Witness The Fitness

So the time has finally come and Wii Fit has finally graced our household. Little Miss WLIG insisted that we have it after playing on her brothers copy at her parents house. I believe my level of commitment to the project was; "it's your money hun, do what you want". Suffice to say that I wasn't too enthusiastic about playing around with Nintendo's £70 cash cow. Despite this, the other day a nice big play.com package hit our door step, the Wii was moved out of my office space and into the living room, and the Wii-Fitting began.

I have to say, that the game takes forever to get into if you're a first time user. Everything, including your weight, height, bmi, posture and ability to balance will be measured, as the game cheerily informs you of how obese you are and how bad your posture is. Already I don't like this thing telling me how unhealthy I am, and I consider having a smoke while I play just to have my own smug way of silently laughing at the trendy white balance board. Oh, and if you have not used the balance board before, it does have an annoying habit of saying "ouch" every time you step on it, which was cute the first few times we used it, but really begins to grate after the nth time.

In regards to the balance board itself, I have to say that I am quite impressed with it. It's a lot more responsive than I thought it would be, and it knows exactly where on the board you are putting pressure, meaning it can recognise if you are leaning in a particular direction, rather than just picking up on which foot you have on the board.

I regards to the training it offers, the activities are very varied. I personally preferred the balance games, especially one of the games that resemble the old Marble Madness that I used to play on the NES. But the ability level required of the player differs greatly between each of the games. For instance, some of the muscle work outs require you to be able to do a handful of push ups and as well as one handed push ups (I must confess, that I was rubbish at this), something that could present quite a challenge for those who aren't in the best of shape. But some of the games like free jogging don't even require the balance board and are extremely simple, requiring little to no effort. Surely a lack of effort defeats the whole point of Wii Fit?

I'm not sure where I stand on Wii Fit, one part of me wants to buy into the 'casual gaming is the new black' spiel that Nintendo keeps on pumping out, and admit that this is a clever piece of kit that if used correctly could help you on your way to becoming healthy. The other side of me is being slightly more jaded and wants nothing to do with this thing that is supposedly entertaining, but could hardly be called a game! As I do see both the positives and  negatives in Wii Fit, my only recommendation to you would be to try it, maybe avoid purchasing it if you can, but at least give it a go, then form your opinion.