Yo, it’s me again, that blogger from That Other Site, offering you yet another review of a Wii title.
About a week before Mother’s day, I heard about Wii Fit being released on the North American market.
Not having read anything other than a short blurb about it coming with some sort of smart Step apparatus, I put myself down for a pre-order at one of my (many) local EB GAmes. (I kid you not, I must have 4 within 5 km from where I live).
So when I got it last Thursday, I really had no idea what it was or what it did.
Now that my family has been playing with it for a few days here are my thoughts on it.
The Board
The Wii Fit Boxed set comes with a wireless piece of hardware that is roughly the size of two Personal Scales called the Wii Balance Board. It’s wireless and is powered by 4 AA batteries. It comes with 4 extra supports for people who have a thick carpet in the room where the Wii is.
It’s actually a multi-input scale that tracks pressure on all its surface. A lot of the tracking the Wii Fit software does is related to your weight and your personal Gravity Center (where your weight rests on the board).
For example, the Ski mini-game (one of the Balance Exercises packaged in the product) simulates downhill skiing by shifting one’s weight left and right on the board to turn and by shifting it forward to accelerate.
The version I have was designed to be able to sustain a maximum of 150 kg (350 lbs). Also, the machine was not directly designed for large feet. I wear Size 10 (American) shoes and the length of my feet are barely contained by the device.
Since balance measurement is the core of what the device does, anyone wearing more than Size 11 would probably have issues with using it.
If Nintendo wants this system to be a success, especially with current North American height/weight demographics, I think they should release a XL-version that could handle more than 400 lbs and up to 14+ Shoe Sizes.
Brutal Honesty Aside: Yes I called you all fat, it’s a statistical truth and I too am part of it (it includes you too, British and Australian readers). Wii Fit might very well be one of the most efficient ways, for the middle class, to deal with the current young adult/children obesity catastrophe but it has a violently honest, very Japanese way of dealing with it that may discourage or even anger you.
The Software
The Wii Fit software is more than just a game, it’s a complete fitness package that covers physical testing, coaching, education, exercise and play.
When you start it up, you are prompted to choose one of your Miis (it assumes it’s yours) and asks you your sex, birth date and height.
Then it asks you to step on the board and remain motionless on it for a few moments in order to weigh you and establish your gravity center on the board.
The software bases all it’s metrics and fitness philosophy on the BMI (Body Mass Index) and your center of gravity.
The philosophy is linked to the established facts that a BMI between 18 and 25 is the range where one is less likely to suffer from Cardiovascular disease. It also states that a perfectly centered body is healthier because it doesn’t suffer from imbalances that can cause pain or create inefficiencies in exercises.
The software then establishes your BMI and shows you the result on a sliding scale as well as making your Mii’s body fit the BMI.
Let me tell you that seeing my Mii fatten up as my BMI rose from 0 to 29 was quite a shocking (and even humiliating) ordeal. While my 2 children and wife have pencil thin Miis, mine is a near-spherical, sweatshirt wearing cartoon that I see whenever I power up the system. Sigh…
After that, the software makes you go through a simple balance test. Armed with the results, it calculates your Wii Fit Age… which, usually for unfit people, is quite a few years above yours.
I scored my exact age, mostly because I have relatively good balance. But in later tests, I got older quite fast.
I’m really not convinced that this Wii Age thing adds anything valuable to the product.
After the test, you get to stamp your personal training calendar and are asked to set yourself a weight loss/gain goal for the next 2 weeks.
All of this, peppered by numerous health information and tips on BMI, posture and physical activity.
Let me tell you that it’s a very preachy piece of software.
Now you can finally start doing the actual exercises provided by the software.
Before I go into them, I want to note that you are expected by the program to do other types of physical activity than those provided in the program and you are encouraged to log them (as light, medium and heavy exercise, along with a duration) in your personal journal provided in the program.
Wii Fit comes with 4 types of exercises, most of which use the Wii Balance b oard in one way or another, some very creatively.
You also get to chose a female or male trainer, complete with decent voice acting (my version is French, because our Wii is set to French) that runs you through all exercises (with visual examples) and add plenty of encouraging.
They are:
- Yoga: Breathing, Stretching and posture exercises. Low impact and (technically) low effort. (If your personal sense of balance is shot, these will be hard!)
- Musculation: Classic Gym class exercises like squats, Push ups and sit ups.
- Aerobics: Fun activities like hula hoops, step aerobics and jogging (no balance board, you put the Wii mote in your pocket and do some stationary running)
- Balance games : Games where you shift your weight on the balance board to control a mini-game game like bouncing soccer balls on your head or slalom skiing.
As you play, the software tracks your score (number of repetitions or actual game scores) as well as the number of daily minutes spent doing these activities. As you cross score or time milestones, you unlock new exercises, games or levels of difficulty (like longer series of squats).
That’s a very motivating approach to the classic console unlocking scheme.
Finally, the game assumes that you will perform the physical tests everyday and it will not miss one occasion to remind you that you skipped days.
On top of it all, when you do gain weight, it asks you why and gives you a long list of reasons (Ate too much, nibbled all day and so on.) Heck, if you click on ‘I don’t know’ it even goes as far as challenging you about it!
