Wii Fit

Wii Fit

Having upped the general IQ of videogame players the world over by way of Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, Nintendo has now turned its attention to fixing the rest of our overweight, over-tired bodies. Don’t be fooled, this is no virtual reconstruction of fitness training in which you use your thumbs to make a pixel character run a marathon or swim the English Channel. Rather Wii Fit is out to tone your actual, real-life body, reduce your weight, drag your BMI down to where it should be and, as we’ve found out a week into our daily training schedule, make you painfully aware of muscles you never knew you had.

It achieves this by way of the Balance Board, an extremely sturdy pair of Apple-white weighing scales that come bundled with the game. For the vast majority of the game’s content you’ll be standing on the balance board, shifting your weight from side to side as you stretch, flex and strain yourself into health.

The first time you switch on Wii Fit you’re asked for your age and height before being given a microscopically accurate read-out of your weight (which can be password protected if you’re feeling coy). As the Balance Board is split into two halves, the game also calculates where your centre of gravity lies, letting you know if it’s too far to the left or the right, or if you put too much weight on your heels or toes. From these readings the game determines your current BMI and evaluates your posture, using these results to give an overview of your general level of fitness. You then enter how much weight you want to lose over how many weeks or months (the game warns you if your goals are unrealistic) and your path to renewed health and vigor is set.

The exercises used to achieve this weight loss are split into four categories: Yoga, Muscle Workouts, Aerobic Exercises and Balancing Challenges. Each exercise type comes with five initial basic routines and, as you play you accrue minutes which automatically unlock new exercises as you progress from day to day. The Yoga work outs are intended to work unusual muscles and increase flexibility.

These tasks are introduced by a virtual trainer (you can pick if you’d like a man or a woman) and you have to mirror his or her movements over a set number of reps. All the while the game is measuring your centre of balance and, at the end of the exercise you’re scored on how well you maintained balance throughout the task. As you can have multiple players on the same Wii Fit the game produces a leaderboard for each and every task so there’s an element of competition to everything you do.

Muscle Workouts follow a similar pattern, with your personal trainer leading you through exercises for various muscles groups, the Balance Board measuring the amount of pressure you’re applying during the push-ups, sit-ups and lunges. The aerobic exercises are more light-hearted. In one you put the Wiimote in your pocket and jog on the spot as your character takes a turn around a beautiful countryside village. Finally, the Balancing Games are the most traditional of the lot, as you use you weight to guide slalom skiers down a mountain or control a man in a penguin suit as he collects fish from either side of an iceberg.

Wii Fit expects you to check in every day or so and, each time you do, it will re-measure your weight. Over time a graph emerges showing your weight-loss through the program. Players are offered advice if they’re not moving towards the target BMI in a timely fashion and, played with friends, this ensures it’s one of the most effective ways in which to lose weight and gain fitness over an extended period of time.

Wii Fit deftly treads the line between game and home gym. One moment you’ll be roaring with laughter as you wrench your hips in ridiculous circles in an effort to keep five invisible hoops spinning around your waist; the next your face will be contorted in agony as your biceps and pectorals burn with lactic acid during a press-up face off with your personal trainer. Wii Fit might be a novel way for the grandfather of videogames to atone for contributing to three generations of couch potatoes, but it’s difficult to imagine a better entry release for what will almost certainly become a new genre overnight.

5 out of 5