Greg Wiegand

I’ve now had a couple of days to play around with the Wii Fit software and accompanying Wii balance board. So, now on to games. It’s going to be interesting to see what kinds of games develop that really utilize this new controller device. Skiing seems like the most obvious, but what other activities mostly involve your feet and/or balance?

We Ski
It’s pretty cool to be able to hit the ski slopes in Indiana in May. In fact, you don’t even have to leave your living room. My daughter and I have had a chance to shake out this game a bit and overall I would give it a thumbs up.
Just like most of the Wii games, you get an animated representation of skiing. If you’re looking for a realistic simulation of skiing, this is probably not it. However, it does do a pretty good job of simulating alpine skiing. You can use your own Mii to ski, but the options on gear are more limited.

The slopes
The layout of the game is pretty much what you would find at a traditional ski resort. You have trail maps and the trails are marked in similar fashion with green, blue, black to represent the difficulty of the runs. And, just like some resorts, you get some runs that don’t seem to match the coding. Some of the runs also have jumps, some are narrow runs, some have banking. I haven’t hit any with moguls, but we haven’t been through the whole game yet.

Jill tearing up the slopes!

How to Ski
The biggest thing to remember when playing this game is to ensure you calibrate the wii balance board for each user playing. If not, the skier does not react appropriately. Once it is set up for the user, it operates by leaning right to turn to the right and vice versa for the left. You can also use your wii remote and nunchuck controller to move your arms to use your ski poles. You can also do aerial stunts in midair jumps such as twists.

Sidebar rant: Speaking of the nunchuck controller, I just don’t get why this is wired to the wii remote. Everything about the Wii is wireless and makes for great fun, but that damn wire connecting the nunchuck controller is just cumbersome. I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten it caught on something while playing or even worse, have it fly up and slap me in the face. When pumping your arms to move yourself with the ski poles, that cord does some serious smacking. I really wish Nintendo would have figured out how to make all the controllers wireless.

Summary Overall, the game is well integrated with the Wii balance board and a good use of the device. Like most Wii games, you are an active player and after a while you feel like you’ve gotten a little exercise. I can’t wait to see what other games come out that take advantage of the balance board. Some obvious activities: surfing, skateboarding, skating, water skiing, motorcycle racing. I’m not sure how sensitive the board is or exactly how the interface works, but something like karate or kick boxing might also work. What other activities do you see coming to the Wii?

Well, last night UPS did indeed deliver my brand new Wii Fit from Amazon.com. In anticipation, I also hit Target on the way home and snagged a copy of We Ski, because a guy has to have a little fun along with his fitness!

The Hardware
My first impression of the Wii balance board was that it was a lot heavier than I had imagined. I quickly scanned the instruction booklet and got into the task of setting it up. It comes with “extension pads” that help set it up off the ground. Seems the board needs to clear any carpeting or mats to work best. Since I have pretty thick carpeting, I popped these on the four corners. In went the batteries and I set the board in front of the TV. The power button faces away from the TV/Wii receiver.

Synchronization
Just like adding a new Wii controller, the balance board must be synchronized with the Wii. I have to admit, I had a little trouble with this piece mostly due to not reading the directions closely. Make sure you’ve loaded the Wii Fit disc into the Wii and selected it from the Wii disc channel to start it. It will download some software updates for the Wii as well as prompt you through the synchronization steps. It just will not synch without the software running. In addition, to get the balance board to power up and stay active, you also need to have a Wii balance board enabled game started. Otherwise, the device goes right back to sleep.

Wii Fit Software
The program/game is really pretty clever. It has an animated balance board character that walks you through the setup and analysis. I’m not sure if this little guy will become annoying after several months or not. The first thing Fit does is go through an initial body test. Great demo of the test on the Nintendo site. Every time you begin a Fit session, you have the option to retest and review your status. It’s a great way to monitor progress and set goals. The big metric used is Body Mass Index (BMI) and that along with posture and balance tests it calculates a “Wii Fit Age”. Having actually taken the “RealAge test“, it is surprisingly close to the same results for me. My only complaint is that it seems to have taken my “Mii” and changed it to reflect my “over weight” BMI to something a little more chubby than I would like. Maybe that is a motivation thing…

The other part of Wii Fit is the training workouts. There are modes for Yoga, Balance, Strength, and Aerobics. Again, another great demo of the Wii Fit training on the Nintendo site.

Wii Fit Summary
My initial reaction so far is that this can be a fun way to track fitness levels and do some exercises. I don’ see it replacing my regular running, biking or eliptical workouts, but for improving posture, balance and overall body control, I see it as very useful. Not only that, it feels like you’re playing game and makes the workout fun. I give it an “A” for what it does and will update my progress in future posts.