WHEN Nintendo released the Wii 18 months ago, it upended the notion of what video games could be. Moving beyond the sunlight-deprived young men at gaming’s core, Nintendo appealed to the rest of the world with an intuitive, family-friendly entertainment experience.
Women, parents, even nursing-home residents have been drawn to the Wii’s simple evocations of games such as tennis and bowling. The Wii has become the best-selling game machine of the current generation, selling more than 25 million worldwide, and remains scarce on store shelves across the nation.
Now Nintendo’s latest brainchild, Wii Fit, could send similar ripples through the home-fitness market. Scheduled to be released in North America next week, Wii Fit is not meant to replace a gym. But in a world of $3,000 elliptical machines and $150-an-hour personal trainers, it has at least a chance of becoming a global, affordable, mass-market interactive home-fitness system. (On its overseas debut last month, it became one of the fastest-selling games ever in Britain.)
Exercising with Wii Fit is like having a Bob Harper or a Denise Austin who talks back — gently cajoling you through exercises, praising, nudging, even reminding you to eat a banana once in a while. It also lets you see how you stack up against friends or family members; each user creates a cartoony avatar called a “Mii.”
The system costs $90, plus $250 for the basic Wii console. It uses a television and a sensitive “balance board” placed on the floor to present a few dozen activities, from push-ups to yoga, to more entertaining challenges like balance games and aerobic contests. Nintendo is not aiming Wii Fit at people with a serious exercise regimen. Rather, it is meant to appeal to the person busy with work and family who just wants to have fun getting a little toned at home.
Believe me, I could use some help. As a video game journalist, I live in a world where Buffalo wings, potato chips and jalapeño poppers are considered food groups. The closest I get to serious exercise is flopping around at concerts like a lumpy, overeducated flounder.
Then again, most Americans aren’t really in great shape either. So I felt I could reasonably reflect the broad mass market (if you will) in testing whether a silicon coach has the potential to rescue millions of Americans from decrepitude.
To help me evaluate the system, Thursday Styles recruited two fitness professionals, an avid exerciser and one work-at-home parent to try Wii Fit at the Chelsea Piers sports complex in Manhattan. Here is what we thought:
THE MULTITASKER
Shira Weiss, a 33-year-old mother of two who works out of her home in Teaneck, N.J., as a publicist for small businesses, wants Wii Fit because it fits both her lifestyle and her doorway. “Before having the kids, I used to work out every day — I belonged to a gym — but now it’s really only when I have a chance,” she said. “Let me put it this way: I clean with vigor. I like aerobic exercise and would like a treadmill. But we tried to get one, and the door of our house was too narrow. It just wouldn’t fit, and my husband was like, ‘Forget the treadmill.’ ”
She eyed the 12” by 20” Wii Fit board. “But this could work,” she said.
Wii Fit’s almost 50 exercises are divided among four categories: strength training, aerobics, balance games and yoga. Each user creates a personal profile, including a potential weight loss (or gain) goal. The system tracks a user’s weight and body-mass index as well as their performance on individual exercises. To help prevent novices from overextending or frustrating themselves, only a few exercises are initially available in each category; more advanced activities are unlocked only after completing simpler options.
Ms. Weiss found her groove in Wii Fit’s aerobics section. She proved a quick study with the hula hoop game (gyrating in circles), before finding her long-sought treadmill replicated in the running game. In Wii Fit, running does not use the board. Rather, the user puts the TV-remote-size Wii controller in her pocket or hand and runs in place while the motion-sensitive controller serves as a pedometer. On screen, the user runs through a bucolic park while a pacesetter beckons the player onward. For longer runs, users can watch television while the Wii tracks their progress.
“I enjoyed it,” Ms. Weiss said. “It’s more interesting than running on a treadmill because it gives you something to look at. It’s like an interactive exercise game. In some ways, it’s like playing Nintendo, but with your body.”
BOTTOM LINE Wii Fit could be the right choice for exercise amateurs trying to get in shape in the living room.
THE SWEAT HOUND
Luke McCambley, 18, knows he is an anomaly.
“You don’t find many art-school gym rats, but I guess I qualify,” he said.
