Wii Fit Plus Reviews
User Wii Fit Reviews
3 Stars Adjust your expectations and you’ll have a lot of fun
First of all, remember that this is *not* a “game”. Its a way to get your 40 minutes of daily exercise without making it feel like a lot of work.
What this means is that you probably won’t buy this for your under-11 year old. Before you start the “game”, you are asked for an objective … in terms of how many pounds you want to gain/lose. Whether this question is meaningful for your child depends on many factors – and other reviewers question the use of the BMI measure for kids, anyway.
The only true game component of this are the “Balance Games” which turn your balance board into a snowboard, or into a tightrope, etc. However, I don’t expect kids to return to this game everyday just to play. In short, its not a replacement for Wii Sports.
So, how does it fare as an exercise regimen?
Not very well so far. I use an elliptical for aerobics, and a [...] machine for strength training, and I can’t see myself as shelving those two in favor of this toy. With the elliptical, I can adjust the resistance, get feedback on my calorie burnout, and can determine how long I want to keep going. Best of all, I can even watch TV, listen to music, or read a magazine if I care to.
With the Wii Fit, the cutesy graphics are good, but once the novelty wears out, I’m guessing the chinks in its armor will begin to show. My TV is taken up by my virtual Mii running along, I get to listen to canned music, and there’s really no way I can read along.
Strength training is purely isometric exercise based (such as push ups). So, if you’re fairly fit and need to work with additional resistance, this is not the place to come find it.
Yoga is where it truly shines. I tried the breathing exercises and a few of the postures, and the instructions were fairly detailed and easy to follow. I expect that I’ll use this as a cheap and convenient personal yoga instructor for months to come.
The final aspect worth mentioning is core muscle control and balance. I particularly enjoyed learning how my body is balanced, and it does highlight whether you tend to favor one leg over the other. I can see this as being a worthwhile tool as part of a physical rehabilitation or therapy regimen.
To summarize – if you have trouble getting motivated to exercise, or get bored by exercise machines at home, or can’t get to a gym, and you don’t care about its limitations, then this is for you.
For those who are really serious about losing weight or getting fit, either setup a home gym or get a gym membership. This will be fun, but will likely be a large waste of your time. The biggest problem would be the inability to set up a sequence of activities that you could run through one after the other. Having to navigate menus to start up the next set is distracting. There is a Favorites tab that lets you get close to achieving this – but I haven’t tried it enough to see if its a good replacement.
I’m still in the “novelty” phase – so I’m going to try and make this work. I like the way it tracks your weight/BMI, which is much better than the paper and pencil approach I use currently. However, as stated before I expect to use it more for the balance and yoga portions, *after* I’ve completed my aerobics/strength activities on more conventional machines.
Bottom line – as with every Wii product, the apparent “shortage” drives up demand and makes this seem more desirable than it should.
As long as you are aware of its limitations, you’re in the best position to determine whether this is for you.
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Update (Week + 1):
I’ve averaged about 30 minutes/day in the past week using this product, and here are some updates to my initial observations:
(a) I’ve been surprised with how interesting the kids find it. They can’t wait to get higher scores than me, and are constantly pushing to get ranked higher in almost all activities. Every evening I come home to scores that are better than mine, and am forced to play catchup. The balance games were an expected favorite, but I certainly didn’t expect push-ups and the tree pose to capture their fancy.
(b) The menus are nagging at best, and annoying at worst. My workout style is to focus on the activities at hand without needless conversation/distraction, and that’s hard to do when I have to repeatedly click the A button just to get started. The text has this annoying teletype format as it prints across the screen, and can’t be dismissed until it is displayed in its entirety.
(c) This is compounded by the fact that this device can be very chatty. While some of the messages are good to know, I’d really like the option to turn these off. Counting the number of messages that I need to click past has become a running joke for us now.
(d) Because I can’t automatically string together activities in a logical sequence, I need to have the Wii-mote handy. Finding a home for it is a challenge when I don’t have pockets, or need both hands for balance and can’t be bothered to hold on to it (as in some of the more kinetic strength activities, or the yoga poses that need my fingers locked together).
(e) Even worse is that you need to aim the Wiimote at the screen to click the menu buttons, which is an exercise in frustration. I’m mastering the art of using the arrow keys (the rocker switch) and the A button while the Wii-mote is in my pocket, but its still a problem when I hit the wrong button, which I seem to do frequently enough 
(f) A yoga/gym mat is a necessary accessory – otherwise having to lie on your back when doing the jackknife for your abs means your flooring comes in contact with a very sweaty T-shirt. I’m not so certain about the silicone cover. We’ve used ours pretty rough, and I don’t see any serious stains or dirt on it. And anyway, I like my workout machines to show some wear as a badge of honor 
(g) There is a half baked interface which allows me to track activities that I do outside of the Wii – such as jogging. So far, I’ve been logging my other workouts, but since I don’t seem to earn Wii points for those, I can’t tell how that factors into the overall Wii experience.
