Wii Fit
So every other site has made the 'Wii Fit - Better then sex' jokes right?
By Matt Kelly
So this week I've been having some horrible back pains. If you work in a desk job that involves working at a computer all day, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. You get yourself into funny positions while you work, and it just ends badly. Unless of course you're one of those people with perfect posture but I think a lot of us fail with that. So Wii Fit, the new fitness program meets video game was probably just about the right thing to review this week. We ran a preview a few weeks ago talking about a few of the games, and it's pretty hard to avoid not knowing what's in the software, so I guess what we're going to talk about today is the question, is it worth it?
And we can answer that questions with, yeah pretty much. If you're someone who doesn't go to the gym, obviously it's much better than doing nothing at all. Even if you're someone who does do a physical activity, its still a good additional thing to do at home. The whole game works on the principle of of controlling your balance, posture and physical movements. If you've played Brain Training you'll be familiar with the set up process. It will ask you to give it some basic info such as date of birth and height and then go through some basic tests. First of all it'll work out your BMI (we'll discuss the flaws in this a bit later) based on your height vs weight, and then put you through a few balance tests. After all of that, you'll get your Wii Fit age, and also be asked to set a fitness goal of a reduction in BMI. It'll give you a general indication of what is a good amount to lose (if any) but ultimately its for you to decide. Finally you'll get the option to set a password on your records so no one can access them and the main part of Wii Fit begins.
Wii Fit's greatest asset is in it's design. Despite the fact the game does have a very real fitness element to it, very little of the experience feels like a fitness program. Instead you will end up tackling the game in a similar way that you tackle Wii Sports or Wii Play. A set of mini games with scoring based on skill. Hiding the hardcore fitness element is probably the best move in its design, so when you're sweating from jogging on the spot for 5 or 10 minutes, it's not because you've been trying to get fit, but because you've been playing a game. It keeps you coming back and is a really rewarding experience.
In terms of the 'games' themselves, they're broken into four categories, Balance, Aerobics, Muscle Workouts, and finally Yoga. If you're looking for what is going to burn the fat, Aerobics is the place to start. These all revolve around big physical exercises, jogging for example will have you jogging on the spot for various lengths of time following an instructor through a lush island. Step work has you in a DDR meets high school stage dance show, step in time with the on screen prompts, and it's harder than it looks. Step Plus, which is the upper tier of the step work has you changing whether you're stepping on from the face forward to to the side, kicking your legs out and clapping along. It can't actually measure whether you're clapping along but it's fun to do! There's also rhythm boxing and and all mighty hula hoop game, and really, they do get pretty intensive if you get into them. Like any of these games there's always a way to cheat the system, but if you do you're only wasting $150 dollars in the process.
Balance games are the more physically relaxed of the lot, but still with their physical challenges. The main concept behind these is that good balance improves posture, and mainly involve shifting your weight between your left and right legs. We talked about a few of them in the preview and they're certainly the most varied category in the package. Table tilt for example will have you controller the balance to roll balls into holes, steadily getting harder and more complex as you rank up. Tight Rope Tension has you shift weight to get your character to walk across a tight rope, over balance and your character goes plummeting. All of these are built on the same concept but Nintendo certainly knows how to dress them up right.
Finally there the Yoga and Muscle Workouts and these are arguably going to challenge you the most unless you have some prior experience. Muscle Workouts involved reps of various moves, measuring your balance and feet/hand placement and pressure. Yoga on the other hand is built around holding poses, graceful movement and breathing exercises. One aspect that is really cool is it will give you work outs to 'complete the set' with, focusing on a particular part of your body. You'll have the exercise demonstrated to you by the motion captured trainer you selected during the set up, and then be asked to do it yourself with the trainer. The list of pros and cons about this design start getting very long at this point. While there is a wonderful on screen tutorial of what to do, just like everything else in the game it can be cheated, or worse, done wrong. Cheating isn't the major concern though, as its more the worry of getting yourself into bad exercise habits. Compare this to having a real life trainer walking around you, telling you what to do and pushing your body into correct positions, this is one of the major flaws in the health aspect of the game. On the flip side, if you do pay close attention to the instructions or have some prior experience, these exercises are wonderful in the sense that yes, it is your own personal trainer talking you through the motions and repeating it for you if you feel that you've missed something. If you've ever done a group yoga session, only to be struggling with something but the group is moving on to the next thing, you will enjoy the one on one aspect of Wii Fit. In terms of the legitimacy of Muscle and Yoga workouts, all the tasks have their own reasons and are no different from something you'd be doing in a gym. The lack of accurate feedback of these is a possible issue for those quick to rush into it, but the instructions are pretty solid, with multiple camera angles which allow you to check some of the finer points in what your body should be doing.
