Nintendo Wii Fit Review
Video games, which were first meant to be only for kids, slowly took over the adults too and since then, a major complaint that kept cursing off the video game manufacturers was that video games have took over their daily routine of exercising and is of no good. Just then Nintendo came up with a great solution called as the Nintendo Wii Fit. Before we go into the actual review of the Wii Fit, we will give you a small wrap-up on what the whole console is about, for those who are not aware of it.
Nintendo Wii console - An intro
Nintendo Wii is an innovative gaming system that uses the motion sensor technology that allows the gamer to control the on-screen movements by his/her own movements. If you are very keen on knowing more about the Nintendo Wii gaming console, read our Nintendo Wii Review in this website.. While for a gamer the Wii offers plenty of Wii sports style games, for the sake of fitness, there are series of exercises that range from yoga to circuit training. Nintendo Wii Fit is designed in such a way that whatever you choose to do, you get to play and keep yourself fit at the same time.
The Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board:
The Nintendo Wii Fit makes use of the interactive capabilities of the Wii console to develop ones physical fitness. The whole set up includes a 11″x9″ (WxD) inches balance board which is the main control of the Wii Fit over which you will stand on and the gaming software. It is an elegant and sturdy peripheral that features several internal scales that detects changes and pressures. The board has four rubber feet to help prevent it from slipping on smooth surfaces. The balance board is designed in such a way that it is tested to withstand all the gamers, yet has a weight limit of 150kgs. This balance board senses your center of gravity and weight by measuring the amount of pressure that you apply on each foot. The balance board works on 4 AA batteries that are included in the package. Similar to that of the Wii remote, the balance board is also very intuitive to use as you do an exercise or game.
Your first session:
On your first session with Wii Fit Game Console, it calculates your body mass index and gives your ideal weight, which is based on your height and once this is done, it displays your Wii Fit age, which would be a bad news for you most of the times. This takes into account your age, height and weight, and basically unless you are an athletic type, it humiliates you in bright letters on the screen in front of you. Suddenly the investment in a big TV will not be looking all that wise. Yet, you cannot leave it as it is and so, you will be compelled to do something about it. The Wii Fit from Nintendo will help you out by giving you daily workout of sorts which has a series of various activities that bother your body parts in different ways. Only one Wii Fit Age result can be recorded daily, although you can practice the variety of balance tests as many times as you want.
Tracks your fitness:
One thing that we liked to most about the Wii Fit is that, it keeps giving you immediate feedback on your progress and also keeps track of your work outs for a long period of time helping you to know if you are really improving or not. Another thing that we think that Nintendo has to make changes is that, each time you complete doing a pose, you will have to stand up and click over the next pose to continue. It would have been better if there was a flow.
The balance board is used by the Wii Fit to keep track of your weight on a daily basis too. The body weight is evaluated based on the BMI (Body Mass Index) and Wii Fit age. The Wii Fit games are fun and good workouts. For instance, if you take the skiing game, you go down a slope slalom style moving shifting the balance from your right to left foot. Which is a fantastic way of getting into practice for the real skiing. There are over 40 types of training activities that are designed to appeal to appeal people of all ages.
Problematic calculation:
The calculation of the BMI can prove to be problematic for some as the judgements such as that of the BMI and the fitness levels are not accurate. Nintendo does not explain the science of these measurements. While the BMI is good for measuring ones weight, the Wii Fit does not inform the user that variables such as muscle mass and age can significantly affect a score which results in rating a healthy, muscled person as over weighed.
Hard earned accesses:
You will not have access to everything at the beginning. You will have only little sessions of whatever you have unlocked. You get access to more only as you build up your training. You can also choose a password to protect your Wii Fit profile so that, the other users of the console cannot enjoy the access that you had got out of your hard work. And any unlocked activity can only be played with the profile that gains it.
Training:
The training falls into four major categories that are, Aerobic Exercise, Muscle Conditioning, Yoga Poses and fun balance games. The games and workouts are quick and linear as in the case of the Wii Sports. There is muscle building, some yoga, a lot of balancing works and even workouts for specific areas. For some of the activities, you will need to put yourself completely over the balancing board and for some others, you need to pick up your Wii remote.
All these categories have workouts form very basic stuffs to more strenuous ones. For instance, if you consider the muscle toning section, you get the basic lungs and then moves on to the strenuous parallel stretches and push-ups. The aerobic and balance activities have 18 games to choose from. The game options that you have with aerobics include hula hoops, Wii Sports-like boxing, step dancing, jogging, and more. The balance activities are what most casual users of Wii Fit will first gravitate to, and include ski jump, ski slalom, snowboarding , a table tilt game and more. Snowboarding asks you to turn the balance board sideways. Each activity features an onscreen indicator showing you where your weight should ideally be placed.
Actually cheaters are going to love this stuff as the board cannot actually track on what you are doing with your upper body.
