*chirp chirp*

::watches the tumble weed go by::

Well, it's been a while. Over two months, in fact. I kind of saw this coming, for me at least. Things usually drop off my radar after a good month or two. I've been busy with work and family and life in general. I really should be catching up on work from the super long weekend but decided I'd do a post. So here are some thoughts on a recent purchase I made. Enjoy!

I bought Wii Fit and We Ski last week. I haven't actually had a lot of time to sit down (er, stand up) and play both games a lot. I went through the initial tests with Wii Fit which was interesting. It gives you your BMI (mine was really high, but that was expected since I'm not a small guy. Although it was higher than what I had thought it would be.... I blame the "sturdy base" I have), weight (which was the same as the last time I was at the doctors), tests your center of balance and posture (ie if you stand with your weight distributed evenly between your legs or if you lean/slouch to one side) and then does an initial test on body control (shifting weight between your legs and holding for three seconds). Although my measurements left something to be desired I did fairly well on the body control test. My "Wii Fit Age" was a good 22, two years younger than my actual age.

After all the tests you can setup goals for yourself like if you want to gain or lose weight and then a time frame to achieve your goal. I obviously opted to lose some weight. 22 lbs was the max, I set a goal of 20 lbs and a month to do it. Pretty aggressive goal which I'm probably going to push out a little farther (perhaps 3 months). Wii Fit actually told me it was aggressive saying that, on average, most people try to lose a couple pounds (2-3 lbs) every two weeks. I was pushing about 10 lbs every two weeks. In all honesty I don't see myself losing very much weight as much as toning/building muscle (it's what's happened before when I tried to lose weight). So, although I may shed some fat, I probably won't shed any weight and my BMI will remain high and Wii Fit will continue to think that I am morbidly obese (it doesn't actually say "morbidly obese" but it does place me very high on the obese scale).

Once you've completed the initial tests and setup your goal you can begin your "workout". I use "workout" because for the most part these are just mini-games that require a little more physical input that most of ther Wii games. Of course, the only ones I have tried were under the "Balance" section which works on, surprise, your balance. You'd be surprised at how much control you need to actually complete some of these games. The ski slalom game was extremely entertaining with the family. These games have various metrics to show your progress like shortest time and/or point totals.

I tried two Yoga and one Aerobic "games" too. I use "games" because they're more like instructional videos than games. The Yoga lessons take you through various positions and you complete them on the balance board while trying to maintain balance and posture. The aerobic "game" I tried was hulahooping which actually made me work up a sweat. It makes it interesting by having other Mii's throwing more hulahoops at you that you have to lean to catch and then continue hulahooping. The object is to get your counter (the number of times your hulahoop(s) go around) as high as possible.

As you go through the different "workouts" and "games" you're credited with Wii Fit Minutes (I think that's what they are). As you accumulate more minutes it unlocks new "workouts" and "games" for you to try. Also, as you do better and better on a specific "workout" or "game" it unlocks harder versions for you to try. I'm looking forward to unlocking more "workouts" and "games".

Also purchased was We Ski. Pretty obvious what this game is about, skiing, but it uses the balance board from Wii Fit. So, with remote, nunchuk, and balance board ready to go I dove into the tutorials. The controls weren't too bad. Some of the advanced moves were a little tricky to master at first but the tutorial was good enough that I could usually pick things up by the second try at most. The programming for this was just as sensitive as it was for Wii Fit so it made the game a little more difficult trying to control steering as accurately as I wanted. I had problems in both games lifting up one foot or the other and going way off course or overcorrecting. It's going to take a little bit of learning and a lot of practice to become really good but that's the idea behind Wii Fit.

Both games are sure to be challenging for a good amount of time. Even though the idea behind it is pretty simple the execution takes a lot more control. I had some family in town and they all gave Wii Fit a try and had a blast seeing everyone elses results and Wii Fit Age, My dad actually scored 47, nearly 20 years below his actual age. My mother was not that fortunate. One of my aunts got hooked and decided she wanted to get one. She and her husband will be looking for a Wii and Wii Fit when they get back to California.

Nintendo really has something with their Wii and Wii Fit. My parents and relatives can be considered the pinnicle "non-gamer" and have embraced and enjoy the Wii and Wii Fit. My dad even likes a good round of Wii Tennis. Of course, they wouldn't play without me so the barrier hasn't been breeched completely, but we're making strides. I have both my mom and dad setup in Wii Fit now and once I show them how to turn everything on and how it works they'll start working toward their goals in Wii Fit. Maybe one day I'll have to fight my dad for the Wii like we used to over the phone line before we got DSL. Wouldn't that be something?

-Michael
Currently: Procrastinating much more than I should have....
Currently Stuck in My Head: "Hold me closer tiny dancer...." (I have no idea why)
Currently Craving: a nap
Currently TV Obsession: watching the Pens lose to the Red Wings ::single tear::
Currently Anticipating: going home
Current Video Game(s): Wii Fit and We Ski, although I should really finish Super Paper Mario....