(h) The BMI/weight tracking using a line graph, is really a nice touch.
(i) Rather than a primary weight-loss device, I use it as a nice way to wind down from a heavy workout, and it serves that purpose very well. A commenter below questioned its usefulness for yoga. True, it does seem funny to learn yoga from a game console – but the funnier thing is that the yoga poses do seem to work very well to ease up strained muscles. Combine this with the immediate feedback as to how well you are balanced, especially on single leg poses, and you have a really unique combination.
(j) The balance games are fun, but I tend to spend only a fraction of my time on them. I’m willing to take Nintendo’s word that its good for me, but I’d rather spend my scarce exercise minutes on the other Wii Fit activities. After all, there’s only so many times I can enjoy riding my bubble to the end of the stream.
(k) The fact that the balance board is wireless is a wonderful touch. Its easy to hide it under the couch when its not in use.
4 Stars New Opportunities for Me
I didn’t get the Wii Fit with the expectations that it would MAKE me fit. I got it with the expectations that it would HELP to keep me fit. (I know that what I consume has a big effect on everything as well as exercise I do outside of the Wii Fit so I don’t have unrealistic expectations that this is some kind of magic wand) I also got it so my family, who is not into fitness but likes games, can get some active fun.
My favorite thing on there is the running. I have been wanting to run for a long time. I tried, but, had to stop due to sore knees. Running with the Wii Fit is so great! It’s basically running in place-but it’s very low impact and gives me the benefits of running (cardio) yet doesn’t bother me physically. It’s not weather dependent either-and so it opens up good exercise opportunities to me! I love to see the scenery and having the dog be my guide is kind of fun sometimes, too! I like that I can go for a few minutes or even in half hour chunks!
The hula hoop also is good to bring up your heart rate-though the games aren’t long enough for anything significant. It’s just good fun!
The yoga and strength stuff is okay-but I get a better workout with my exercise DVDs. If someone doesn’t have DVDs to use, they might like this.
I do like to do these exercises in between running.
My family enjoys all of the games and it’s a good addition to our Wii. It’s well worth the money, IMO. Can’t wait to try EA active as a supplement!
Cons: As with most stuff, after the novelty fades, so will the interest-so pace yourself with this! It helps that you have to unlock games as you go-so the novelty lasts longer and you have fun working to earn new games!
I also dislike that the Wii Fit has made fun of me a couple of times about my balance asking if I trip over my own feet. It also lectured me about gaining 1.5 pounds when, the day before, I had lost 1.8 and it told me that due to changes in our bodies every day, our weight could be +- two pounds. The way I saw it, I was still less 0.3 less than the day before that. It was grilling me as to why I had gained weight and gave me multiple choice answers to pick from such as if I had been eating too much, not exercising enough etc. Before grilling someone, it should take a look at a week or two and average it out. I suppose this could help some people if they are gaining weight-but it was just annoying to me, under the circumstances.
4 Stars Before you Buy This Check out Wii Fit Plus
Before you Buy Wii Fit Buy wii Fit Plus it is only 10 more and has the same games and has the option to create a routine for exercising.Check out my whole review on Wii Fit Plus Standalone(I already have this verision.
5 Stars A must for any wii owner
The wii fit is a lot of fun. Not only does it have its own built-in games and excersize routines, but you can also use the wii board for other wii games. The wii fit is a must have for any wii owner.
3 Stars Wait for Wii Fit Plus
Fun:
I like that this game tracks your balance, flexibility, etc., however it’s cumbersome to play. First of all, you can choose if you repeat an exercise. There are no pre-programmed workouts. There isn’t an evaluation to determine your current fitness level (strength and endurance) so you start on the lowest level and have to keep repeating the exercise for it to unlock more reps. You stop between each exercise to choose your next exercise, so it’s not a fluid workout and takes up so much more time. For example, I was playing the Wii Fit game for over an hour but only “worked out” for 32 minutes. I love that this game has yoga, but once again, it’s not a fluid workout like yoga should be.
In summary, I believe a lot of these complaints have been addressed in Wii Fit Plus, so I recommend waiting for it to come out October 4.
