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Don the Spandex!
Let's assume you've stopped laughing at the idea of me in jogging shorts, stretching and talking about electrolytes and that you've accepted that, for once, such procedures are perfectly justified preparations for a computer game. Let's assume that.There are four or five stages to Wii Fit depending on how you want to look at it. There's yoga, which we've already touched on, but there's also sections for balance games, aerobic exercises and muscular workouts. Each one showcases a different type of activity and places different demands on the player.
The fifth section in Wii Fit is the bodytest, which you're meant to do every time you play the game – or even better, every day. Here you can re-test your BMI (taking the weight of your clothing into account via special options which remove the need to play in the buff), retest your fitness age and so on.
Before you enter into any of the specific activities though there is yet one more obstacle to overcome – each player must choose a personal trainer. The trainer will then replace the balance board persona for the most part and act as the player’s on-screen mirror image, showing you what to do.
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There’s a male and female trainer to choose from, both of them almost completely androgynous and non-racial. Each one speaks in a perfectly pitched blend of American and English, with skin that is a curious mixture of grey and white to avoid committing to a specific race. There is therefore absolutely no difference between the trainers and both of them look utterly asexual.
And yet still, my girlfriend still watched me closely as I was asked to choose between a man or woman in spandex. She said she didn't care which character I chose, but I doubted the sincerity of that remark. Not seeing a difference anyway, I selected the male trainer in an attempt to avoid any fallout.
After my initial disappointment with the first stage of the yoga exercise, which I recognise as being an important stage in actual yoga but not really a fun thing to do in front of a TV, I moved onto something more advanced. Balancing games sounded the most fun of the available choices (though measuring my BMI again sounded like a total hoot).
The balancing games section seemed a good choice as, instead of seeing the stages represented by my chosen
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Each of the balance games is essentially very short, but has an adjustable skill level and length to unlock. You can also unlock more games to try as you progress through Wii Fit and set new high scores. The difficulty of each balance game varies from the incredibly easy ones like heading footballs to the impossibly difficult game where you have to tilt a board and navigate balls into holes by shifting your weight.
Still, the balance games are fun and having a wide selection of difficulties and activities means that there’s something for all ages and abilities – which seems to be Nintendo's motto lately and that is rarely a bad thing.
It also means that if you're an early adopter and are only picking up Wii Fit for the future promise of the balance board rather than out of any real interest in keeping fit then you'll have something to entertain yourself with for a few hours.
Of course, that doesn't really apply for most people and the vast majority of gamers will be picking up the Wii Fit with the intention of using it to keep fit. Even if all the passion for that aim quickly dissipates into other projects then the fitness side of Wii Fit is still what many people will be interested in...