Wii Fit

We were finally able to get a copy of Wii Fit a few days ago. Nintendo pulled off another fantastic achievement by bringing exercise to video games.

Wii Fit comes with a new component: the balance board. This is essentially a new controller that interacts with the game. You step onto the board, and it’s sensitive to pressure. It’s more advanced than a bathroom scale in that it can detect differences in where your weight is applied, so it “knows” if you’re leaning forward or to the side.

Wii Fit offers a variety of exercises from strength training to flexibility and endurance. It also focuses a lot on balance and posture, routinely testing you and evaluating your progress. I especially enjoy the balance games offered that help you to learn balance in a fun way, like skiing or heading soccer balls (watch out for the shoes).

The yoga and strength training areas use a virtual trainer who demonstrates the moves and comments on your performance (positive and negative). The screen will usually display a real-time indication of your balance, and this gives you something to focus on when you perform the moves. Everything is very straight-forward. For example, I know nothing of yoga, but I was able to perform some of the moves pretty easily after watching a demonstration (but I will probably never pull off some of the moves that require more flexibility than I can muster).

I was surprised at how much fun this game really is, considering that the whole point is to get you to exercise. Perhaps the humor of the “Body by Nintendo” shirts will soon be lost if people play this game enough to get in shape. Or perhaps the shirts will be used more for bragging than joking.

Smash Brothers for Wii

Nintendo has at last released Smash Brothers for the Wii. My wife had reserved a copy for us at a local video game store, so we picked it up right after church yesterday.

With my daughter asleep, my wife and I started working our way through various challenges and getting used to the controls. Soon, my wife was asleep as well, leaving me to unlock characters, trophies and the like by myself. (After all, these things won’t unlock themselves, so someone had to get to work!)

I’ve only played the game for a few hours so far, but it seems comparable to Smash Brothers Melee for Game Cube. One thing I like is that the challenges aren’t limited to single players anymore, so my wife and I could team up to hit the sandbag or break targets.

The addictiveness of the game is fairly high, and if you have a personality type where you like to accomplish things, you’ll find yourself unable to stop playing, even when your eyes hurt. Not only does the game reveal that you’ve unlocked something (like a new trophy), but it also lets you know of some other things you will unlock if you complete certain requirements, such as win five games with Peach. There is an entire screen with row upon row of boxes that signify something to unlock.

I’d like to see us unlock all the characters just to have them available (in my limited play, I’ve unlocked Luigi and Captain Falcon). We probably don’t have the time to really work this game for all its worth, but it’ll be fun playing it from time to time, especially when we host parties.

Congratulations, Nintendo, on creating yet another great game for the Wii.

Wii

After many weeks of waiting with great anticipation, we have at long last purchased a Wii, thanks in no small part to the efforts of my wife, who often searched for one and at last ended up at the right place and the right time. Not only do we have the system itself, but we’ve also got four Remotes (or Wiimotes), two Nunchucks and an assortment of games.

Of all the games that we own for the system, my favorite is The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. I enjoy the simple puzzles of the game, like figuring out how to open doors or where to find certain items, but there’s also the game-play aspect. With Zelda, you are swinging your arm to wield Link’s sword, yet the movements of the character are accomplished through the familiar turns of a small, thumb joystick on the Nunchuck controller. I don’t know if I would rank this Zelda as the best ever (though the technical achievements of this game are the most advanced) because I can still recall the days when I played the original Zelda on NES and The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past on Super NES. Both of those games were remarkable in their days, and I can’t just knock them out of contention because their graphics are less or because they’re flat, 2-D games.

The myriad of uses for the Wii controllers becomes apparent with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. This is a game of utterly ridiculous mini-games, such as shredding a cell phone, helping Granny put her false teeth in or washing a cow. The entertainment is just as much in laughing at the overall silliness of each mini-game as it is in successfully completing it.

Another feature of the Wii is that it allows users to create cartoonish characters in their own likeness (called Miis). Users can then play as their Mii in some of the games, such as Wii Sports. This is taking “Enter your name” to the next level.

The Wii is the most innovative game system to date. When connected to the Internet, it allows for downloads of much older Nintendo games (though at the moment there are only a few titles available), displays weather forecasts and allows you to share your Miis with other Wii owners (you can even have parades of all the Miis that have come into your system). For those on the fence about getting a Wii, I highly recommend it as a fun video game system, regardless of whether or not you have any skills at playing video games. If you can move your arms, you can play the games. Some games might be too challenging for newer gamers, so use your own discretion.