Wii Fit
is a 2007 exergaming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It features a variety of yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance mini-games for use with the Wii Balance Board peripheral. Designer Hiroshi Matsunaga described the game as a "way to help get families exercising together". It has since been adopted by various health clubs around the world, and has previously been used for physiotherapy rehabilitation in children and in nursing homes to improve posture in the elderly.
The game has received generally positive to mixed reviews, despite criticism over the lack of intensity in some of its workout activities. , Wii Fit was the third best selling console game not to be packaged with a console, having sold 22.67 million copies.
an enhanced version featuring additional games, activities, and features, was released for the Wii in October 2009. It also garnered positive reception and was a commercial success; as of 2022, it is the seventh best-selling game on the Wii, with a total of 21.13 million copies sold. Both versions have sold a combined total of 43.8 million copies, making the game one of the best-selling video games of all time.
Gameplay
Wii Fit requires the use of the Wii Balance Board, a unique platform peripheral that the player stands upon during play. The Wii Balance Board can detect and track the user's center of balance, a feature heavily used in the game; it will also measure weight in the same way as a bathroom scale. Wii Fit contains more than 40 activities designed to engage the player in physical exercise, which consist of yoga poses, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. Most activities generally focus on maintaining COB and improving posture.Players register and play in Wii Fit via a user profile, assigned with the player's date of birth, height, and Mii character, that keeps track of the player's progress. Physical activities done outside of Wii Fit can also be logged into the profile. Wii Fit allows up to eight different profiles to be registered.
Yoga and Strength Training
The Yoga and Strength Training activities in Wii Fit provide the player with an on-screen personal trainer who offers direction and evaluation. While standing or otherwise leaning on the Wii Balance Board, the player is instructed to perform the activity by precisely imitating the trainer's actions. In Yoga, the player holds a particular pose or series of poses for a duration of time; while in Strength Training the player performs a set number of repetitions of the exercise selected. During these sessions, the player is shown a visual indication of their COB, represented as a red dot. The trainer advises the player to maintain the COB throughout the activity, requesting that it not move outside a particular threshold usually indicated as a yellow circle. When the activity ends, the player is scored based on how well the player kept their balance during the session: points are deducted if the player's body haphazardly swayed or shook at any point. Wii Fit has 30 Yoga and Strength Training activities.| Yoga | Strength Training |
| Deep Breathing | Single Leg Extension |
| Half-Moon | Push-Up and Side Plank |
| Warrior | Torso Twists |
| Tree | Jackknife |
| Sun Salutation | Lunge |
| Standing Knee | Rowing Squat |
| Palm Tree | Single Leg Twist |
| Chair | Sideways Leg Lift |
| Triangle | Plank |
| Downward Facing Dog | Triceps Extension |
| Dance | Arm and Leg Lift |
| Cobra | Single-Arm Stand |
| Bridge | Push-Up Challenge |
| Spinal Twist | Jackknife Challenge |
| Shoulder Stand | Plank Challenge |
Aerobics and Balance Games
The other two major categories in Wii Fit, Aerobics and Balance Games, consist of 18 minigame activities that feature Miis as playable characters. Aerobics focus on activities that require more vigorous movement, and are divided into three distinct types: hula hooping, step aerobics, and jogging. In Hula Hoop, the player twirls their hips in order to spin a series of hoops, and is scored on the number of spins achieved within a period of time. Step aerobics focus on stepping on and off the Wii Balance Board in a rhythmic fashion. In jogging, which does not use the Wii Balance Board, the player runs in place while keeping the connected Wii Remote in their pocket, which acts as a pseudo-pedometer. The game provides variations of step aerobics and jogging where the user may exercise at their own pace and does not require viewing the game screen; the player is able to watch television or something similar while performing the exercise. Balance Games consist of nine activities that focus on directly controlling the game using the player's COB. "Soccer Heading", for example, focuses on leaning left or right to control the player's Mii in order to head incoming soccer balls. Another, "Table Tilt", focuses on directing balls into holes by shifting the player's balance to tilt the platform they rest on. Activities based on slalom skiing, snowboarding, and tightrope walking are also available, and a Zazen-based game in which the player sits on the Wii Balance Board and remains motionless for a period of time.| Aerobics | Balance Games |
| Hula Hoop | Soccer Heading |
| Basic Step | Ski Slalom |
| Basic Run | Ski Jump |
| Super Hula Hoop | Table Tilt |
| Advanced Step | Tightrope Walk |
| 2-P Run | Balance Bubble |
| Rhythm Boxing | Penguin Slide |
| Free Step | Snowboard Slalom |
| Free Run | Lotus Focus |
Body Test
Players may undergo "Body Tests", in which the player's body mass index is calculated and balance control is tested. Each Body Test determines and updates the player's "Wii Fit Age", which loosely suggests the player's physical strength in relation to their true age. A standalone application called "Wii Fit Channel" may be installed to the Wii Menu in order for players to perform Body Tests without needing to load the Wii Fit game disc.Development
Wii Fit was first revealed as Wii Health Pack by Nintendo's chief game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, during a conference in mid-September 2006. Then described as a "way to help get families exercising together", the game idea had first been included in Miyamoto's original design document for a core group of games including Wii Sports and Wii Play, the entirety of which was scribbled onto a sheet of paper.As with other games designed by Miyamoto such as Nintendogs, the design of Wii Fit was influenced by activities in his daily life. He states that he and his family had become more health-conscious, going to the gym and tracking their weight. He found that it had become "fun over time to talk about these things", and as weighing oneself "didn't make much of a game", Nintendo decided to build games around the idea to mesh with the concept. The Wii Balance Board had been worked on for "almost two years", and was inspired by heavy sumo wrestlers' need to weigh themselves with two scales.
