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Great, but could be a whole lot better with a few tweaks

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Don't get me wrong. The Wii Fit is great. I've been using it for two months and still like doing it. It's much better than a workout video for two reasons. First, rather than always repeating the same sequence, you pick what you want. Need to work on a certain area? Fine! Do the appropriate exercises more often. Second, it provides feedback. This is the key to the Wii Fit board. While the feedback is not always perfect and is not the same as having a personal trainer, it's a long shot better than just mimicking what you see on the tube and having no real idea if you've got it right. By giving you something to "shoot for", the scoring system also adds to motivation.

Now for the gripes.

1) There REALLY ought to be a "no chat" mode. While some of the pointers may be helpful at first, they get old fast. After 60 sessions, I had pretty much memorized them all. At present, there's the "demo" mode and the normal exercise mode. The next update needs a third "hold the chatter" mode.

2) There REALLY ought to be a way to string a series of exercises together into a workout without having to spend to much time navigating through menus. Every exercise needs requires a "pick this one" click, followed by a "start" click, followed by a "OK, give me my score" click, followed by a "show me my total time" click, followed by a "quit or do over" click. Several also require extra clicks to assure the system that you won't fall over and break your leg. The result is a click-to-exercise ratio that is out of control and ruins the flow of the workout. It would be wonderful it there was a way to queue up 5 or 10 exercises to do in a row with at most one click in between.

3) In the "balance games," there REALLY ought to be an easier way for two (or more) players to alternate. If you want to play with others, you essentially have to back all the way out of a multi-layer menu between every player change. Since downhill skiing, for example, takes one minute to complete, the end result is a "play-to-click" ratio of about 1 to 4: one minutes of play followed by four minutes of navigating menus in order to the next player to have their turn. It would be wonderful if players could somehow "register" that the following 2 or 3 or 4 players will be alternating in the balance games and then have them play one after the other without all that clicking to navigate through the menus.

So far so good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I hate exercising. I have never enjoyed spending an hour of my day sweating. Just never was fun to me. I greatly admire those who enjoy it, but for me, I have about 100 different things I'd rather be doing, and cleaning my bathroom is one of them. So needless to say, I like things that will encourage me to actually workout without reminding me of the 100 other things I could be accomplishing.

I can't comment on the long term use of Wii fit, though the prospect does look good. However, at this time, I can say that it's not something that I dread doing in the morning. There are features I like, a few I don't and a few that would be nice if they were added. I'll start with the likes.

1) Time goes quickly. Once the higher levels for each exercise is unlocked, it doesn't feel like I'm spending 45 minutes exercising.

2) I like the gradual unlocking of exercises. I'm an ADD personality. I get bored easily and like to discover new things and the more I get to find, the happier I am.

3) It really is a work out. I can tell when I'm done that I've worked out. Muscles are tired and I'm winded.

4) The instructions are easy to follow and the exercises explained in a way that's easily understood.

5) I love the little clock that lets keeps up with how long you've actually been exercising. There's a good amount of down time switching exercises that adds up. The clock is most helpful to keep track of how much time you're actually exercising.

6) Keeps track of progress for me.

7) My kids love it! Ages 4, 6, and 9 have all played with it. They have a great time doing the different exercises and games. The run in the park is one of their favorites, especially when they do it with one of us. Since it does require some following of directions, I do have to read the screens and help the youngest two. All three of my kids are under weight (must be nice), so I didn't have the problem with them being called obese. I can see where that might be discouraging for some children, especially when your Mii get's a little chubby.

Now for the dislikes.
1) I don't always feel like the strength exercises give enough time to perform each move. While the trainer is saying to go slowly, I'm have to speed up to finish before the next rep starts.

2) The automatic changing of the angles on the step exercise can be very confusing. When the Mii's are facing you doing steps in the opposite direction, it's difficult to keep going the right direction

3) It's hard to get a good flow and rhythm with a break between each exercise, especially when early on, they usually last between 1-3 minutes.

