Now if I was to say, "hey guys and girls do you know about Wii Fit!" About 95% of the room would say yes and wave their hands in the air smiling! So I won’t really spend much time going on about what it is or where it’s from! Wii Fit is Nintendo's epic new release for this year which has been in development for some time now. It is the ultimate in gaming / body health there is to date, but does it really do the job, and is it even that fun? Let’s find out...
Nintendo have gone through quite an innovative stage this year. The Wii-fit package comes with a balance board as well as the Wii-fit software, four Panasonic batteries and a lovely safety manual! The balance board is quite solid and has got a bit of weight to it! It’s well secured with four rubber feat and you will be surprised how little it moves when you actually use it. It looks quite stylish with a white finish, and the words "Wii" engraved into the top of it. To synch the board up with your console you have to repeat the same instructions as you would synch up a remote control by the two small little red buttons! Once it’s configured your ready to go.
Once the wii is powered up you will be taken through a step by step setup for you. It’s very simple to follow and I highly doubt you will get lost or for any one moment have any difficulty with it. You will have to enter the date and time and it will also set you up for a BMI test! Now for those of you who aren’t sure, BMI is your body mass index, in other words it’s a simple indication of how healthy you are in terms of your weight. For the balance board to tell you your bmi you will have to enter your age and height, because the balance board acts as a weight scale as well that will be already entered for you! It will then give you your BMI score and then average it up with a chart going from "underweight - ideal - overweight - obese". It will allocate you a group and then it’s up to you how to go from there! It will suggest for you to make a target for your body within a certain amount of time! You can lose up to 1.6 stone within a month but I really don’t recommend people set their targets too high as it will just create extra pressure for you.
Once the game begins with your Wii-me you are able to choose a trainer to train alongside you and show you how things roll in the world of Wii-fit! The trainer also helps by giving you a well animated visual model of how you should do things for excellent performance! Think you’re doing something wrong? Take a look at the screen, see how she/he is doing it and you will be fine. You then have four areas for you to train in, the first being Yoga. Now I know sitting at home in front of your TV practising yoga techniques isn’t the most ideal of situations you want to be in but it does work out and on some tasks you will find yourself breaking a sweat. It will teach you the importance of deep breathing and also show you some great techniques to strengthen your muscles for the future!
The second group is Muscle workout. Yes as you can imagine this is your weekly trip to the local gym all in one! Anything from stretching, press-ups, twists and other body straining techniques are practised here! As you improve and try out other exercises you will unlock the challenge modes. In this challenge mode you will go up against the trainer to see who can do the most reps. For example the press-up challenge makes sure you are pushed to your limit by encouraging you to beat your trainer and his/her number of reps. If you fail you are told off and you have a slight sense of determination in you! But once you win you will bounce back up on your feet with a sly smile on your face!
The third group is quite an awkward one as it tests your sense of balance! Even though the balance board works very well I am still having some issues with how the balance meter works due to sometimes it is perfect and other times ... not so perfect! But none the less Wii-Fit keeps this enjoyable by adding a few balancing games for you to play with. In this bundle you will be doing anything from skiing, tightrope walking as well as using your balance to guide marbles into the holes. One favourite of mine was the football game in where it’s your task to header as many footballs as you can, if you get hit by a shoe or even a panda this will decrease your score! A lot of these games helped as while you’re on your daily workout it manages to break up the experience to make it that little bit more fun!
Finally we have aerobics and fat burning exercises! A lot of these exercises involve heavy duty moving for example jogging and hula hoops! It keeps you on the go constantly and you will notice as the drips of sweat run down your face! Although Wii-fit has managed to make it a lot more encouraging to keep going once you get tired. One problem though, for those of you who have the Wii in your room on the second floor of your house! You may have some people complaining about the noise you’re making from your harmful run as it can be quite loud, especially on creaky floorboards.
The graphics aren’t anything amazing as it uses your Wii-me's to represent your character. Audio is quite peaceful and somehow encouraging. A lot of the sound effects are almost euphoric especially while doing the yoga practises. Multiplayer has been included, for example you can try the 2player jogging but I don’t think this will be that popular! Wii-fit is ideal to have in the house though as any number of users can use it at any one time with their own targets and practises! You are given graphs to show you and everyone else’s performance which is very cool especially if you’re quite the competitive ones... Is this the cure for unhealthyness in the world? I highly doubt that, but it’s certainly a massive leap in introducing healthy activity in today's gaming. Yes you can burn off the pounds but at the end of the day it’s all down to self determination. If you aren’t going to put anything in you won’t get anything out of it. The balance board also paves way for some exciting ideas in the future which Nintendo could grasp to dominate later.
Wii-Fit is a fantastic idea and I had my doubts but today they have been totally shifted. Even if you take about half an hour out of your daily routine to chill out on the Wii-fit board you will generally notice the difference and every now and again your able to retest your bmi to show your improvement. The only problem with Wii-fit is its hefty price tag! Your average price you’re looking to pay in the UK is £70 in most game stores! But remember as I said early undoubtedly this will be used for future games so you may be saving a hell of the lot when those future games come out. The £70 is well worth it and if you have a Wii it’s definitely a purchase you should consider. All of us at PlayIt 3D recommend it, gwan... give it a try..
