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AFTER
all the good times we’ve had together, it’s nice to know
my Wii doesn’t think I’m fat. Not too long ago, Nintendo
launched an unusual product designed for use with its
fast-selling game console. Called Wii Fit, the $90
package comes with a game disc and a sturdy, 10-pound
platform that users stand on, shifting their weight from
side to side to control their in-game characters. The
device and its software can also weigh users and
calculate body mass. Nintendo’s Wii system is famous for
getting people off the couch to play its tennis and
bowling games; now the company aims to introduce users
to yoga moves, ab crunches and push-ups, all performed
atop the new Wii Balance Board, as the platform is
called.
Wii Fit
has already proved popular in Japan, where it has sold 2
million units since its release last year. Design of the
hardware and software was overseen by Shigeru Miyamoto,
the famous Nintendo game designer behind many of the
company’s biggest hits, such as the Mario franchise.
Game
companies have a long and mostly unsuccessful history of
trying to tie physical activity to video games. The idea
goes back at least 25 years, to the heyday of the Atari
2600 game console, which had a similar-in-spirit device
called the Joyboard. In more recent years, some games
designed for the PlayStation 2 used a special camera to
try to “watch” users’ movements as they did aerobics
programs with the system.
One
device on the way, from a company called iToys, aims to
motivate kids to move their bodies more in the real
world by offering rewards in the virtual world. As they
play and move, a pedometer records points that can be
redeemed in a virtual world when the device is plugged
into a computer. The device, called ME2, is scheduled
for release late this summer.
Ben
Sawyer, a codirector of ‘Games for Health,’ a regular
conference where software developers discuss and show
off game technology that improves health and health
care, said there’s a lot to like about Wii Fit.
He said
he’d like to see school districts eventually adopt the
system, in the same way that some school districts have
successfully incorporated the popular Dance Dance
Revolution games into exercise and weight-loss programs.
That’s a
long way off for Wii Fit, he observed. After all, even
if price weren’t an issue, Wiis are still notoriously
hard to find. “The biggest strike against it is that
there aren’t enough Wiis,” he said. “People still can’t
get one.” Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s
executive vice president of sales and marketing, said
other game developers were already working on games and
software that incorporate the Balance Board. She said
the company was still trying to meet demand for the Wii,
but she would not say when the device would be in ample
supply.
There
are more than 40 activities packed into the Wii Fit
disc, ranging from skiing and Hula-Hoop games to rowing,
squat and leg-extension exercises. In keeping with the
traditional structure of video games, users can’t access
every feature on the disc at first: The more you “play,”
the more activities you unlock.
Heck, if
you feel like going for a run, you can even stick the
Wii controller in one pocket and jog in place, and off
goes your “Mii” avatar on a circuit run around a virtual
video-game park, populated with all the avatars that you
and your friends have put together on the system.
Never
has a game console put itself into your personal
business as aggressively as the Wii does shortly after
you pop in the Wii Fit disc.
“Did you
sleep well?” “Did you have breakfast yet?” Log on in the
mornings before work, and you’re greeted with a such
questions. Skip a few days, and the Wii Fit gently tries
to make you feel guilty for being a slacker.
Maybe
the Wii doesn’t think I’m overweight, but it does seem
to regard me as a klutz after I flubbed a few
balance-related tests. I’m not sure I like the
implications I detect in some of its questions: “Do you
feel like your body isn’t responding the way you would
like it to?” “Do you find yourself tripping when you
walk?”
The
software is set up so you can also use it to track any
exercise you’re up to when you’re away from the Wii;
those worried about privacy can keep their weight
fluctuations and workout habits password-protected.
So far,
I have yet to break much of a sweat with the Wii Fit. As
I contort my torso to follow the directions of the
software’s mellow yoga instructor guy, he encourages me
to “visualize” my “ideal body” as I focus on my
breathing and balance.
Wii Fit
is interesting, and I look forward to spending some more
time with it. But if I were to ever do more than just
visualize that ideal body, I think I’d have to start
going to the gym again. The real one. |