4) It's easy to convince the board you're a lot better than you are. For example, I've yet to correctly complete the pushup/side plank exercise, yet I've scored 100 each time. I'm not trying to cheat, I simply am not in good enough shape to complete the exercises properly. It doesn't know that though.

5) The program doesn't seem to be able to take your struggles from one exercise and apply it to another. For example, I'll have strong abs (what a joke!) on one, but the next exercise I might struggle and be encouraged to train everyday to strengthen my ab muscles. Not a big deal, but makes for a great laugh at time. Mainly, it demonstrates how little Wii fit actually knows.

6) I'd like to be able to make long term goals. I'm not very motivated by a short term goal. My husband tells me I'm not like most people in this respect. Short term goals have the opposite effect for me than they do for others. Once I reach a goal, I quit working. It's accomplished and I'm done. I need long term goals so that I keep working. Since I need to loose more than 22lb, having that as the goal is not good for me. I'd like to be able to set my ultimate goal and work towards that.

Additions that would be nice.
1) I very much like the weight tracking portion of the program. However, it would be nice if there was a place to add in a daily calorie, fat, or carbohydrate consumption. Maybe a goal as well as actual. That'd give you a nice way to keep up with intake as well. After all, getting and staying fit is more than just exercise.

2) Some way to string exercises together. While 10 minutes of hula hoop can be tiring, it would be nice to immediately follow it up with other exercises that can make a nice 30 minute aerobic workout. There's too much cool down, and I don't feel like my heart rate stays up as it should.

3) On the combo exercises, it would be nice if once you complete one, it gives you the option to go immediately to the other suggested exercises. Especially, since often times it's combining a yoga with a strength which is on a different screen.

4) An interface that minimizes the amount of moving through menus, stepping on the board, off the board, etc. The interface really doesn't flow well.

5) A few more exercises, especially aerobic ones.

6) An `other' option for why weight might have increased. They don't list all the possible reasons, nor do I expect them to. However, there are reasons other than inappropriate eating habits for going up one day instead of staying steady or going down.

I've been very pleased so far. Given that I'm not one to enjoy exercise, I haven't found it to be nearly the struggle I thought it might be. The greatest obstacle up to this point, has been `borrowing' it from my children.

OMG it's addicting and fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I am totally hooked and have already lost like 5 lbs. from the aerobics part. The hula-hoops and the running, especially the island lap...do those every day and there's no way you won't lose weight. The thing I'm the most addicted to is that ski jump...I love it. If you don't own it yet, don't miss out. It is worth every penny and I have never had so much fun working out and exercising in my life and I'm 46, pretty active and fairly fit. It is fun, fun, fun!

The Future of Fitness

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is just a quick review to say that I believe this product heralds the future of home fitness devices that make fitness an interactive, vibrant, engaging experience you can have without going to a gym. Let's face it, most of us can't afford a personal trainer. Most of us get gym memberships but don't use them. This is a one time expense of around $90. You can do it in the comfort of your own home and it is much more exciting than sitting on a stationary bike. Will this make you a rock hard fitness god or goddess? No. That's not the point. This is for the majority of people who simply don't make exercise a part of daily life. Fitness nuts who spend hours in the gym every day will still continue to do so and will not need this. This is for the rest of us. We are too focused on having the six pack, huge bulging muscles, etc. This is for people who want to stay realistically fit. I have broken a sweat for the last several days doing Wii Fit. The more you do it, the more games you unlock and the more intense workouts you unlock. It challenges you and encourages you. Plus you can compete with your family members for high scores. I think every family in america should have one of these. Wonderful product.

