When news first hit about this new Nintendo thing called Wii Health Pack at the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) there were some who slept on the ramifications of this introduction. “What happened at E3 this year?” someone asked. “Oh nothing this year really. Nothing like last year,” remarked the other referring to the long Wii lines of E3 2006. But others who were paying attention recognized the gravity of what Nintendo was doing with the game soon christened as Wii Fit. Taking the marriage of exercise and videogame to its second honeymoon, Wii Fit showed a revolution within Nintendo’s revolution. We saw a snippet of what could be possible thanks to the Dance Dance Revolution phenomenon and 2005’s EyeToy: Kinetic from Sony and its PlayStation 2 took the undeveloped genre a little further but what would Nintendo do with exer-gaming aided by the abilities of the Wii console?

Wii Fit has the appeal seen in other games of the Wii series such as the prime Wii Sports and subsequent Wii Play. The friendly clean ‘freshly washed laundry’ game design complete with healthy Mii representation is once again seen in the 3rd of the Wii series. This soothing aesthetic appeal again underscores the underappreciated value of simplicity. Much like the Wii console itself the weight of the Wii Fit box (suitcase) surprises you in another well learned lesson of underestimation (looks light, feels dense). And the reason for that surprising weight is because of the Wii Balance Board, a literal bathroom scale with the ability to measure how you lean as you distribute your weight. What I’ve discovered the Balance Board does for videogaming is making you play with your feet in the way we’ve always played with our hands. Not just swift directional stomps as seen in Dance Dance Revolution but actual precision play with your southern extremities. The Wii had already changed the way we played with our hands and now Wii Fit asks us to take this dexterity and apply it to our feet. And that seriously opens up a whole new world of playing possibilities.

Upon starting for the first time a cute little speaking version of the Balance Board (I’ll call it Li’l Boardie for these intents and purposes) gets you acquainted and logged into the system. Those who exercise on their own may have scoffed or passed on the usefulness of this game as an exercise tool but those minds may change with the first test Li’l Boardie gives you - a test to measure your center of gravity. Immediately you realize from this that Wii Fit is not only asking you to perform the motions of fitness but to understand the importance of physical balance to good health. Li’l Boardie even goes so far as to show a diagram on how balanced stature prevents joint wear which begin the domino effects of health problems all throughout the body. Sustained weight distribution off center to one side causes pain and eventually poor health from the chain reaction caused by the imbalance. You realize in the playing exercises that it’s not simply about making the movements but making them with precise control and balance. This is something you don’t get even from a gym membership. The Balance Board measures your center of balance throughout each exercise and it puts the exercise routines in a whole new light as you find yourself realizing that it’s more than just mimicking routines mindlessly.

The multitude of training exercises available are broken up into 4 categories: Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balancing. Some come with a trainer (male or female, your choice) who act as your fitness coach like with the yoga poses and strength training exercises and others seem more like simple fun pastimes like with the Ski Jumping and Hula Hoop games. All will subtly train your body with or without you realizing it. Do NOT take Wii Fit as a joke because it is TRULY exercise. A warning to those who are or may be out of shape (and not talking about mass or proportions): Know Your Limits. Recognize your abilities and be unafraid to fail at first. You will not be a master at this off the bat and I would even say those who DO exercise regularly may not be a master at this at first either. The game is set for long term progress and repeated long term play. This is a game that will grow with you so if you cannot keep perfect balance or peter out on those push-ups or can’t quite make the pose, don’t worry. Do not fear failure and continually seek to improve a little each time according to your ability. If you try to overdo it or go beyond what you can do physically you may hurt yourself playing Wii Fit. Ask me about it! Hahaha (Beware the Tree pose). But that doesn’t mean being scared to try all the different exercises. Try them all but do them the best you can even if you can’t get that leg perfectly extended or that timing perfectly right. The score you get poor or not is a reflection your level of progress. The more you play and the better you get at it, the journey that you set will make it just that much more rewarding. You will feel accomplished.

The game tracks all kinds of graphs, charts, and records from your weight and Body Mass Index to your playing time and training time allotments. Every day has a Body Test, a set of random activities which measure your body control, which gives you your Wii Fit Age (according to this game on my first try I’m a man in his mid 40s. Yikes!). Wii Fit allows you to set long term goals of what you are aiming for fitness wise in regards to your BMI (I actually wanted to gain a little weight). This is set on the calendar which tracks the fluctuations of this each day you play along with all the other exhaustively tracked data. A separate Wii Fit Channel can be installed solely to perform these tasks every day even without the game disc put in on those days when time is short and sweet. It hosts up to 8 Miis per game to ensure a whole family can compete and compare their individual progress…unless they come in a Jacksons or Osmonds variety, that is. Once again Nintendo puts the We into Wii and the side by side comparisons can inspire motivation to improve so long as love is there of course. Competitions can bring out the worse in us as well as the best in us as we all know.

Shigeru Miyamoto has done it again. He’s taken something which could have easily been a chore or a begrudging necessity and turned it into play. Wii Fit can indeed be a legitimate way for people to exercise and workout in the context of a videogame. If Nintendo goes ahead with that idea to use the WiiConnect24 function to link this game with doctors for rehabilitation or personal trainers for optimization in fitness activity, the game can really spark wildfire as a fitness tool. What Wii Sports started Wii Fit refines. Wii Sports got you moving. Wii Fit teaches you how to move better. The game further changes the scope of what videogaming can be while simultaneously removing the long-standing stigmas about the pastime being a detriment to youth and family. I seriously have no bad word to say about it. It is everything it has purported itself to be and if it can inspire this couch potato to actually stick to a fitness routine, you know it’s worth its weight in Earth Day green. Just one more warning, though. The Balance Board prefers you to be barefoot when standing on it in play. Be prepared for frequent deodorizing routines for those in your family who have the dreaded chronic jam. Maybe Odor Eaters can get some promotion deal with Wii Fit to remedy this situation.

You’ll enjoy this one, folks. Never discount the words of the lazy on matters such as these.