I tell you this thing runs on guilt! I bet this was probably programmed by a Jewish-American or Catholic mom!
In all fairness and honesty, the program also is very supportive, telling you that it’s okay to slow down, stop and try again later.
My family’s Experience.
After the humiliating introduction to the game, I must say that I found the program absolutely brilliant. The exercises in this thing can be HARD even for a guy that has been going to a gym (part time) for the last 10 years or so. I just wish I could spend more time on it…
We need a second TV.
My wife loves it and I truly think that this software, guilt trip, encouraging and all, was designed specifically for women.
But my greatest shock was to see my 6 year old son go bananas for it and spend more than 40 minutes hula-hooping and jogging through the lush Mii-populated landscapes. I hope this stays like that!
The Bottom Line
Wii Fit is a complete gym program rolled into a 100$ product. It’s all there, testing, followups, exercise, journals, trainers and guilt! 🙂
It is a very family-oriented product. As you perform exercises and games, you see the other ‘registered’ users (up to 8 total) help you and play with you.
The only thing missing from it is diet (which is the actual cause of obesity) but I don’t believe that a video game console could tackle this in any kind of useful or efficient way.
As I said before, that very well may be the next step in the physical videogame revolution that will gets us and our kids moving again.
I remain concerned about the weight limit and size of the balance board and think that it may prevent a significant part of the target audience from actually getting the game.
Regardless, I recommend it heartily and it’s a must have addition to all Wii-equipped households.
Come on, shake that flab!
I’m sorry, I forgot to activate comments… This WP build is different from the one I use on my side.
My bad… that will teach me to post while Dave is away at a Con.
POST A PICTURE OF THE MII!! 🙂 I demand to see this porky Mii. You can do Before/After Mii pics!
Two posts in a row, both about balance, but completely different!
I’ll try to take a picture of the Screen and put it up on my side of the bloggsphere, I promise.
@Dave: It’s Balance Week at CH! 🙂
The game sounds pretty good.
It is. I think all health conscious households should have one… As soon as they become available.
Plus Wii Ski is already out and it uses the Balance Board as the main input device.
Oh and I also learned that a Wii can handle up to 10 Wireless controllers such as the Wiimotes and the Balance Board, so no issues for families with a full set of Wiimotes.
I also got Wii Fit (mine arrived from Wal*Mart (I don’t normally shop there, but the price was good) a day early. Go me (mii?).), and I’ve been loving it.
I think the most disturbing thing when I set up was the animated balance board. It’s not so much that it’s animated, it’s the weird, cute, little voice that they gave it (especially with it saying “That’s obese” when it measures your BMI).
In all I like it, though I haven’t been able to find the Work-out Journal (I wanted to enter the 1.5 hours of Fencing I did, but I haven’t found a way to do so). I make an effort to do at least the Yoga exercises every day. Really, I have two goals: I want to not be obese (healthy would be best, but my current goal is “Not obese”), and I’m trying to be a little bit healthier for fencing (starting tournaments at the end of June, and balance and endurance both could use a bit of improvement… that’s what I get for taking 5 years off).
Thanks for the review, Chatty. I really hope that more people pick up this thing. I, personally, think that it’s great.
@Felonius: Thanks for the Kudos.
You can find the ‘activity Log’ by starting on your Calendar Page. Then you select Graph at the left of the calendar.
On the Graph select the Fit Credit button and then select activity log.
There you can log in all your non-Wii Fit activities.
Great review Chatty. I’d agree with almost everything you said. My wife bought one last week when they came out and we’ve been having a blast with ours.
Personally I’m a size 12 shoe at 250 lbs. and haven’t been having any trouble with the size of the board. I can see how if someone was much bigger though it could be a problem.
As for weight limits I find the 350lbs to be quite generous. Not that long ago I was getting very close to 300lbs when I decided enough was enough and had to lose weight. I wanted to change my metabolism more than my eating habits. The problem was finding low impact exercise equipment rated for someone over 250lbs. I had to lose weight with dieting before I could even consider buying an elliptical. The elliptical was it’s own reward. I think the Wii Fit might be the same way for some people and 350lbs is a much more reasonable goal imo.
I also loved the morph of the Mii to match your stats. Looking at a little porky me on the screen is a great motivator. 🙂 We even made a Mii for our 3 year old who loves to do the yoga and aerobics exercises. Our 10 year old who is under weight has been loving the strength exercises to build muscle.
With the Wii Fit Channel installed you can even check in when you don’t have time to train. It’s great for tracking diet progress too.
I’m with you. This one is a winner. I just wish there was a way to automatically tie in activity from Wii Sports as well since some of those games can give you a decent aerobics workout too.
“Also, the machine was not directly designed for large feet. I wear Size 10 (American) shoes and the length of my feet are barely contained by the device.”
I’d hardly say that’s a large foot. I know people with size 16+. If size 10 is almost too big, that’s got to add up to at least 50% of people.
150kg = 330lbs
http://www.google.com/search?q=150kg+in+lbs
Very nice Game. I like it.
I’m not sure that the extra large version you suggested would be limited to just the obese.
While my BMI is perfectly healthy I have large feet (size 12) so while I’m not fat a version that accommodates those of us with large feet would be appealing.