you’ve checked your BMI, you’ll do a basic balance test and find out your current Wii Fit Age. This basic balance test measures how well you can control your left and right balance. Based on the results, you’ll be assigned a Wii Fit Age.

Categories: Wii Fit features four main categories to choose from: Strength Training, Aerobics, Yoga and Balance Games. As you spend time exercising, you’ll earn Fit Credits that unlock additional exercises and activities within these categories. Wii Fit also tracks the activities you do the most and puts them into the Favorites category.

Strength Training: Put your strength to the test with muscle-toning exercises like Single Leg Extension, Sideways Leg Lift, Arm and Leg Lift, Single-Arm Stand, Torso Twists, Rowing Squat, Single Leg Twist, Lunge, Push-Up and Side Plank, Jackknife, Plank and Tricep Extension. Challenges include Push-Up Challenge, Plank Challenge and Jackknife Challenge.
Aerobics: Get your heart pumping with fun, interactive Aerobic exercises like Hula Hoop®, Basic Step, Basic Run, Super Hula Hoop, Advanced Step, 2-P Run, Rhythm Boxing, Free Step and Free Run.
Yoga: Work on your balance and flexibility with Yoga poses and activities like Deep Breathing, Half-Moon, Dance, Cobra, Bridge, Spinal Twist, Shoulder Stand, Warrior, Tree, Sun Salutation, Standing Knee, Palm Tree, Chair, Triangle and Downward-Facing Dog.
Balance Games: Get into the action with fun, balanced-based games like Soccer Heading, Ski Slalom, Ski Jump, Table Tilt, Tightrope Walk, Balance Bubble, Penguin Slide, Snowboard Slalom and Lotus Focus.

Tracking Results:

Keep tabs on your daily progress with easy-to-understand graphs and charts. Using your personal profile, you can set goals, view a graph of your BMI results over time, see how many Fit Credits you’ve earned, check your Wii Fit Age and even enter exercise time you’ve done outside of Wii Fit. It’s all about coming back and exercising a little every day, and the personal profile makes tracking your daily progress simple and easy.
You can quickly check your Wii Fit Age and BMI without even putting the game in the console by going directly to the Wii Fit Channel.
Up to eight family members can create their own profiles in Wii Fit. On the profile-selection screen, everyone in the family can see each other’s recent BMI progress and Fit Credit total. This will allow families to have a friendly competition to exercise and get fit.

I have to admit that I’m enjoying the interactive nature of the Nintendo Wii. I’ve credited the console for helping me shed many pounds via Wii Sports and various other games.

So, when I first heard of Wii Fit, I wasn’t too sure. Mainly because I’ve bought so many Nintendo accessories such as the Power Glove all the way to the Wii Zapper and really, you never know what you’re going to get with these type of accessories and what seems very cool, ends up collecting dust the next day on.

But I’m going to say it right now, Wii Fit is one of the best things to come for the Nintendo Wii console and I would not be surprised if sales in America do quite well.

When opening the box, I was amazed how hefty and durable the board was. I figured that with the modification by Nintendo for the US market to take American body weight versus Japanese body weight in mind, they would have to create a device that would allow people a little over 300 pounds to take part in the workout. So, kudos to Nintendo for that.

Upon adding the four accessories to go underneath the board for thicker carpets, syncing the board to the Wii was quick and I had no problems.

You are then greeted by a animated Wii Fit board who takes you through the steps of adding your data. From there, the board starts to incorporate your Mii and through several tests, will pretty much tell you where you’re at (fit, overweight and obese) and also how you perform, what age you are performing at

The next step is by selecting a trainer. A man or a woman who will help guide you through your training, specifically yoga and strength training.

The first games I wanted to try is balance. Since I train on an Indo Board for surfing, I figured my balance should be good.

So, I did some of the skiing based workout games. One which you have to lean to the left and lean to the right on the Wii Fit board to go through the ski slalom. First time, I did miserable but afterwards, I started doing well. Almost had a 100 percent but first day, I got too confident and missed two. I’ll do better the next time.

The next was the ski jump. This was fun. You bend your knees while slightly moving forward. You see an indicator on the right showing a blue ball and a red ball which is your body placement. Move forward to get that red ball on the blue and you speed up. Right before you jump, you put your legs straight and then lead your body forward to get your score. You get two tries and on the first day, I fail one of the two by getting too confident and the other, I get around 159. So, first day for that was ok.

After spending 25 minutes with the ski-based games, I started messing around with soccer heading. Soccer players kicking a ball and you moving your body to the left and right by hitting the ball with your head.

So many balls and obstacles flying towards you that you have to dodge and I did well but this was a challenge.

The next was balancing on a tight rope which was easy. Lean your body left and right to move up on the tight rope and walking across to another building. There is an obstacle of a munching monster but you avoid it by bending your knees and then standing up to jump.

Next was going for a jog. No need for the Wii board for this one. Just put the wiimote in your pocket or hand and start jogging and the screen will show you jogging with a guide. This alone was pretty interesting because the jog was not very short. So, expect to get a good workout with this.

Then did some workouts with the yoga instructor and this was very neat as she goes through the process of communicating what the exercises do for your body and how to breathe and so forth. Very helpful and I did very well on the yoga and strength training.

And the better you do, you get time added to a bank. The time added will then open up more mini-games in the various sections and by an hour of working out, it told me to rest, get a drink of water and I felt I did a pretty good workout and actually felt refreshed after working out ala Wii Fit.

If there is one caveat I will mention is that the wii board does run on AAA batteries. Four of them. Reviews of the board have mentioned that the batteries do not last long.

Thus I purchased the Intec rechargeable battery pack and cable for $19.99. This is a third party device and so far the only rechargeable battery for the Wii board but it plugs in ala USB through the back of the console. Leave it on for six hours for the initial charge and four hours after. Unfortunately, there is no light indicating recharge is done.

Granted, not everyone is going to buy a device at $89.99 to work out. But I went to a local department store early in the morning and there was a line. Mainly adults who were buying it for the workout and they sold like more than half of their shipment within the first 15 minutes.

I was amazed and also found it pretty cool to see this. Typically when I’m in line for a video game, it’s a totally different demographic.

But after my first day and first hour on WiiFit, I feel good and full of energy and really enjoyed the overall experience.

This is not a gimmick device, this is actually a fun device similar to Wii Sports but more interactivity with working out.

I can see why this has done so well in Japan and I can see it doing well in America. Sure, it’s not for everyone but the benefits of helping people, training people and how fun it is with Wii Fit, its definitely worth owning and investing your $89.

There is a game called We Ski currently available for the Nintendo Wii for $29.99 which can also be used for the Wii Fit board but there is a lot of potential for Wii Fit.

Highly recommended!