Could exercise be more fun?!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I finally got the Wii Fit(I waited too long during pre-order with it in my cart and got bumped:( Moral of the story....? Don't wait on those popular pre-orders! The Wii Fit is a total blast. I am a 42 year old wife,mother,physical therapist.... who falls in the "overweight" range, or so the bouncing little board tells me(he is very reminiscent of the ever so helpful microsoft paper clip). The first thing you do is take a fit test to ascertain the bad news that you are indeed 'fat' and not 'fit'. After that you get to pick from a bunch of different activities from yoga,strength,balance games and aerobics. The more time you log, the more activities you open up. Hula Hoop is a lot of fun and so are the balance games. They are a bit addictive and before you know it your tired old body has racked up 1.5 hours of play time and you can hardly get out of bed in the morning. Seriously, I really felt it in my arms and ankles. So far, my favorites are the skiing games, hula hoop and the boxing. The penguin slide is cute too. I finally unlocked snowboarding and am about killing myself to do it. I'm not sure if you are supposed to be squatting down and holding the edges of the board to complete it, but that is what I end up doing. FEEL THE BURN! My kids(6,10)love it too. I highly recommend this for the wii!

Good product, but lots of room for improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: June 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Wii Fit is a good product with some flaws. The biggest problem with it is how much time is wasted with silly information pages and waiting for the trainer to get down to business. As you get familiar with all the poses, it becomes even more noticeable how much of your precious time is spent waiting for the game to get around to the actual exercise part.

The Wii Fit hardware is excellent. The balance board is well built and can handle up to 330 lbs. It is reliable and stable.

The Wii Fit game software is pretty good. I enjoy the yoga, the strength, some of the aerobics, and the balance games.

In general, the Wii Fit software seems obsessed with perfect balance. That would make sense since that is what their balance board can measure. But you can expect all your yoga poses to be judged on your ability to keep your center of balance perfectly centered. It doesn't really matter if you are doing the poses right, only that you keep the red dot in the center of the yellow circle...

That said, it is a great into to yoga for those like me who have never done it. It should be fairly obvious if you are doing the poses wrong since the trainer is demonstrating it for you.

Expect to spend about twice as much time plodding through information pages and waiting for the trainer to get started as you spend doing poses. For somebody who doesn't have a lot of time to waste, this is a drawback.

The strength exercises are good, but be aware that they really don't represent a very well-rounded fitness program. There many muscle groups which are completely ignored, probably because there is only so much you can do with a Wiimote and a balance board.

The Aerobics games are pretty good. The hula hoop is absolutely excellent. A good workout, and it is really fun. The running just doesn't work for me. Even though I maintain a steady pace, my Mii speeds and up slows down continously and it keeps whining at me that I'm not keeping a steady pace. I've tried changing pockets, or holding the Wiimote in various ways, but to no avail. I'm stuck with lousy scores and complaints whenever I do the run.

However, I really like to see the other Mii's running, and the scenery is really nice.

The two person race is a nice idea too.

The balance games are where the funnest of the Wii Fit games are. The soccer game is funny and challenging, as is the penguin game. The Ski slalom, the snowboard and the ski jump games are really challenging and fun. My family has spent more time doing those that any of the others.

In summation, the hardware is really well designed and sturdy. The software has some really good points, but wastes too much of your time. If you only have 1/2 hour to work out, then expect to spend 20 minutes of it waiting for the software to get started, or stepping through pages of text.
This is a good way to get some limited exercise, especially if you are a total couch potato. If you are already an avid runner or biker, it won't seem like much of a workout to you.

A Great Start

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I will be honest, I'm a 26 year old American computer programmer, that alone should tell you I'm not in peak physical condition. But, I do try to walk as much as I can, I lift some weights, and do things like chop wood, so I figure I'm just slightly worse than "normal". Never going to be one of those skinny guys with ripped abs, and I'm okay with that.

Well, I've just finished my first session with the board. The initial "Wii Fit Age" assessment for me was 46. Remember, I'm 26, so that was a bit of a shocker. But, after 30 minutes of going through all the basic games, I retook the test and got an age of 32. Much better!

