Step up and get healthy with this non-game from Nintendo. Updated with even more information! http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/previewArt.cfm?artid=13858 Following the success of Wii Sports, Nintendo has revealed their next mass market, physical game -- Wii Fit. This game, which is more like an exercise program, will include the Wii Balance Board. The new hardware is like a floor scale with four sensors, two under each foot. It can measure your Body Mass Index (a ratio of height and weight) as well as determine your balance in real time.
Here's the "gameplay" trailer from the press conference:
Wii Fit appears to be played mostly without the Wii Remote, although at least one activity shown at Nintendo's E3 press conference did use the remote. For the most part, you will stand on the Balance Board and shift your weight to play the game. Sometimes you will lift a foot off the board or even step off completely.
Wii Fit includes multiple yoga-like activities, including stretches and balancing exercises. There is a DDR-like rhythm game in which you step on or off the Balance Board according to on-screen cues. A crowd of Miis also dance along to the music, helping you to see and hear the rhythm to be matched. There is a soccer mini-game in which you must lean to each side to "head" incoming soccer balls and also avoid foreign projectiles. In a hula hoop game, you must not only gyrate to keep the hoops spinning but must also lean around to catch additional hoops being thrown at you. The trailer also showed a man doing push-ups, with his hands placed on the board. The program can even analyze your posture, based on your center of gravity when standing on the Balance Board. There are over 40 activities in all, falling within four major categories: aerobics, muscle conditioning, yoga, and balance games.
Wii Fit tracks your Body Mass Index (BMI) over time, and it can display a comparison among several users in a single household, each one represented by his or her Mii. Nothing was mentioned about whether this feature might be online-enabled for comparisons with friends far away, although there is precedent for such a feature in Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. According to press materials, the fitness statistics will be housed in their own separate channel on the Wii menu, so you won't even need to have the game disc inserted to view your progress. In modern Nintendo fashion, you are also assigned a "Wii Fit Age" based on your BMI, center of gravity, and sense of balance.
So far, Nintendo has said nothing about a release date or pricing for Wii Fit, but you can bet that it will be a huge success among the soccer moms and grandparents who have made Wii such a mainstream sensation.
Topic: PREVIEWS: Wii Fit (Read 3601 times)
