Wii Fit...

I am still playing my 6 or 7 year-old Playstation 2, but have been looking forward to getting back to the US and purchasing one of the fast new systems - either the Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360. Noah, however, has been pushing for a Nintendo Wii. The Nintendo Wii has become extremely popular even though the graphics of its games are more rudimentary than the other more powerful systems.

What Wii did was make video game playing attractive to traditional non-gamers, mostly from the use of its unique controller that can be used in a realistic manner in games like bowling, tennis and baseball.

Our friends have a Wii and we first tried it last fall. It was fun and easy to use. I started to consider actually buying a Wii instead of the more powerful (and higher priced) PS3 and Xbox 360. This past weekend Noah was able to try the new game Wii Fit, that uses another clever new gadget, the Wii balance board.

From Wikipedia:

Wii Fit uses a unique platform peripheral called the Wii Balance Board that can measure a user's weight and their center of gravity, and calculate their body mass index when told the user's height. The game has about 40 different activities, including yoga poses, push ups, and other exercises. Furthermore, Wii Fit allows its players to compare their fitness by using Wii Fit's own channel on the Wii Menu.

Wii Fit tracks a user's "Wii Fitness Age" through a daily body test basing the result on the user's current age, weight, and athletic ability.

According to Shigeru Miyamoto when speaking to IGN during an interview at E3 2007, there are currently no plans to integrate any WiiConnect24 functionality into Wii Fit. He did note, however, that there could be possibilities to take advantage of the WiiConnect24 in the future, such as using the service to keep in contact with a doctor to help with rehabilitation, or with a fitness specialist to help with training exercises.



Noah was hooked on Wii Fit right away and is more determined than ever to convince me to buy a Wii. He spent every second he could playing Wii Fit. He jogged, which is actually just running in place but your character on the screen runs through diffent park setting, and played a ski jumping game that used the balance board to neat effect. There is also a hula hoop game where you move your hips and you see the results as your character on-screen works the hula hoop. It's quite comical to watch someone pretend to hula hoop.


Here's a video from YouTube that demonstrates the hula hoop game.

This may be the natural evolution of kids and video games. The only way to get them to exercise is make a video game out of it. I think this will be a huge success and they have only scratched the surface of its potential. I foresee physical therapy using Wii (or Wii-like technology) including exercises for the elderly that can be done at home. I think I have decided to get the Wii instead of the other "muscle" systems, at least until the more powerful systems start to use the Wii's controller and balance board.