Written by Derrick Sanskrit
I found myself cycling through all the photos on my hard drive this past weekend, remembering all the good times I had in college and the wacky stuff I've done in the years since. What I didn't expect to see, though, was the radical change in my appearance. I am in no way obese but I'm noticeably lumpier than my sleek and slim sophomore self. My nightly routine of sit-ups was replaced by senior thesis work. Then came the workaday world of sitting on my ass and eating greasy food. I'm not looking to lose a lot of weight or have rippling biceps, and I sure as heck don't have the time or energy to go join a gym. I want an easy way to define my body a little better and have fun doing it.
I got my copy of Nintendo's Wii Fit a few days ago. This new "game" uses a scale-like board that you stand on to track your balance as you play through various activities designed to help you work on your muscles and posture. Here’s what I think after the first three days:
First, this software is designed to be relaxing. The music is gentle, the colors are bright but subdued; the overall tone is very calm. Even when you break a sweat (and you will break a sweat), it never feels like the game is pushing you too hard. I was delighted by the slow rhythmic whistles during the Strength Training exercises that signal when you should be in a new position. I used to try to do as many push-ups as I could as quickly as I could just to get them over with, but working along with these whistles forces me to slow down, which simultaneously creates a greater reaction in my muscles and relaxes the tension in my arms so I don't burn out as easily.
While the Strength Training section of activities aims to tone muscle mass, the Aerobics section is strictly focused on burning calories. The most fun of these so far is the hula hoop activity. You stand on the board and rotate your hips, just like it sounds, and your Mii avatar mimics your movements. Occasionally you must tilt your body to the side in order to catch another hoop as your other Miis (You do have a slew of Miis made of all your friends and favorite celebrities, right? Of course you do!) toss them to you. It’s an incredibly simple task, but by the end of the two minutes you will definitely be feeling active. I also enjoyed jogging, wherein you slip the Wii Remote in your pants pocket - you can also hold it in your hand, if you don't have pockets - and jog in-place as your Mii goes for a run through a pristine park. The game encourages you to jog at a comfortable pace and deters cheating by making your Mii trip and fall if the remote shakes at an unrealistic running speed. Had it not been for the clearly defined course and all my virtual friends, family, and Michael Jackson rooting me on, I probably would have stopped running about halfway through the park, but the goal in sight encourages you to keep at it, and making it to that finish line really does feel like a reward, despite the gentle burning in your lower chest.
Having never done any yoga before, I was impressed with how calming this portion of the game is. The first activity is breathing. Hey, I can do that! Deep, slow breathing keeping your balance as centered as possible calms and readies you for the next activity. The on-screen trainer - you can choose a male or female. I recommend whichever one is least likely to distract you - demonstrates each step of the pose for you, so a complete novice can replicate them with relative ease. After my first run-though of the Half-Moon stance I felt an unfamiliar stretching in both of my sides and my arms, but I felt even more invigorated and awake. Yoga has been my favorite way to start the day since I first acquired Wii Fit.
The fourth set of activities is balance games. These are, as the name implies, the most game-like activities in the software, with balance controlled rounds of ski jumping, slalom, tightrope walking, and more. These are certainly fun, and inspire a good bit of competition - my sister and I kept attempting to best each other's ski jumps all night - but these activities are where the balance board shows its weaknesses. The skiing asks you to crouch down in order to accelerate, but when my sister crouches down, she pushes her weight to the balls of her feet. The game interprets this as leaning backwards and slows her down. It took a few tries to get her used to really leaning forward. It is also difficult to precisely control your movements when heading oncoming soccer balls. You naturally tilt your upper body and head from side to side, but most people I've seen push down on their left foot when they lean to the right and vice versa. The game expects you to tilt all of your body weight in the direction of the ball.
Finally, separate from the training activities is Body Test, the physical equivalent of Brain Age Tests in the popular Brain Age games for Nintendo DS. You engage in two randomly chosen balance tests and, based on your balance performance, weight, previously input height and date of birth, the game assigns your Body Mass Index (with optional weight) and Fitness Age. Much like in Brain Age, my results have fluctuated a bit the first few days but have (thankfully) never veered too far from my actual age. You can set wight loss (or gain) goals in two-week intervals and the game will tell you whether you’re on track for those goals.
So far, despite a few issues, Wii Fit has succeeded in getting my friends, family and I genuinely excited about exercising again. The more time you spend training, the more activities you unlock, so there's still a lot for me to try out. Will I still be excited about my morning yoga in two weeks? I don't know, but I hope so. Be on the lookout for part two of this review after I've had a little more time with Wii Fit and, hopefully, lost a couple of pounds.