It’s here! A (very) first look at the Wii Fit

Nintendo’s new, fitness-themed add-on to its blockbuster Wii gaming console, the Wii Fit, hit the shelves on Wednesday in the U.S. to great fanfare. We bought two of them and had 15 staffers try out a select group of games (the system comes with more than 40). Below you’ll see some of our preliminary findings; a full report will be posted early next week.

A few basics: The Wii Fit ($90) consists of a white “Balance Board”—a plastic pedestal that perceives the subtlest shifts in weight and balance as you move—and accompanying software. The activities offered fall into four categories: aerobics, strength training, balance games, and yoga (yes, yoga!). By shifting your weight and moving on and off the balance board, you can hula-hoop, slalom down a ski slope, do a yogic warrior pose, and learn how to do a perfect pushup. A personal trainer (male or female, user’s choice) guides you through the yoga and strengthening moves. The system tracks your activity, in minutes, as you go.

Less enticing to some users, perhaps, will be Wii Fit’s Body Test, required to set up your Mii, or onscreen persona. It consists of several weight and balance assessments that the system uses to gauge your body-mass index (“That’s overweight!” a cheery onscreen voice tells those whose BMIs fall above normal) and assign you a “Wii Fit Age” that may be startlingly higher than your actual age. But the idea, at least in theory, is sound: By getting your baseline info, the system helps you set goals and track your progress. Family members can even set goals together and compete to see who progresses fastest.

Our testers ranged in age from 24 to 69 and included 10 women and five men. Users ran the gamut from regular exercisers to mostly sedentary folks. Among the preliminary findings:

• Balance games win big. All 15 panelists said they enjoyed the Fit’s balance games, making it the only category to get a unanimous thumbs-up for fun. Activities included a ski slalom, ski jump, and table tilt game.
• Some multitasking required. Information appears on the monitor during the strength training exercises, requiring that the user read while doing the exercise. Some panelists found this difficult, while others found it distracting. 
• Trainer as fantasy date? With only two exceptions, the participant’s gender predicted his or her choice of trainer: Eight of the 10 female panelists chose the male trainer, while all five men went for the female.
• Good audio, video presentation. Most panelists appreciated the graphic presentation and audio aspects of the games, though the whistle sounds and tones used to indicate several games’ starting point or announce scores got on some users’ nerves.

And stay tuned for our full assessment, based on both our testers’ impressions and our experts’ observations, in the coming days.

For more, read our previous coverage on advances in exergaming.

—Jamie Hirsh, associate editor

UPDATE: On shoes and bare feet

Thanks to the readers on our electronics blog who pointed out that the instruction manual for the Wii Fit states that it should be used barefoot.

Several of the testers we had shown in our video were wearing shoes. Although we were aware of the no-shoe instruction, we allowed our panelists the choice to keep their shoes or socks on if they preferred, either for comfort or sanitary reasons. (The 15 testers shared just two Wii Fit boards.) The Wii Fit’s no-shoes-or-socks stipulation was to prevent slipping. Because of the discrepancy, we’ve removed the test video that accompanied Saturday’s posts on the health and electronics blogs.

Additionally, please note that our panelists tested the game at a beginner's level. As you continue to use the game, players can eventually activate more advanced settings and games.

—Gayle T. Williams, deputy editor

Comments

[Steven]

Has Consumer Reports ran any technical testing on the Wii system to determine whether or not there may be problems with the system in regards to length of time system can operate before shutting down, or if there are some electrical errors that may pop up due to design flaws? Please let me know I am curious as I work for a company that actually fixes some of the Wii systems that have been either broken or had electronic errors come into play.

[FatFighter]

Thanks for the review - I can always count on you guys to know the scoop on products before I go out and buy them. Can't wait to see the full report!

[evan]

RE Steven: Nintendo does all of their repair in-house, there are no third-party companies licensed to repair Wiis.

[Chris Lees]

@Steven: I've given it a fair workout, and there's no time limit for either the Wii or the balance board. The balance board is obviously limited by the life of the batteries, and it does turn off if not stepped on for a while (I find it turns off during the "running") to save power.

The only annoying thing is that the balance board powers off when switching from the Wii Fit channel to the actual Wii Fit disc, but I think this is just how the Wii is designed to deal with peripherals.

Considering how this is the first generation of motion sensitivity/balance sensitivity in video gaming (forgetting the Amiga), the whole system works without glitches.

