Review: "….and now you too can have the body of your dreams for the low cost of $89.99!" Editor’s Note: Actual effort may be required.
Aaaaah..yes, good ‘ole Nintendo. The famed creators of Mario, the Legend of Zelda, Metroid….and now a lifestyle product? Hard to believe that a little more than ten years ago Nintendo was waging war with Sony for producing the most hardcore video game system with the Nintendo 64. Boasting “Pixar-like” graphics and an incredible first-party lineup, Nintendo seemed like in a prime position to take over as the king of the video game hill. Nowadays, they’re aiming to change that demographic to king of the casual gamer mountain.
As a spiritual successor in the line-up of first-party interactive Wii titles (Wii Sports, Wii Play, etc.), Wii Fit takes players on an epic journey to lose body fat and shrink that BMI that was accumulated from endless raids in Azeroth, reaching level 99 in Final Fantasy, and eating bags of Doritos while downing gallons of RockStar and Red Bull in one sitting. In all seriousness though, Wii Fit marks a serious turning point in the stereotypical thinking that video games are nothing more than mindless entertainment. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the past couple months, you’ve no doubt heard about the endless possibilities of Wii Fit and it’s slogan ‘how will it move you?’ From daytime talk shows to housewife magazines, Wii Fit has been targeted to those who are interested in something else and something new: exercise made fun.
Wii Fit’s activities are divided into four main categories: yoga, strength training, aerobics, with a heavy concentrated dose of balance. Each of these are made up of twenty or so unique activities which are aimed to help target specific areas of your body during your workouts. Although the limited amount of activities makes the game rather shallow, the game functions more as an additional tool than an actual weight loss/strength gaining machine. Sure you’ll work up a sweat with Wii Fit alone, but it’s much more effective when combined with other forms of exercise. So for those of you thinking that this will replace your gym membership, you might want to think about holding on to those cards a little longer. Although most of the primary categories are limited to you working out with your trainer, the balance and aerobic mini-games helps to add some variety into the game’s overall presentation and atmosphere.
Similar to the Nintendo brain-style games, Wii Fit includes a test that will tell you your Wii Fit age as well as your BMI* and weight. Depending on whether your obese or underweight, your Mii will change size and will cry from the agony that befell it. Luckily, you can set a password so that no one else can see your measurements. From there the player gets to choose his/her own personal trainer and is allowed to set goals of losing/gaining weight within a certain amount of time. Stray too far from your goals and gain weight, and the Wii Balance Board will scold you and ask you why you think you gained weight. Lose weight, and it’ll congratulate you for staying with your program. Personally, I find these tools to be the most rewarding part of the entire experience as it’s quiet handy when you combine it with other forms of exercise outside of Wii Fit.
Like Brain Age, the amount of satisfaction with Wii Fit is parallel with how consistent you’re willing to “play” the game every day. Like all forms of exercise, Wii Fit will most likely eventually become a redundant chore after its initial charm begins to wear off. If you’re undisciplined and let the balance board sit on your shelf it won’t do anything for you or your wallet and will leave you once again leave you hoping to find the magical miracle fountain of exercise. However, if you put in the effort you’ll find yourself coming back for more day after day even after we move onto the next- next- next- generation of gaming; in addition to having a well-toned body.
Graphically, the game is what you would expect from the ‘Wii-‘ series of titles. You use your Mii’s (which get fat or skinny depending on your BMI) and the graphics consist of your typical low-res low-poly environments that we’ve become accustomed too with the system; then again, if you’re looking for the best graphics of next-gen gaming, you wouldn’t be reading this article would you?
Audibly, the game is just about the same as its graphics counterpart in that the game has it’s charming little tunes that repeats over and over. If any game could’ve been enhanced by the use of custom MP3 tracks, this was it. Hopefully they’ll fix that in future expansions. The trainers also say the same exact lines every single time, so don’t expect them to replace your workout buddy as they don’t do anything other than act as a simple guide.
Xbox 360 | XBLA
PS3 | PSN
Wii | VC
DS
PSP
iPhone
PS2
PC
Retro
