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Wii Fit Plus

by Neal Ronaghan - June 6, 2009, 4:00 pm EDT
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Some of Wii Fit Plus' balance games were out on the show floor. Check out what we think about Rhythm Kung Fu, Snowball Fight, and Obstacle Course.

In an effort to avoid having a really long set of impressions, I'm going to spread my Wii Fit Plus balance game impressions over two different articles. This is the first article. The second is here.

Nine of the fifteen new balance games from Wii Fit Plus were playable at E3 and from what I played the majority of them were fun and offered a lot of variation.

The first game I played was Rhythm Kung Fu, one of the two rhythm games playable. In the same vein as previous balance games such as Rhythm Boxing, Rhythm Kung Fu had players following the movements of on-screen characters that were set up in the outline of a pyramid with your Mii at the point of the pyramid in the middle of the screen.

Starting at the bottom of this pyramid, one of the Miis would perform a kung fu move, such as a right punch or a left kick, and then the next Miis in line would do it in some sort of rhythm. Finally, your Mii would replicate the movement as well. This was all controlled with the Wii Remote, Nunchuk, and Balance Board. To perform punches, you'd mimic the motion with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk and to perform kicks, you'd lift the corresponding leg up off the Balance Board and kick.

This game reminded me of Rhythm Heaven, but I had one issue with it. The Miis on screen were a mirror image of you, but for some reason you were required to perform the opposite of what they did. If the mirrored Mii performed a right punch, you'd have to perform a left punch. This made sense, but it was confusing.

The next game I tried was Snowball Fight, which is kind of like Time Crisis, but with snowballs instead of bullets. Basically, you stand on the balance board and point at the screen with the Wii Remote. By leaning to the left and right, you go out of cover; At this point, you point at your targets, which are other Miis, and click a button to fire. Sometimes the Miis are wearing snowmen outfits and you must hit them twice to knock them away. It's pretty simple, but it is a lot of fun.

My only worry with Snowball Fight is that it was very easy. In general, I hope all of these balance games have multiple modes, even more than what the ones in the original Wii Fit.

I also tried out Obstacle Course, which was touted at the Nintendo press conference as putting you in the shoes of Mario. It uses only the Balance Board and you run around by walking in place on the board while dodging various obstacles by running in place or jumping over them. Of course you don't literally jump; you just shift your weight. There were various checkpoints that you reached during this game and the difficulty ramped up as you went on. It wasn't as amazing as I expected, but it was still a fun little game.

I also tried Segway Ciruit. It replicates how a Segway controls almost perfectly by using the Balance Board to shift your weight forward and backward to move, using the Wii Remote to move left and right to turn. The goal of the game is to run around a beach setting and pop as many balloons as you can before time expires. However, the balloons, which come out of the ground, are often deflated by pesky moles before you can pop them. It is a fun idea on paper, but in practice it is just way too slow.

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Wii Fit Plus Box Art

Genre Simulation
Developer Nintendo
OnlineYes

Worldwide Releases

na: Wii Fit Plus
Release Oct 04, 2009
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone
jpn: Wii Fit Plus
Release Oct 01, 2009
PublisherNintendo
RatingAll Ages
eu: Wii Fit Plus
Release Oct 30, 2009
PublisherNintendo
Rating3+
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