The first big surprise I got is that I'm sweating. A good bit actually. More than I was sweating after spending an hour playing tennis yesterday. So that alone should tell you that this works.

That said, obviously Wii Fit is not going to be a great help in resistance training, or anything like that. The aerobics stuff it can help with a great deal though. From racing around the park by jogging in place (not on the board, but with the wiimote in your pocket like a pedometer) to a jazzercise program that ends up making you feel almost like you're playing DDR, it'll get you up and moving.

Overall, its a good product to have, especially for later on when they will (hopefully) start releasing entire "real" games that use the board. In the mean time, the weight tracking and aerobic workouts it offers are more than worth the price of admission, although some parts feel more like technical demos of the board than they do anything else. Which, considering they essentially are just technical demos isn't so bad.

There is a *LOT* of promise here, I can only hope Nintendo and third party publishers realize that and start making games for it.

WEIGHT LIMIT CONFIRMED FOR US....330 LBS....DDR still the best bet for the obese.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 57
Date: May 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

There's been a ton of speculation about the WiiFit weigh limit for the US release. I can verify that it says directly on my box that it's 330 pounds. This is a US version I just picked up on pre-order. So, yes, Nintendo severely let down many of it's anticipating obese fans. This is not a tool for obese people to get in shape, DDR is still your best bet if game exercise is what you're looking for. If you're just starting to get active and DDR is too much for you, first you can try to go into the training mode and slow the music down, second you can throw wii sports in and spend 30 minutes to an hour a day playing the boxing game. Be sure to include foot work...I know, I know...footwork doesn't make you play better but you're not going to get any cardio just standing there flicking your wrists. If that worked, 14 year old boys would lose 5 pounds a day locked in the bathroom (wink, wink). Just keep your feet moving the entire time you play and you'll definitely feel the workout after a while. Doing that for a couple weeks should get you conditioned enough to start tampering with DDR and that game will DEFINITELY get your cardio going.

Unfortunately I'm 6'6" and even when fit I weigh in at 270-280 so in my current unfit state I'm not able to use the board yet but I'm keeping it as a weight loss goal and a future utensil for staying fit. I'm going to try to hook it up tonight and stand on it to see if it plays or if it just says "Get off fatty, you're killin' me!". Since it measures your weight I'm guessing it simply won't function but I'll follow up here so those interested will know.

Keep an eye out for 3rd party vendors like MadCatz to release a higher capacity version...someone will be chompin at the bit to fill in this gap.

Encouraging.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

One controversy about Wii Fit is Nintendo's odd choice to use a BMI test to assess the user's body composition.

A comment on that, and Wii Fit in general, from a user of the Gamespy forums via the Gamespy newsletter by Fargo: "'While I disagree with using the BMI measure, as it is a bit misleading, Wii Fit does provide some good things,' writes GameSpy reader Ryftling [don't you just love people's dorky user names?]. 'Working on posture, and through yoga and muscle exercises the application provides, you can build strength into areas to help support your actual frame and build properly. Good posture makes people look more confident, which can affect how others treat them, and it feeds back into itself, the psychological effect can be very positive.'"

Anyway, Ryftling (giggle) is exactly right. Wii Fit's biggest strength is posture and balance improvement (which does include strengthening, particularly of muscles we usually neglect since they don't have flash value like biceps). I daresay that anyone using Wii Fit regularly could not fail to improve their posture. They will naturally get better at the exercises and programs (more of which are unlocked as you accumulate workout time), and if they're getting better at the exercises and games, they are, in fact, developing better posture and balance.

Wii Fit will encourage activity and health, but it will not provide a back-breaking, "No pain no gain!" style American workout, however. In fact, it does not even give the user a specific regimen. We are left with freedom, maybe too much freedom, to choose from the various yoga poses, balance games, and strength and cardio exercises. The problem there is that your heart rate will go up and down, up and down. You'll never maintain an elevated heart rate using Wii Fit, unless you really speed through the menus to the next exercise (which could conceivably be done). This may be a problem. Wii Fit will definitely improve your overall body composition, though; I have no doubt about that.