The Yoga feature in Wii Fit:
Coming to the yoga sessions of the Nintendo Wii Fit console, the first thing that you will have to do is, select a trainer who can be a male or a female, which is your choice, to work along with. The trainer that you have taken will show you the poses, each of which will last for around 30 to 40 seconds. And as you are imitating the trainer, a graphics will appear on the display that indicates your balance. One thing that you must make sure is that, you must keep your TV at your eye level so that you can keep track on your progress without straining your neck. The standing balancing postures of the Wii Fit gives you amazing results and corrections. The yoga postures like the king dancer and tree are especially very important to know your center of gravity. You will be able to see a steady progress in your poses as you practice the poses regularly using the Nintendo Wii Fit.
Introduction of competitiveness:
The Wii Fit also introduces competitiveness while you are doing your yoga, wondering how, here it is. Once you complete doing your pose, a score is being given that is based on a measurement that is taken on the balance board’s measurement. The balance board measures your amount of success with the pose by calculating if you are holding the correct center of gravity or even based on if you have applied the appropriate level of pressure on your hands or feet. And that score that you have got is compared with the scores of the other people who use your Wii Fit Gaming Console and show you where you rank. The trainer gives you are great deal of encouragement and advice.
Misleading poses:
It would be much better if you know what you are doing before you start doing it regularly. As yoga is strictly based on correct placement of your body and if you do it incorrectly, you will end up with some undesired results. Though most of the postures of the trainer were correct, we were disappointed to see that some were not so. For instance, consider the Warrior II pose where the knee of your front leg must surely not come in front of the ankle, but this is exactly how the trainer poses. The alignment also seems to be incorrect and the hips should be directly over the shoulders. The downward facing dog instruction is a disaster too. The Wii Fit asks you to place your hands over the board and keeps instructing you to apply more pressure on your arms which is actually not the correct posture. In this pose, you will have to actually give more pressure on your legs and the pressure must not be evenly distributed. A compromise has been made on the alignment too, as the balance board is about two inches high, most of the poses are such that you will be having one leg on the board and the other off it or the hands over the board and the legs off it, making the posture quite awkward.
Limited access - A pain for some
As we mentioned earlier, you are given only a few postures to start with, then you will have to spend more time with the kit to get access to the other poses. This is a good option for some of them who are new to yoga, it will be good for them to get some good knowledge of the basics and then go to the advanced poses. But, for those who are already aware of the whole system and had got the Wii Fit kit primarily for the purpose of doing yoga, it is going to be annoying.
Verdict:
So coming to the verdict on the yoga portion of the Wii Fit, most of the information offered is quite accurate except the misleads of the trainer that we had mentioned above. Incorrect yoga alignment for the first timers is a bit annoying to think of. Otherwise, the Wii Fit enhances your home practice is a lot of ways which is good fun rather than following any video, which at times is damn boring. The interactive features keeps the system very interesting to use.
If your goal is just to exercise as soon as you get out of your cot, then Wii Fit does its job, but if you are looking for a serious workout, then you would be left alone wanting for more. One improvement that Nintendo can do is, pick out a series of poses and have them done like an actual workout. The whole concept of interactivity and actually involving yourself on a game is great, far better than sitting down with a control pad and doing nothing but exercising the thumbs. And while it will not have you sculpted like a bodybuilder at the end of a few months, you can see where it is going, and it is hard to object. The game encourages you to set a target body mass index, and presents you with the details and statistics you need to hit it. If you are willing to put the time in, and are not the type whose gym membership direct debit is working out more per visit than you would like, then it could be a smart investment.
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Nintendo Wii Fit - Technical Specification Details
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Product Name | Nintendo Wii Fit |
| Type | Gaming console |
| Dimensions | 159 x 44 x 216mm |
| Weight | 1.7 kg |
| Colour | White |
| CPU | PowerPC-based “Broadway” processor, made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, clocked at 729 MHz |
| GPU | ATI “Hollywood” GPU made with a 90 nm CMOS process, clocked at 243 MHz |
| Memory | 512MB built-in flash memory 88MB main memory 3MB embedded GPU texture memory and framebuffer |
| Storage | Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory |
| Ports | Two USB 2.0 ports. Support for wireless controllers. 4 Nintendo GameCube controller ports and 2 Nintendo GameCube memory card ports. Optional USB PC-compatible 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless attachment. |
| Media | Slot-loading optical disc drive compatible with both 12 cm Wii optical discs and 8.0 cm GameCube optical discs (1.5 GB) as well as standard DVD discs. 2 Front-loading SD memory card slots. |
| Display type | 4x controller (4-pin USB Type A), composite video output, S-Video output |
| Audio | Main: Stereo - Dolby Pro Logic II-capable Controller: Built-in speaker |
| Input device type | Wiimote, Balancing Board |
| Networking | Wi-Fi by Broadcom |
| Power consumption | 18 watts when switched on 9.6 watts in standby with WiiConnect24 standby connection 1.3 watts in standby |
| Warranty | 12 months |
