‘Wii Fit’ makes fitness fun
April 24, 2008 ::
Wii Want to Play. Do you?: Trey Holland, left, a senior in marketing, and Parker Morris, a junior in civil engineering, play Nintendo Wii. A new game for the popular console, Wii Fit, is set to hit stores next month. Pete Riley / PHOTO EDITOR“Sweatin’ to the Oldies” and the infinite number of weight-loss and workout DVDs at electronics stores will soon have some new competition from an unexpected place: the video game industry.
A new product for Nintendo’s Wii gaming console will offer owners the opportunity to keep track of and, like Fergie, work on their fitness.
The device, to be released in the United States May 19, is called “Wii Fit,” and consists of a game disc and a Balance Board capable of weighing the user and locating their center of gravity for the game’s different activities.
When the user inputs information like their height and age, the game combines this with the weight information and calculates the player’s body mass index rating. Throughout the player’s use of the game, the game will keep track of the user’s weight loss or gain.
Activities the game allows the user to do include a ball-rolling mini-game, which uses the Balance Board to let the player act as if they’re standing on top of a ball and must roll it towards a target, like multi-directional log rolling.
Other games include ski jumping, snowboarding, tightrope walking, and hula hooping.
The game also includes activities users could do without the game, like push-ups, jogging, step aerobics and yoga exercises, but the game tries to present them in a manner that is viewed as more fun than work.
Shane McDonald, an employee at a local games retailer, said his store has been accepting preorders for the game for several months.
“It’s selling like crazy in Japan, something like 1.5 million units, and if it sells like that over here at the $89.99 price point, it’s going to be huge,” McDonald said.



