Prepare to get physical: Wii Fit will be played using the Balance Board, which detects shifts in body weight and translates that into movements on your television.Nintendo Australia previewed its intriguing new fitness game for the Wii video game console, aptly titled Wii Fit, at high altitude last week.
The video gaming giant had exclusive use of the Sky Deck function centre on the 88th floor of Melbourne’s tallest building, the Eureka Tower, to promote the new exercise video game to a company of celebrities, journalists and professional athletes.
Wii Fit is due for release on 8 May and will sell for $149.95.
It comes with a new piece of technology called the Balance Board, which looks like a sleek set of bathroom scales.
But underneath the ‘hood’, so to speak, are advanced pressure sensors that measure a person’s balance, weight, and translate those into the game context.
Wii Fit is similar to Nintendo’s Brain Training game except with a fitness focus.
After measuring your weight, and asking you to enter your height and age, the game calculates your Body Mass Index (BMI).
The goal of the game is to improve your BMI, and also other physical attributes such as balance.
The Wii Fit game is a selection of mini games, much akin to Wii Sport or Wii Play, that include yoga, stretching and exciting challenges such as downhill skiing, ski jumping, hula hoop twirling and tightrope walking. Simply stand on the Balance Board to play – it’s that easy.
The use of the Balance Board is innovative and beyond Wii Fit could lead to exciting implementation in either a snowboard or skateboarding game, or other fitness-based titles.
Either way, Wii Fit and the Balance Board do indeed get you moving, and fit perfectly into the life of casual or new gamers who want to choose how much time they dedicate to video games, be it 10 minutes a day or several hours.
Wii Fit will be available for purchase on 8 May for $149.95 and will contain more than 50 mini games.