Mr. McCambley, a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York, was the only Wii Fit tester who actually owns a Wii. But he also belongs to a Crunch downtown, works out six days a week, and is studying to become a personal trainer.
So it wasn’t surprising he had little problem with various strength exercises like push-ups and leg twists. He aced balance games like skiing and heading soccer balls, and looked like he could punch through the screen in his aerobic boxing session.
“I go to the gym, so I don’t need this, but for someone who doesn’t want to leave the living room it would be great,” he said. “Over all, I liked it a lot. It seems really well-designed for the people it’s for. I worked up a sweat with a couple of the exercises.”
He added: “If you really committed to the strength exercises, you could actually get some results. That said, if you’re really looking to get fit, join a gym. But this would be great for mothers, or if they want their kids to get a little more in shape.”
BOTTOM LINE Serious athletes don’t need Wii Fit, but you (or your children) might like it.
THE YOGA MASTER
Wii Fit is not, however, the right choice if you want to impress Cyndi Lee, 54, the founder of Om Yoga in New York.
Before trying the system, she eyed the board and declared, “It’s too small.” Nonetheless, she sailed through a progression of Wii Fit’s yoga poses, including the half-moon, warrior, tree and sun salutation. For each pose, at least one of the user’s feet or hands is usually on the board.
Afterward, her main concern seemed to be that Wii Fit reduces yoga to a collection of physical exercises rather than presenting yoga as a comprehensive approach to physical, mental and emotional wellness.
“This is a little dumbed down and they are teaching more from a fitness or gym perspective,” she said. “They’re saying things like, ‘Tighten your glutes,’ which we would never say in yoga.”
Ms. Lee also spied what she called incorrect elements within some poses. “Like with the warrior pose they show the knee going past the foot, which is a big no-no,” she said.
BOTTOM LINE Wii Fit will not make you a yogi.
THE FITNESS PROFESSIONAL
Sharone Huey, 51, an exercise physiologist at the Sports Center at Chelsea Piers, spent the most time with Wii Fit. Over two days, she watched most other sessions and spent at least two and a half hours with the system herself.
Her initial skepticism evolved into a somewhat surprised admiration.
“Actually I think it’s pretty good,” she said. “You can definitely get a workout. When I started doing it, I realized all the activities were pretty much on point. There were some things I didn’t like, like the alignment in a couple of places. But over all, I thought they did a good job and this will be a good tool for people who can’t make it to the gym.”
“I can see this in a seniors center or senior community and it would be very interesting to be able to set up a whole class of people on boards, tracking their progress,” said Ms. Huey, who reigned supreme as the week’s hula-hoop champion.
“The big thing is so many people buy a treadmill or some other exercise machine and in two weeks it becomes an expensive clothes rack,” she said. “This makes exercise fun and I think it will help to motivate a lot of lazy folks.”
Among them, potentially other members of the Huey family. “I’ll get this for my lazy sisters,” she said.
BOTTOM LINE Watch for the Chelsea Piers Wii Fit class coming soon (maybe, just maybe).
THE COUCH POTATO
And what about Mr. Lumpy Flounder himself? Around this time last year, I went to West Virginia to write about a plan there to install the aerobic video game Dance Dance Revolution in every school in the state. When I got back I thought, “O.K. let’s see if I’ll exercise regularly at home on D.D.R.”
I lasted a week. The problem was there were days when I just didn’t want to dance to electronic house music for half an hour. Wii Fit just might be different (though more than one tester commented on Wii Fit’s somewhat cheesy music). For me, the key is that one can approach Wii Fit like a game. In its sheer variety of activities, you can always find something to do. It beckons me to unlock the different exercises, to get four stars in snowboarding, to get through six more jackknife crunches.
I’ve spent about seven hours with Wii Fit recently and I’m still doing it. The step exercises remain my strong suit, though I’m still trying to figure out how to use my balance to navigate my floating bubble through the canyon without popping. I’m even running a little.
But I realize that in an exercise program no manner of electronic frippery (or fancy workout clothes) can make up for old-fashioned motivation. If I stop using Wii Fit, it won’t be because the graphics or the sound were bad. It will just mean I got tired of exercising, and no mere product will be at fault. Will I achieve the modest weight loss goal I’ve set? I can only hope so.
And no, I won’t tell you what it is.
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