One thing that that is kind of missing from Wii Fit is some kind of continuous structured play. There's a lot to do in the game across a number of categories, but absolutely no structure beyond some basic recommendations. It would have been great to be able to say 'I want to work on this!' and have the game give you 5 or 6 games to work through. What would have been the gravy (ha!) to that is to also not have to touch the Wii Remote. Having to put it out of harms way and then grab it again is kind of annoying and ruins the rhythm.
While on flaws, let's talk about the BMI measurement of Wii Fit, and this is very important. BMI (Wii Fit or not) is a indication of weight to lose, not the be all and end all of recommendations. It can very easily give you the wrong idea depending on your build type, so if it is saying something drastic or unexpected, do go for further advice before throwing yourself at it. It is simply a height to weight calculation, nothing more.
Game progression is a pretty familiar, clock enough time with certain games and more will be unlocked. All of this is pooled into the Fit Piggy, a piggy bank that stores the time spent on the program. It will blip at you each time you clock 30 minutes, we're still assuming that is the recommended work out length but nothing in the manual states that. Maybe it's just 'Yeah, 30 minutes, go you!' feedback. The charting system of the game is great, not only allowing you to view all your Wii Fit stats, but record other physical activities out of the game in it.
Wii Fit's Audio/Visual side is almost not worth talking about given the nature of the product but here we go anyway. Graphically, you can look at it as an upgraded look of Wii Sports. More pixels, more polygons, more camera effects and more Miis. The interface is clean and crisp, and just like every other game from the 'Touch Generation' Nintendo brand, it makes instant sense so even if you're not a gamer, you'll feel right at home with this. The motion captured trainers are really useful, though perhaps a little more personality would have been nice, even if it had just been having some lip sync to what they were saying (instead of their mouths no moving at all).
Wii Fit does sound very much like Wii Sports, but again, more of it. A lot of the sound effects have been carried across, and the music is that same nice cheerful music that you probably won't be humming on the way to work, but still gives the game a bit of funk.
Summary:
Wii Fit is a killer product if you want what it offers. If you're someone who would rather be smooshing Goomba's all day with no urge to do any physical fitness activity at home, this probably isn't going to change that. For those of you who are interested, the design of Wii Fit makes it an incredibly enjoyable experience with some genuine avenues for results. As with any kind of physical activity, it isn't going to make you fit all by itself. But if you're someone with a busy life, or doesn't go to the gym, or just plain doesn't get excited about traditional methods, Wii Fit does a great job at being your at home trainer, and manages to hide the boring part of fitness quite well. It would have been nice to see a little more variation in the Aerobic Exercises, but no doubt Wii Fit 2 is already underway. In terms of everything else though, there's enough in there to keep you busy for a while, and the design of it will keep you coming back. incidentally my back pains have stopped.
Gameplay - 8.8
Wii Fit's game design does exactly what it should, give you a fitness routine that is fun to play and keep you coming back. Some kind of structured play mode would have been nice, and there are some flaws in the Yoga and Muscle performance feedback, but overall Wii Fit makes exercise fun. Progress and graphing systems are excellent.
Graphics - 7.0
Shiny and more complex, but overall hasn't changed from the style of Wii Sports.
Sound - 7.0
Recycled sounds but that's all part of the style right? Music is cool and suits it's purpose.
Replay - 9.0
The title does a great job at motivating you, and is great at allowing you to have a short or long session. Ultimately the game's overall appearance and design makes it fun rather than a chore.
Overall 8.5
Wii Fit won't convert you to a fitness freak but even if you've got only a slight bit of interest in regular exercise you will fall in love with the title.
If you're still not sure about the title, we're currently running a bit of experiment with it which will be published in a couple of weeks thanks to Matt Armitage. Look out for it soon!