[bikerval]

I just got the Wii Fit yesterday and played with it for an hour. It's pretty fun.

The way it works is, well, the board has 4 sensors on the bottom so that when you stand on it, it can tell if you are leaning to the right or left, front or back. In skiing, for example, you actually lean forward to go faster and lean left/right to weave thru the gates.

You set up your profile (name, age, height). The board weighs you, takes you thru a balance test, then it tells you your weight, BMI and Wii Fit Age. You save all this info onto a calendar for tracking your improvement. You choose a "trainer" who demonstrates and paces the exercises for you and off you go to train.

As you train, you get Wii Fit minutes so you can track how long you exercise. As you add training time you unlock new exercises. There are 4 styles of exercise: Yoga, Aerobics, Strength, and Balance. After each exercise is done you get a score and your score gets placed (1st, 2nd, etc) and your accumulated exercise time is increased.

One strength exercise has you standing on one foot while moving your leg from curled up in front of you to stretched out behind you and back again over and over while staying centrally balanced.

An aerobics exercise has you running in place (not on the board) following a cartoon runner in a race thru a park-like cartoon landscape.

A balance exercise has you tilting left and right to head soccer balls being kicked towards you while avoiding other items.

It's all quite fun, especially the balance exercises (soccer, slalom skiing, ski jump, tilt-a-board, tightrope). The only time I really felt like I was exercising hard enough to burn calories, however, was while running in place. A drawback is, well, I wanted to get a quick (rather than slow) score and rating and skip the time counter and go again! Just let me play, see my score, and choose to play again without telling me how much time I've accumulated until I switch to a different exercise.

A second drawback is that there doesn't seem to be a way for two people to play together. I wanted to ski then my buddy ski and compare scores. My pal even jumped on pretending to be me and it wouldn't work... unless MY weight is on the board, it won't go. We had to back out thru a bunch of menus to switch to her profile then back up thru the menus to the ski slope. We want to compete!

I can hardly wait for future games where those irritating limitations aren't there. I dream of a true ski game (different slopes, snow conditions, choose your skiis, etc), horse racing (be a jockey in the stirrups), turn the board the other way and skate board, water ski, etc. I can hardly wait! Multiplayer games! Yes!

[Anne]

I don't really understand the board: how large is it? Can you use it on carpet? I have a smallish dog and a cat: what if they step on it while I'm using it: will that mess things up?

thanks for any info you can share!

[Diane]

The board is just large enough for one person to stand on. It works fine on carpet and I have thick carpet. It has round adapters that are included for carpet use. There is not room for you and your pet on the board.

Two things I said I would never do, jog and yoga. Ha, Wii Fit has me doing both with a smile and loving it.

One of the things I like about Wii Fit is that no matter what size you are it will fit you and you will have fun!

[Kate Stark]

I have been using the Wii fit for two weeks and have dropped about 5 lbs. I originally bought the wii becuase I could take it "on the road" with me. I live mostly out of hotels on business. I play tennis, do lunges with the bowling and it gets me off the computer. I LOVE it.

I am obese according to the wii and it makes me sweat, so that's good.

[Kathy Rice]

Has anyone heard of or know anything about refurbishedwiis.com?

[Jim Parsons]

Yes, the Wii Fit is so very nice...except YOU CAN'T GET YOUR HANDS ON ONE FOR LESS THAN $150.00!!!!!!!!!!! Blasted Nintendo still can't get their supply chain act in line. And this just breeds crooked retailers.

[Julie]

I've been using the Wii Fit for a couple months now and it is the first time in my life I actually look forward to exercising. I've lost 25 pounds in 8 weeks with a combination of 30-60 minutes of actual work-out time (it tells you how long you've exercised without counting set-up time) daily and Weight Watchers food program. No one does exercises they don't enjoy and this is so fun, I'm up and on it nearly every day.

For improvements, I'd like to be able to put together a few routines rather than pick each exercise at the moment. I'd also like to be able to decide how many reps of some of the yoga moves.

I actually appreciate how cheery the voice is on the body check. Especially when it says, "that's obese." I'll be happy to hear it say, "that's overweight" just as cheerily.

[Joe Mama]

The Wii Fit is cool, but for some reason it does not tell accurate weight. It told me i had lost 15 pounds in one day. What's up with that?