Well, I figure a good way to break this thing in is to just opine about the latest video game I bought (beats ignoring it until I have all the style choices exactly the way I want them).

So, what is that latest game, you might ask? Why, none other than Wii Fit.

Wii Fit isn’t exactly new– it (supposedly) started hitting store shelves way back in May. Now, I threw that “supposedly” in there because despite that five month old release date, I never actually saw one on a store shelf. Wiis themselves, sure (which is still something of a rarity), but be it Best Buy, Toys R Us or anything inbetween, Wii Fit was always sold out. Just endless exercise tie-ins like water bottles, sweatbands, and the like.

So, when I saw a nice neat pile of Wii Fit kits on a store display yesterday, naturally I leapt at it. While I’ve only had one day with the thing, that’s more than enough to have a couple of opinions.

First, the Wii Balance Board. For those unfamiliar with Wii Fit, it looks something like this:

Now, like all the Wii controllers, it’s wireless– which is a big step up from the days of the NES Power Pad (or DDR pads for the more recent gamers). The things looks flimsier than it actually wound up being, which is a real plus.

So, anyway, the Wii Balance Board was something of a surprise because it actually does its job well. It reads the tiniest difference in weight distribution to mercilessly criticize your posture and subject you to numerous balance exercises with an aim towards correcting your bad habit. It also accurately weighs you (I checked 😉 ) and calculates your Body Mass Index (with some help from you to input your height and age). All of this is with an eye towards giving you goals– a lower BMI, a lower weight– within a set timeframe so you have some motivation to play these exercises every day.

Fooling around with these exercises, I don’t think that will be a problem. Sure, some of the Yoga ones aren’t exactly my thing– watch that little balance dot go all over the place as you try to match their pose– but I’m always up for a challenge and as Khan would say, it tasks me.

Now, the ones that play more like mini-games are the most fun. A hula hoop challenge has already launched a top score war with others, as has the ski jump (lots of fun once you get the hang of it). And I haven’t even unlocked everything yet.

Wii Fit isn’t necessarily a replacement for proper exercise, but it’s fun to do, its graphing ability makes it incredibly easy to mark your progress, and, let’s face it, it doesn’t feel like exercising. When so many games have skewed the opposite way in the past, it’s nice to see Nintendo trying to balance out their karma while capitalizing on the everyman feel to the Wii.

I’ll rant on that aspect of the Wii later, but for now, I’ll go log some time on Wii Fit. 😉