Wii Fit Review
Nintendos latest foray into the blue ocean has arrived, and ever since it was announced at E3 last year it has been a hot topic of conversation for gamers. Does it herald the death of gaming as we know it? Will Nintendo turn its back on the core gamer and target the burgeoning middle age female demographic?
For all of those holding tightly onto their retro titles and rocking back and forth in the foetal position, its time to put down the pitchforks and stop the doomsday messages; WiiFit is not the death of gaming as we know it. Rather, it is a glimpse into a very exciting future of gaming that has some very interesting prospects ahead of it.
WiiFit can almost be looked at as two different things. One is the Wii Balance Board, the large, heavy peripheral you will be standing on for most of the game, and the WiiFit software which tracks your weight loss (or gain) progress and offers up a series of different exercises and games.
Lets talk about the Balance Board first. This really is one of the best peripherals to have been made; well designed, solid and absolutely worth the hefty price of admission. The Balance Board not only measures your weight, but also your centre of gravity and the number of objects placed on it. Remarkably accurate, the balance board has wide ranging applications in other games, and already one third-party title in Japan makes use of it as an input method. EA has recently announced skate it for Wii and confirmed the Balance Board can be used in the game. If the skiing and snowboarding mini-games in WiiFit are any indication, skate it could be a real revolution in sports control only available on Nintendos console.
WiiFit the software can also be broken down into two categories; toning and muscle building exercises and more mini-game style activities like hula hooping, skiing and snowboarding. The toning and building exercises, categorised into Yoga and Muscle Workouts, have an on screen trainer going through different exercises whilst you perform the same movements using the Balance Board or Wiimote. If anyone thinks that they wont give you a serious workout, try doing 20 press ups and side stand reps, 30 jack knives or a 90 second parallel stretch hold and then come back. Yes, WiiFit will get your heart rate going and you will probably end up sore the next day after a long workout.
When you first start using WiiFit, youll only have access to a few workouts, and on the lowest rep level. After youve played each workout a few times, youll start to unlock more reps and other workouts, and here is where a few annoyances start to come in. It is ok to have higher rep counts unlockable, but they will unlock after an arbitrary number of attempts of a workout, not after scoring highly. This means you might not have even finished a beginner parallel stretch, but the game tells you youre getting good at it and decides you should try out advanced, which is three times longer. Having some exercises needing to be unlocked also makes jumping straight into WiiFit a little bit harder than it should be, as you wont be able to give everything a go at once.
Each Muscle and Yoga workout is also linked to another workout and WiiFit recommends you do both of them, ticking them off once youve completed both workouts. What is strange here is that you cant go directly from finishing a press up and side stand and go directly into the downward facing dog; you need to quit the first exercise, change from Muscle to Yoga, then choose the linked exercise. Going from one exercise into the next would help improve your desire to complete these workouts as moving between the exercises is currently not the smoothest. Another disappointing omission is the inability to create a workout session; it would be fantastic if you could choose all the exercises you wanted to do in a set order, and move from one to the next without having to return to the selection menu after finishing each one. Here is hoping Nintendo can improve this in their inevitable next version of WiiFit.
The mini-game portion of WiiFit is split into two areas, Aerobic Exercises and Balance Games. Aerobic Exercises include things such as hula hooping, jogging and step routines. These range from the surprisingly strenuous (Hula Hooping) to the absolutely pointless (Jogging) and everywhere in between. Balance Games offer small games such as heading soccer balls, navigating a bubble down a canyon by balancing and crouching and extending yourself at the right time to do a ski jump. Pretty much all of the Balance Games are executed fantastically, and they prove to be excellent fun for almost anyone. You would have to be a pretty jaded person not to get at least a snicker out of getting a soccer shoe to the head, and more goal oriented gamers will get pleasure in getting the best time in the skiing and snowboarding games. Both the Aerobic Exercises and Balance Games feature heavy Mii integration which adds to the experience.
Of course, the part of WiiFit which is getting the most attention is the weight and BMI measurements. BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a way of taking your height and weight, and then letting you know if you need to lay off the pizza and thick shakes. A problem inherent in some BMI calculations and present here in WiiFit, is their inability to take into account body structure and muscle amount. Muscle is about 22% heavier than fat, meaning those with more muscle could start to hit the Overweight area in WiiFit, and those with lighter body frames could be labelled underweight.
The included manual does talk about this, however when using the software, this distinction is never mentioned, and your friendly balance board companion while playing will make recommendations to get down to the Ideal weight range for your height. Nintendo will absolutely need to address this in newer versions of WiiFit and I wouldnt be surprised if they repress the disk with some of these alterations.
Overall, is WiiFit worth your hard earned dollars? In regards to the Balance Board, absolutely. As already mentioned, the Balance Board is surprisingly accurate with its measurement of your position, and this is already being integrated into other games, and will continue to be used for years to come in both traditional games and other pieces of software akin to WiiFit. As for WiiFit the software, its shortcomings are far outweighed by its strengths. The exercises included will absolutely raise a sweat, and the stat recording and other game like aspects could serve to keep people motivated to exercise more than an instructional video or other home based equipment could.
Those who are looking to better manage their weight and lifestyle can find a very helpful tool in WiiFit that will keep track of their progress and provide them with daily motivation. Even those looking for a fun diversion could do far worse, with the Balance Games and Aerobics Exercises providing a fair bit of fun on their own.
WiiFit is going to be an absolute sales monster but those fearing about a death for gaming shouldnt really worry, WiiFit, and especially the Balance Board, could provide a shot in the arm for the industry and open a doorway of gameplay possibilities not before thought possible.