This product seems as though it fits better with Japanese and European audiences, who will probably not saddle Wii Fit with over-expectation. This type of audience, who is probably already somewhat active and health-conscious, eats decently and is probably not in the obese category (and may not even be overweight at all) will be quite pleased with what Wii Fit has to offer. But anyone looking to have their back broken, fat melted and muscles rippled will definitely need to look elsewhere. Those who want more of a cardio workout might also want to look elsewhere.

Then again, I could be wrong. Maybe the 3 minute at a time elevations Wii Fit provides are enough, especially in sequence and following (or prior to) the sometimes demanding (and therefore heart-pumping) strength training. There is still controversy in the medical community over such things, and I don't pretend to know anything except the fact that we just don't know. Each culture also has its own ideas what fitness should include, and we have as many bad ideas as Americans as we do good ideas, maybe the balance leaning towards bad.

And speaking of balance, I surprised myself with my yoga performance. The program lauded and encouraged me. I was expecting the opposite, after hearing all the reports of Wii Fit bruising the ego. The yoga is beneficial, but, again, it is taken one exercise at a time, chosen by the user. There are no sequences or routines. Of course, the spirituality of yoga is left out, but few who claim to "teach" yoga these days teach the spiritual aspects anyway, which are just as important as the physical aspects.

The strength training is all without weights, and it's surprisingly effective. It won't make a body builder out of anyone, but that's not the idea. It just wants to tone you up a little. Once again, there is no sequence. You choose each exercise individually, one at a time, and a trainer (male or female, as with yoga) guides you through them.

The cardio is of the "game" variety, little mini-games. Again, no sequence. If one were to do, say, 10 of them, one right after another, I could see the heart rate staying elevated, and I think a decent workout would be achieved in that respect. They're creative, interesting and fun.

The balance games are especially interesting from a "game" standpoint, using the balance board in various ways. They'll improve your balance, and they do count as "activity" after all. You'll still be "exercising" while playing them, in other words. Posturing and balance use all kinds of neglected muscles.

Taken as a whole, Wii Fit is an interesting suite. Part of the joy comes from watching one's progress, and I look forward to this, spending 30-60 minutes with Wii Fit daily.

For those whose expectations are on target and realistic, and who can track down a Wii if they don't have one and, of course, Wii Fit and the Balance Board, I do recommend this purchase. It's cheaper than a yoga class, and it's a lot more fun than a jog around the block, at least for me.

The Most Interacive Workout You'll Find

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The Wii Fit is much more than a game. It combines the intuitive designs that Nintendo has been creating with the accessibility of an instructional workout video.

What sets it apart from a game is the fact that only 9 of the 48 activities are even actual games. The other 39 activities are workouts, yoga poses, and aerobic exercises.

What sets it apart from a workout DVD is the interaction it gives to make sure you're doing the exercises correctly. When you're doing a yoga pose, it measures your balance (which is displayed on the screen in real-time), and tells you (literally, you're trainer tells you) where your weight should be for that particular pose. At the same time, there's a growing and shrinking ring that shows you when you should inhale and exhale. On a DVD, none of this is possible, and you can end up spending months doing the poses or exercises wrong and seeing no improvement (possibly even doing damage).

If you've played the Brain Age series for the Nintendo DS, you'll be very familiar with the format of the game. By putting time in, it rewards you by unlocking new games or workouts as you progress. It accurately keeps track of your weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) and allows you to set goals for yourself for either of those measurements.

If you have the desire to get yourself in shape and improve your overall posture, this is the perfect tool for you. It keeps you coming back to train and improve, which is a huge accomplishment (since most people lose interest in workouts before they even see results).

I strongly recommend this for people of all ages, and I would be very surprised if the included Balance Board isn't incorporated into future games (good investment, hint hint).

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