The game was announced under its current title at Nintendo's E3 press conference on July 11, 2007, and demonstrated by Miyamoto, Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé and other participants. Miyamoto revealed that Wii Fit had been developed with a "full-scale" team for a year at the time, and added that there were no plans to integrate WiiConnect24 functionality into the game. He said there was a possibility to take advantage of WiiConnect24 in the future, such as using the service to keep in contact with a doctor to help with rehabilitation, or with a fitness specialist to help with training exercises.
''Wii Fit Plus''
Wii Fit Plus is an enhanced version of Wii Fit, released in Japan on October 1, 2009, and in other regions in the same month. The game was announced during Nintendo's E3 2009 media briefing on June 2, 2009. It includes all of the original content from Wii Fit along with 15 new balance and aerobics games and six new strength training and yoga activities. New features include a calorie burning counter, the ability for users to create custom fitness regimens or choose from a number of specialized routines based on specific objectives and available time, and the option to create profiles for pets and babies. Users are also able to navigate more quickly between exercises.Following the commercial success of Wii Fit, producer Shigeru Miyamoto decided to produce a follow-up. Miyamoto learned during Wii Fit Plus development that many Wii Fit owners had stopped playing the game, believing the primary reason to be inconvenience. A new menu interface, My Wii Fit Plus, was implemented to address this issue and make accessing activities quicker and easier. The interface was recreated and adjusted multiple times during development. In designing new minigames for Wii Fit Plus, Miyamoto wanted to create activities that played upon the Stroop effect, requiring coordination of both the player's mind and body; minigames in which the player uses both the Wii Remote and the Wii Balance Board at the same time became a major focus.
Reception
Wii Fit was well received. It holds an 81.18% score on GameRankings, aggregated from the scores of 57 media outlets, and got an average score of 81 on MobyGames. While the playful balance and aerobics minigames have generally been praised as simple fun, criticism for the game is aimed at its limitations in offering a serious workout regime. In 1UP.coms review, one such limitation was attributed to the lack of structure the game imposes on the player, stating that while having "complete freedom to choose what you want to do, you might find yourself cheating, despite your best intentions." X-Play also noted that the brief activities are separated by menus, making it difficult for one to keep up a constant heart rate, with GameRevolution criticizing a serious limitation: "as a stand-alone fitness trainer it suffers greatly by the inability to assemble a full, unbroken workout without the horrible 'fitness interruptus' necessitated by bothersome menu navigation and obtrusive Wii remote usage." Some have also pointed out a lack of Nintendo's usual charm in game design, specifically in the yoga and strength training exercises which take place in a muted setting that one critic referred to as "the world's most lifeless, depressing gym." Despite these limitations, the game's friendly front-end and amount of activities are cited as appealing features to those who are perhaps seeking an introduction to daily exercise. In a review on IGN, Wii Fit was said to create "an environment in which working out is less daunting and as a result enjoyable – fun, even."According to a study published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, the aerobics portion of Wii Fit was not sufficient to maintain a heart rate of the recommended intensity for maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness.
A study published by Tokyo's National Institute of Health and Nutrition concluded that only 33% of the exercises qualified as medium-intensity, with the rest as low-intensity. No exercises qualified as high-intensity. The researchers concluded that only one-third of the exercises qualify towards the exercise guidelines provided by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association, and that the exercises offered less benefits "than authentic sports or exercises because playing these active video games involved little horizontal locomotion." However, to reach 30 minutes of moderate activity as suggested by the ACSM, significantly more time is required, due to the repeated manual navigations of the menus required between each exercise and the inability to program customized exercise routines, repetitions, or time limits.
Wii Fit was awarded Best Use of the Balance Board by IGN in its 2008 video game awards. It was also nominated for multiple other awards, including Best New IP and Best Sports Game. Hyper commends the game for its "effective exercise program, its accessibility and its massive novelty value". However, he criticized it for not being a "gamer's game and no good for long sessions".
Cycling Weekly reported that Mark Cavendish, a double Madison World Champion and Commonwealth Games gold medalist bike racer, had to stop his training regime when he injured his left calf's gastrocnemius after falling off the balance board while playing Wii Fit.
There was minor controversy regarding Wii Fit in the UK, where two parents complained after the known limitations of BMI led to their daughter being labeled as overweight. Nintendo apologized over any offense caused by the terminology used in-game.
During the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Wii Fit for "Family Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming".
Wii Fit Plus generally received positive reviews from critics. GameRankings reports an aggregate score of 80.83% based on 18 reviews, and Metacritic reports a score of 80% based on 33 reviews. IGN gave Wii Fit Plus a score of 8.2. GameSpot gave it a 7.5 out of 10. 1UP gave it an A−, stating, "There's still some tightening up to be done, but Wii Fit Plus is a definite improvement in the format." The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences also nominated Wii Fit Plus for "Family Game of the Year" at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.
In May 2010, the AHA endorsed the Wii to encourage sedentary people to take the first step toward fitness. The AHA heart icon covers the console itself along with two of its more active games, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort.