Wii Fit Plus & Balance Board
Wii Fit Plus is a top Christmas gift idea for anyone, from middle-school kids to adults, who enjoys any kind of sports or active games. The Wii Fit Plus games include all the physical fitness categories from aerobics to weight training to stretching to balance. Nearly all the Wii Fit Plus games utilize the Wii Balance Board in combination with a Wii remote. Per the standard Wii design philosophy, the Wii Balance board reads your body motion, balance, pressure, etc. and uses that data to sync up your physical body with its Wii representation.
The Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board is a best Christmas gift for anyone looking to get or stay fit in the comfort of their own home, but with an enormous variety of choices and options in in-home sports and games to make exercising feel like time off, instead of time you have to put in.
Wii Fit Plus Product Description
Wii Fit attracted millions of new players to the world of video games. Now Wii Fit Plus offers a range of new features and enhancements to help players reinvigorate their workouts, along with exercises and balance games designed to keep them fun. Players will find a new dimension to the Wii Fit experience as they easily set their own customized workout routines, or choose 20-, 30- or 40-minute workouts based on how much time they have available.Wii Fit Plus Gameplay
To use Wii Fit Plus players import their Miis from their Wii system, set up profiles, establish a current physical baseline, set fitness goals, and embark on a routine to reach them. Wii Fit Plus tracks your usage, weight and progress towards your goal over time, giving you a status report as you start each session. At any time players can choose whatever activity they want, whether exercise or balance game, and as they progress in these they will level up in each, gaining points, setting high scores and unlocking more activities.
Wii Fit Plus Personalization Option Via ‘The Locker Room’
The original Wii Fit was designed to have something for everyone. Now Wii Fit Plus raises the bar by providing users with personalization options that allow them to find/create a specific workout routine that is exactly right for them, their family and their lifestyle. One example of this is “The Locker Room.” Easily accessible throughout the game, here players can choose from a number customizable options that allow them to maximize their time with Wii Fit Plus without having to navigate through the game menu while in the middle of a workout. In essence this allows players to become their own personal trainer. Customization options available within The Locker Room include: preprogrammed and timed Wii Fit Plus Routines; My Routine, where you choose your own set of activities, optimizing their length and area of the body to be focused on; and Favorites, a notation of activities you frequent, which provides fast access to exercises you enjoy doing the most.
Additional Wii Fit Plus Yoga and Strength Exercises
Designed as an addition to the already substantial list of focused, physical exercises available in Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus contains six new and challenging strength and yoga activities. But continuing with the game’s commitment to personalization, the key to these additions is not in their volume, but in how the player chooses to mix and match them. Do them in the order they are presented, or combine them in whatever order you want. The choice is yours. The player even has the ability to repeat the ones that he/she prefers, maximizing attention and effort where it is needed most. In addition, for those to whom time is a commodity, you can now omit unnecessary interludes between exercises, making for a continuous, timesaving routine.
A Wealth of New Wii Fit Plus Balance Games
Regardless of the considerable fitness factor packed into Wii Fit Plus, the Nintendo brand is and will always be all about having fun. With that in mind Wii Fit Plus also comes packed with 15 new, entertaining balance games suitable for every member of the family. Just a few of those that players can expect to see are: Juggling; Skateboarding; Snowball Fight; Obstacle Course, a log-leaping, cannonball-evading event reminiscent of what Nintendo icon Mario must go through; and Perfect 10, a balance game designed to promote a combination of physical and mental health. In this final example the player’s Mii is situated between multiple color-coated balls, each showing specific numbers, with the goal to swing your hips, hula style, in different directions to tap out a total of ten as many times as possible before time runs out.
Key Wii Fit Plus Game Features
The Wii Fit Plus Bundle includes the game software and the Wii Balance Board.- Users can input the amount of time they want to spend on their workouts or select an area for personal improvement, and Wii Fit Plus will suggest a number of diverse activities for them.
- For the first time, users can mix and match which strength and yoga activities they prefer on a given day. The seamless exercise flows make it easier than ever for users to maintain their daily workout routines.
- Users might be asked to run an obstacle course across a series of platforms, zoom across a beach on a Segway x2 Personal Transporter or flap their arms to help their hilarious chicken-suited characters aim for targets.
- The range of games and customization options will make players want to play every day. They’ll be having so much fun that their workouts will seem to fly by in no time at all.
- Players also can see estimates of calories burned and can even activate a feature that lets them weigh their dogs or cats.
Wii Fit Plus Product Description
Wii Fit Plus lets you craft a routine suited to your personal fitness goals. Combine yoga and strength training exercises to create your own personalized routine, or select one of a variety of mini routines tailored to address specific fitness needs. Use the included Wii Balance Board to perform 15 new and exciting activities that will have you leaping from moving platforms, hitting golf balls and more. You can even track your stats and those for members of your household by monitoring your calories burned, your BMI and other figures, as well as the weight of your baby or family pet. Plus, with the new multiplayer mode, you can team up with a fitness buddy to enjoy the fun and benefits of a Wii Fit Plus workout together. Enjoy 15 exciting new activities, including the Obstacle Course, where you’ll leap from moving platforms; Bird’s-eye Bull’s-eye, in which you’ll flap your wings and land on targets; and the Driving Range, where you can hit golf balls Work out with family and friends in a new multiplayer mode that lets you share the fun and rewards of getting fit Monitor the weight of your baby or family pet in new Baby Stats and Pet Stats modes Integrate the included Wii Balance Board into your routine for interactive fitness fun For 1 to 9 players.
Wii Fit Plus Product Features
dition: w/ Balance Board- The Wii Fit Plus Bundle includes the game software and the Wii Balance Board.
- Users can input the amount of time they want to spend on their workouts or select an area for personal improvement, and Wii Fit Plus will suggest a number of diverse activities for them.
- For the first time, users can mix and match which strength and yoga activities they prefer on a given day. The seamless exercise flows make it easier than ever for users to maintain their daily workout routines.
- The range of games and customization options will make players want to play every day. They¿ll be having so much fun that their workouts will seem to fly by in no time at all.
Wii Fit Plus Reviews
5 stars Take that Balance Board out of the closet
If you’re like me, you got the Wii Fit, used it a few times, and put it in the closet once the novelty wore off.
The best thing to happen to the Wii Fit was a little something called EA Sports Active. It was released by Electronic Arts a few months ago, and they raised the bar for what a fitness title should look like. The influence of EA Sports Active on Nintendo’s Wii Fit Plus is very apparent, and the Nintendo folks did a great job of taking Wii Fit to the next level.
The first thing to note is that Wii Fit Plus is not a “sequel” to the original Wii Fit, but rather it contains all the content of the original Wii Fit and adds a number of improvements. In other words, if you don’t have Wii Fit already, you can skip it, buy Wii Fit Plus with the Balance Board. If you already have Wii Fit, you can buy the Wii Fit Plus game only.
For those with the old Wii Fit, the conversion of your old profile data to the new is quick and seamless. It just takes a couple seconds and voila, all of your old weight data and workout data is available in Wii Fit Plus.
The first improvement, clearly influenced by EA Sports Active, is that instead of choosing individual strength and yoga exercises ad-hoc, you can choose from a number of pre-configured workout routines. “My Wii Fit Plus” is a virtual locker room, where your animated balance board (as chipper and encouraging as ever) walks you through the process of choosing a workout routine based on any number of specific goals, ranging from better health to improving specific parts of your body.
The activities are still broken out by category: Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Games. All of these are identical to the old Wii Fit, except that there there are a 6 new Yoga and Strength training exercises which add some more variety and challenge to those categories.
But here’s the part of the review I’m sure you’ve been waiting for. The biggest improvement in Wii Fit Plus is the addition of 15 “Training Plus” activities.
Perfect 10 (Workout intensity: 2 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): A game that tests your math skills as much as your flexibility. Numbers will appear on giant mushroom, and you bump your hips to hit the numbers that add (or subtract) to 10 or 15 or 20. You won’t be losing huge amounts of weight from this one, but it’s a great way to test your mind and body coordination and this is one you’ll play over and over again to try to beat your high score.
Island Cycling (Workout intensity: 4 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): This is a game that uses the Balance Board (you step on the board with your left and right foot to simulate bicycle pedalling) and the Wiimote (which you use to steer). The game itself looks a lot like the cycling game on Wii Sports Resort, except you move your feet instead of your hands. Unlike that game, this game isn’t timed; rather, you need to cycle around a large island collecting flags. The island is beautifully designed with amazing details. This is definitely one you can spend a lot of time on and not even realize you were exercising.
Rhythm Kung-Fu (Workout intensity: 3 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This is the first game that put a huge smile on my face. Using your Wiimote, the Nunchuk, and the Balance Board, you have to strike different “kung fu” poses in rhythm to delightfully cheesy kung-fu movie music. It’s essentially a game of “Simon Says”, where you mimic the moves of a groups of Miis standing behind you (and if you have family or friend Miis on your system, you’ll see some familiar faces).
Driving Range (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): Sure, golf has been done in Wii Sports, in Wii Sports Resort, and in games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Wii Fit Plus brings something a little different to the table, though. You position the Balance Board vertically, and swing your Wii-mote like a golf club. There’s a “swing analyzer” which is surprisingly good not just for casual video game golfers but also for real golfers to analyze their form. It measures the straightness of your swing, your weight distribution, and gives a pretty good indication of how far your drive will go.
Segway Circuit (Workout intensity: 3 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): In a clever co-branding deal, Nintendo teamed up with the folks at Segway for this game. In it, you ride a Segway around the island trying to pop balloons that are being put up around the island by pesky moles. Like a real Segway, you lean forward to move forward and you lean back to go back, steering with the Wii-mote.
Bird’s-Eye Bull’s-Eye, a.k.a. Flying Chicken (Workout intensity: 5 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This is the one you probably heard about, and it (along with Obstacle Course) is the winner. Your Mii dons a chicken outfit and has to fly from target to target. How do you fly? By flapping your arms. You can either flap your arms with your hands extended, or do a “chicken dance” type movement by bending your elbows. Either way, the Balance Board will amazingly detect how strongly, quickly, or slowly you’re flapping. Like a real bird, you flap faster to get better control, and you flap slower to soar great distances. You control where you’re moving by leaning on the Balance Board.
Snowball Fight (Workout intensity: 2 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This one is just plain fun. You use the Wii-mote to shoot snowballs at an invading army of Miis (again, if you have custom Miis stored on your system you’ll see some familiar faces), and duck left and right to hide behind a barricade to avoid getting hit yourself with snowballs.
Obstacle Course (Workout intensity: 5 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This is the game I was most looking forward too, and I was not disappointed. You run in place on the Balance Board to make your character move forward and you straighten your knees to make him jump. In the process, you’ll be navigating around huge swinging wrecking balls, moving sidewalks, and falling logs.
Tilt City (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 3 of 5): I admit, I’m not so crazy about these “tilt” games, maybe because I’m just not very coordinated. This is a game where you need to tilt the Wii-mote and shift your weight on the balance board in a coordinated fashion to steer colored balls into the right container.
Rhythm Parade (Workout intensity: 4 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This was another one to put a huge smile on my face. You’re basically a drum major, marching in place to the sound of a beat. Like rhythm games like Helix and Samba Di Amigo, you move your Wii-mote and Nunchuk to match on-screen cues. The better you match, the bigger your marching band becomes (and again, you’ll see familiar faces join in the band if you have custom Miis).
Big Top Juggling (Workout intensity: 3 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): No, this one won’t really teach you how to juggle, but once you’re done you’ll have the same satisfaction as if you did know how. It’s a game where you have to stay balanced on a giant ball (using your feet on the Balance Board), while at the same time keeping 1, 2, or 3 balls in the the air by flicking your Wii-mote and Nunchuk.
Skateboard Arena (Workout intensity: 4 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): This seems like a pretty fair representation of riding a skateboard. You position the Balance Board vertically and stand on it like a skateboard. You can build speed by pushing off your back foot. You steer by moving your body back and forth, and you can jump by straightening your knees. You go through a series of exercises just like a real skateboarder, from jumping on ramps to riding on rails to doing tricks on half-pipes.
Table Tilt Plus (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 3 of 5): This one is a lot like those labyrinth games where you’re trying to steer a ball around holes (in this case, you’re trying to get balls into holes).
Balance Bubble Plus (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 2 of 5): Same sentiments as I wrote above. This is an improved version of the old Wii Fit Balance game where you’re floating in a bubble trying to navigate your way through a maze.
Basic Run Plus (Workout intensity: 5 of 5, Fun 3 of 5): This is a variation of the jogging game in the Aerobic games section of Wii Fit Plus. Like that game, you control this one by running in place on the Balance Board, and you’re treated to a lot of great scenery and new paths to explore on Wii Fit Island. An added feature is that at the end of the game, you’ll be quizzed on things you saw, which is added to your final score, which surprisingly makes the run a lot more interesting, as you make sure to carefully observe every little detail as you’re running.
Other improvements:
1) The use of METs and report of calories burned. What does METs stand for? METs (which stands for Metabolic EquivalenTs) is a standard way to measure energy expenditure. One annoyance with the old Wii Fit was that whether you did an exercise that used no energy like a stretching exercise or one that expended vast amounts of energy like Super Hula Hoop, your progress was marked by the time spent or “Fit Credits” that didn’t mean anything in the real world. With Wii Fit Plus, METs are used in conjunction with your body weight and the time spent to calculate the number of calories burned. There’s even a neat little function in My Wii Fit Plus where you can see the number of calories you’ve burned in terms of food (you can even choose the type and amount of food you want to burn off and set it as a goal).
2) Balance Board improvements. With the old Wii Fit, each time you started a new routine, you’d need to wait for the Balance Board to calibrate. I suppose this was intended in the case where multiple people would be sharing the Balance Board, but it got annoying very fast. Wii Fit Plus is a bit more intelligent, in that it’ll sense whether the weight has changed and give the option to recalibrate only if it has. I’ve experienced a number of “false positives” in which it thought my weight changed when it didn’t, but that’s just a minor annoyance compared to the old way. I was actually a bit puzzled as to why the Wii MotionPlus wasn’t used in this game, but with the improvements to the Balance Board they really weren’t necessary.
3) The ability to measure a child or pet. This is a gimmick, of course, but a totally fun one if you have the aforementioned child or pet to measure. 
Overall, Wii Fit Plus is a winner. To Nintendo’s credit, they weren’t content just to rest on their laurels, but they came up with improvements that truly breathed new life into the Wii Fit.
INTRO:
After years of wanting a Wii, we finally got one! And, of course, like any overly-excited newbie, I couldn’t wait to get the new WiiFit (WiiFit Plus). I picked it up at midnight, with the Balance Board. (TIP: if ur buying from brick-and-mortar stores, call ahead, it took me an hour to convince them that it was ok to sell it to me, and it was already 12:30a!) I got home, set it up (took just a few minutes, mostly unwrapping) and played until 5am! I was nearly falling asleep between games, but it was so much fun, I couldn’t stop! Now, THAT’s a motivator to work out! It even asked if I was a ‘NIGHT OWL’ and I had the option to keep my “day” ‘open’ until 3am, for those late-night workout sessions!
THE GAMES, & WHY I LOVE THEM:
Without leaving my 12′x12′ living room, I can do: Circus Juggling, Skateboarding, Island Cycling, HulaHooping, Rhythm Parade, Segwaying, & Perfect 10 – these are the ones I like the most right now. My current favorite is the Bulls-Eye game (you flap your arms to ‘fly’ over water and reach platforms!) It’s just awesome! And, it’s cool that most of the activities are all on the same island – so you can bike it, run it, walk it, fly it, segway it, float it, bounce it, etc.! I also like that, in most games (not the Bubble one, tho), you don’t ‘die’ if you do it ‘wrong’. Nothing’s worse than almost getting to the end of a cycling game, and then running into a tree and having to start over – ugh! But, with WiiFit, it’s so pleasant, you just maneuver your way back on track! No stress! Yet, I like that u still do collect points – I already have a competition to ‘beat’ my BF’s scores – I even left him a ‘note’ on the wii to try to beat mine in a couple of games, when he woke up! We haven’t tried the ‘multiplayer’ mode yet.
STRENGTH, FLEXIBILITY, & KEEPING TRACK:
I LOVE the ‘make your own’ routine – you pick as many activities as you want, from dozens of Yoga Postures, and Strength Training choices (they even tell you how long the total ‘workout’ will take, as you make your selections) and then you hit ‘start’; and it cycles thru them, one-after-the-other, checking off each one, as you go; and, saving the ‘routine’ for the future. If you don’t need to have that much customization, or if you need more guidance, you can choose from 5 options for a pre-made routine (Lifestyle, Health, Youth, Form, & Combine), or you can click the cute balance board graphic and it creates one for you! The tracking capability is nice, complete with graphs, and a visual calendar which I ‘stamp’ every day I use the WiiFit. You can even add your daily step count AND activities you do outside of the WiiFit! This appeals to my analytical and visual side! Another option it gives you is that you can choose a food (from a selection of 20 or so), and then make a daily goal to burn as many calories as that food has – I didn’t realize sticky rice had so many calories!
SHOW ME THE NUMBERS:
It calculates your BMI from your user-entered height and a balance board-measured weight. The weight measurement seemed a little off, as it made both me and my BF about 5-10 lbs lighter than we’ve been told, from other scales. But, that’s A-OK with me! It seems like it’s mostly set up to help you lose weight and burn calories (while improving your balance & posture), however my BF and I have different goals – I’m trying to lose 20 lbs, and he’s trying to gain 20 lbs. The Wii did rightfully call him underweight and told him to do strength-training to build muscle. It just laughed at me and told me to ‘strap in’! haha – jk!
WISHES & BENEFITS:
While it might not be 100% perfect (wish there was no ‘dying’ in the Balance Bubble or Tightrope game; and in the snowball fight, it’d be nice to have the option to physically move my arm to throw, instead of just pushing ‘A’ to throw; skateboarding goes thru a long ‘training run’ every time you play; it would be cool if Super Hula Hoop was more than just Left AND Right circles (like add arms or something); and oh, to be able to enter total calories eaten for the day; etc.), it sure is a LOT of fun and DEFINITELY motivates u to MOVE! The corny but pleasant music, scenery, and challenges are already helping me look forward to getting going in the morning and coming home at night. You earn fit credits, with activities, which then allow you to unlock more advanced activities, giving you a good bit of motivation to keep going – imagine if they gave you ‘legal trade’ currency coins for working out! Plus, it always fits into my schedule: I can do as little as a *minute* of activity or as much as I want! It’s closer than a gym, there’s no monthly dues, you can wear whatever you want, it’s open at 3am, the smoothies are always organic, and (depending on where u play) there isn’t that icky/smelly/sticky/germy/loud atmosphere of a typical gym! Team up with a friend, for a little extra motivation and competition!
SUMMARY:
For those who aren’t familiar with video games, (or who see them as a ‘waste’ of time) this is a great one to ‘start’ with. The Wii is my first real game system (other than an old Intellivision, we’ve had Super Nintendo, Game Cube, & Playstations in the house, but with all those cryptic buttons and ‘codes’, and my busy schedule, I never bothered with them). However, the Wii was up and running in no time and the ‘controls’ are very intuitive. I’ve even had a lot of ‘older’ people playing and having fun, in short order! The Balance Board was easy to set up, easy to figure out, and is SUPER fun to play with, oh, and I burned a boatload of calories – woo-hoo! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Wii Balance Board AND the WiiFit Plus!
UPDATE:
Did another 30 mins this afternoon: tried the Penguin Game and the Flame and the Tightrope – all were lots of fun (keeping the flame still was a little stressful with noisy neighbors!)
UPDATE 2:
My parents just came over and I had them try it out, using the “Trial” mode, so they didn’t have to go through the in-depth setup process – my mom really liked the HulaHoop activity and my dad really liked the Bull’s Eye activity (where you flap your wings to fly and land on targets!) We had such a great time – it was hilarious to watch each other!! The trial mode is a great feature – it lets you share your WiiFit Plus experience with guests who are not looking to set up a whole profile and get weighed and do balance tests, etc. Of course, there are those ‘measurement’ options in the Trial mode, if a guest user so chooses, they just won’t be able to save their profile.
