Exercise and the proper diet are the best things for a healthy body – we all know that. Then again, knowing and actually doing are two totally different things. This is especially true for a lot of people these days who find themselves always in front of their computers and television sets. When do they find the time to exercise?
Enter the Nintendo Wii. With their new product line – aptly dubbed the Wii Fit – Nintendo is posed to capture a new market, if they have not already. So what is the Wii Fit all about? Time shares:
This is the genius of Shigeru Miyamoto, the famed game designer and mastermind behind blockbusters like Legends of Zelda, Donkey Kong and the many Mario titles. He has managed to take an activity that many people dread — exercise — and actually make it feel like a game. “What is most interesting to me is helping people find something within themselves and then drawing it out,” says Miyamoto, 55.
Nintendo’s Wii Fit comes with a wireless “balance board” that you set on the floor in front of a TV hooked up to the Wii console. About two feet wide and half as deep, the board is essentially a fancy scale, which not only measures your weight, but also detects your equilibrium with startling precision. To play Wii Fit, you stand on the board and go through a series of exercises/games that fall into one of four categories: balance, strength, aerobics and yoga. You can box, snowboard or hula-hoop. You can practice your tree pose and lotus position. Or you can play a tilting game that uses careful body movements to maneuver balls across a shaky platter onscreen, as you try to sink them into various holes.
For those of us who shy away from the more traditional forms of exercise, the Wii Fit may be our savior. I can’t help but think though, can it really replace exercise? What do you think?
Originally posted on August 3, 2008 @ 3:14 pm