Seems like a great opportunity to expand on FPS control - at least as an experiment …
Where the heck? I thought I was getting a good deal at ~$30/month.
Thanks for the info, guys. I’d fallen behind on reading the reviews but fortunately my pre-order $5 deposit is transferable. Hopefully there won’t be a shortage later when I eventually pick it up.
You don’t jog on the board, though. The game judges your speed by having you put the wiimote in your pocket or by holding it in your hand. The most you do is step off of the board for the step aerobics bit, other than that you use the wiimote or you bend then stand up to jump.
Wow, no routines? Wasn’t expecting that. That’s too bad, because even with just a glorified bathroom scale with balance measurements you can do a lot from an activity standpoint, as my trainer loves to demonstrate. Not that he has ever seen a Wii fit board, no, we call them core boards. And I hates them.
They introduce routines randomly, but there are no sets or custom sets of workouts. I was messing around doing lunges and it recommended I do lunges and the warrior pose (yoga) for a routine that worked somesuch. Once I did the yoga bit I was checked off as having done a routine. I’m not sure how many there are or how far they go, but I’ve only used it for a half hour. Disappointing there aren’t proper routines though.
So far, I’m really loving Wii Fit. Granted, I’ve only been playing since yesterday morning, so my opinions may change as I get further into it.
I turned this on while the kids slept with the intention of quickly checking it out and coming back to it later…After scoring only one star on my first balance game, I started replaying the damn thing over and over to get more stars and before I knew it, an hour had passed. I love the four star rating system. It totally brings out my competitive nature and makes me want to keep on going.
I really love that they take the Miis from the Mii Plaza and insert them into the game. Even though it’s not a real person playing next to me, I still get stupid competitive in the jogging when I see someone I recognize running by. Walter from The Big Lebowski totally kicked my ass, along with my boyfriend and Michael Jackson :( I love shit like that. I’ve heard some people complain about the gimmicky nature of that and of the balance board and the time banking, but I’m lazy and it takes gimmicks to get me off my ass, so I’m all for it.
I see how having built in routines would be a really great addition to the game, but it doesn’t really bother me that they’re not there. After spending awhile poking around and doing a game here and there, I found that I naturally went into a bit of a routine on my own – a couple replays of the jogging to get my heart rate up, followed by a few low key games to relax, then back to jogging. I was alternating between jogging, hula hooping, and balance games at 7:30 this morning and worked up a decent sweat before work. Any exercise game that gets me out of bed at 7:30 (a half hour before my last alarm goes off!) totally wins in my book.
I don’t see this as a gym replacement or complete workout or anything, but I don’t think that was ever the point anyway. It’s a good motivational tool and a great way to get people moving that otherwise might be sitting on their ass playing a different game or watching tv. I gave up my Orange Box and Kart time for Wii Fit and unlike when I give up fun stuff to ride my bike or go for a walk, I didn’t miss that time.
Has anyone tried doing those body control tests before and after playing balance games to see the difference? I did this a few times. My first Wii Fit age was 25 (I’m 26, fwiw). After playing the balance games awhile, I redid it and got 21. Tried it a few more times later and got about the same results before and after. I’ll be interested to see if, over time, my number actually goes down and stays down.
Which is Backwards Compatible, FYI.
The interface could certainly be improved. Too much clicking on the Wii remote to get started.
It seems like this is true of all Japanese games I play these days (tons of clicking through menus to start anything, and then maybe that only gets you into a mode where you get to click for half an hour through tons of poor expositionary dialogue).
It’s like the designers are afraid to let you actually play the game.
Speaking of which, are there any plans for third-party developers yet to use the device (such as Yourself Fitness) ?
Okami is pretty awful in this regard-- 1 hour of introductory bullcrap to wade through with annoying “voice” chirps the ENTIRE way.
Is it wrong to consider buying Wii Fit JUST to play that We Ski game that also released and supports the board?
Has anyone played We Ski with the balance board yet and can confirm that it is as awesome as 1up’s ‘A’ review says it is?
I think it is more wrong that they didn’t actually bundle with that We Ski game instead, or alongside.
As that’s supposedly the far better application.
Well I have 2 wii fits (I plan to give one to my Dad for father’s day) and We Ski sitting at home. Hopefully I’ll have some time to give it a try later tonight. My hope is We Ski + balance board = Namco Alpine Racer because I just loved that series in the arcade.
Does anything out there support two balance boards at the same time for multiplayer?
That’s quite the disparity with the 6.0 IGN review score.
Whoops! That’ll teach me to comment on one of the mini-games before having played it. I saw a video of it on the Nintendo Channel last week, and somehow got the impression they had you running on the board.
I like the idea of putting the wiimote in your pocket so that you can interact with the game. All of the treadmills at my gym have TVs, so it’s really not much more of a step to hook them all up to Wiis and let you run through the virtual world while on the treadmill.
Some of this reminds me of the old Tectrix VRBike. My gym used to have one of these things 7-8 years ago. There was a neat little virtual world you could bike around and explore - the recumbent bike would tilt from side to side so you could steer it like a real bike. There was even a basketball type game (Aztec 2000) you could play against the computer. And the faster you pedaled, the faster you moved in game.
If we could somehow tie WoW level advancement or GTA IV progress to fitness level, we’d have one buff populace.
Maya’s cool and all, but isn’t Tom forgetting about…
No kidding, BDGE …
Miyamoto is a stud!
I’d balance that board.
Heh, with me it stated out as Wii Fidget.
Due to 3 messed up discs, I have issues staying perfectly still. So I got a lot of “please, keep still” “are you fidgeting?” I cheated, i stuck a computer on it and leaned on that. It went through. (weight is a few pounds less, but damn it I wanna play)
After all that BS, I got to play.
15 minutes later:
Winded and tired. Yes, I’m out of shape, I’m aware of this.
But I feel better and i didn’t die.
I liked the running. It’s fun.
Probably play more after a rest, lol.
Man, that’s not fair, BDGE. I’d buy a Josephine game in a heartbeat!
Although, frankly, I’d take Rosanne Barr over that annoying Balance Board character, who’s the most annoying mascot since the Microsoft Help paperclip. Not to mention creepy anime ghost chick who beams her thoughts into my head.
-Tom
Back when I was still leveling, I put a little mini stationary bike (basically just the pedals) under my desk and pedaled while leveling. Around level 50, my custom fit knee high boots were baggy around my calves. I plan on doing the same with the expansion.
I don’t get the complaints about the push-ups. Haven’t you guys every done diamond (where you put your hands in a diamond pattern) or hand over hand push-ups? The Fit push-ups may not be what you are used to, but they are one helluv a workout with the planks thrown on top of them.