A Wii title designed to give you a workout. We try it out.
July 12, 2007 - At its E3 2007 Media Briefing in Santa Monica, California, Nintendo pulled back the curtain on a unique title in the vein of Wii Sports, but taken to the next level. It's called Wii Fit (formerly codenamed Wii Health Pack), and it's really a two-part package. Part one revolves around a console-exclusive peripheral called the Wii Balance Board - essentially, a slim, white scale with built-in gyroscopic technology that very accurately measures shifts in weight and posture. Part two, of course, is the software that makes use of the device - in this case, a series of mini-game-like activities that challenge users to try different exercises for results that can be tallied and compared. If Wii Sports got your heart moving, and it might have, Wii Fit will really make you sweat and it will probably leave you sore the next morning, too.
The title has already become the darling of the mainstream press, and for good reason. It is a "videogame" with a purpose. You don't just shoot some bad guys or race some cars in a virtual world. You use the peripheral and the software to perform a wealth of daily exercises that are laid out and controlled to test your physical prowess, whether you want to do yoga or push-ups. It's a universally understood concept - something that even stubborn non-gamers find approachable. Not all hardcore gamers, on the other hand, are excited about the prospect of another "expanded audience" effort from Nintendo. We can relate to both sides, so when we finally kicked off our shoes and donned a pair of booties before stepping onto Nintendo's latest Wii add-on, we tried to keep our mind wide open.
It's the real deal. Wii Sports only scratched the surface of the newly explored health videogame genre, if that's what we're to call it, but Wii Fit dives headfirst into workout territory. Nintendo premiered a trailer for the title at its E3 2007 press conference and the footage showed off a large selection of workouts and exercises, including push-ups. However, in the demo we played, only a handful of modes were available, all designed exclusively for your feet. We wouldn't classify ourselves as the epitome of healthy living, but we do go to the gym on a regular basis, and we have engaged in both cardiovascular and strength training workouts. Wii Fit explores the former and we have to admit, it does give you a challenge. Even during its three balance tests (Balance Test, One Leg Balance Test and Agility Test), we found the process becoming difficult as time wore on.
All you have to do is step on the Balance Board with one leg and try to keep your weight centered. Easy, right? Not so much. Your weight is represented on-screen as a thin red line and whenever your balance shifts to one side or the other, the red line zigzags with it. The line itself is housed within a graphical blue bar, and the longer you stand there, struggling to maintain balance, the thinner the bar becomes. Sooner or later, even the slightest shift in weight will be enough to send the red line out of the bar's bounds, at which point you will effectively lose the test. Obviously, the trick is to stay within those limits for as long as you possibly can. It's pretty difficult. If you kept at it for a half hour, you'd probably have to wipe the sweat off your brow several times or more.
Standing on one leg for extended periods of time is more challenging than you might realize, but even some of the two-legged tests are no slouch. In one, you're challenged to shift your body weight quickly and accurately in order to move a red dot on-screen toward a series of blue squares. You're timed, and if you fail to shift correctly before the clock counts down, your red dot will not reach the blue squares and you'll lose. We started off well, but couldn't keep up as we advanced since the timer drained quicker.
It is the stretch exercises, though, that really give you a workout. In these, you might have to stand on your right leg, kick the left one backward, and stretch forward with your right arm, all while keeping an on-screen line balance line within the acceptable confines of a yellow zone. Within minutes, you can feel your heart moving.
There are other modes to play around with, some of which feel more like workout-videogame hybrids. For example, in Hoop Twirl, you swing your hips in a circular motion while standing on the Balance Bar, as though attempting to swing a hula-hoop. The mat can accurately read even the subtlest changes in your motion and posture and portray those changes on-screen via a Mii character animation. Every so often, AI-controlled characters will throw more hoops your way and to catch them you will need to lean forward, arms outstretched into the appropriate direction. If your balance is true, you will keep catching hoops and the more you have, the harder it becomes to maintain their momentum.
Soccer Ball Heading has been demonstrated in official videos. Here, you lean to the left or right on the Balance Board in attempts to align your on-screen Mii with oncoming soccer balls. Again, if your balance is true, you'll be able to head-butt them back; this happens automatically, you don't actually need to perform a head-butting gesture. We found this exercise to be particularly challenging because once you're off key, it can be challenging to get back on track. In addition, there's a Ski Jumping mode where the goal is merely to lean forward as your on-screen skier shreds down a slope, and then quickly lean up and back as he nears a jump. And finally, there's the downright hard Ball Rolling, where your balance essentially serves to steer on-screen balls, complete with realistic physics, around various puzzle boards and ultimately into holes. It's downright tough, and we didn't even advance to the "difficult" stages, according to Nintendo representatives on-hand.
What we played, we liked, but not everything is perfect. For one, the Balance Bar performed a calibration of your feet at the beginning of each challenge, which seemed like overkill. Worse, was that sometimes the title would ask you to step off and back on the board again, but then it would not register that you had actually done as told. Clearly, there are a few quirks left to be worked out, which is probably why the package, which will purportedly retail for more than $49, won't come out in Japan until this holiday and not in America until next year.
In addition to pure exercise endeavors, the Balance Bar has a lot of potential to be utilized in more traditional videogames. Who among us wouldn't like to control the board in SSX Tricky or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater using Nintendo's new peripheral, for example?
We'll have much more on what is sure to be one of Nintendo's most popular Wii "games" yet in the coming months. Until then, be sure to check out our media section for screens and videos.
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