The Wii
My fiancé and I have been hooked on the Wii since he bought it about three weeks ago. Every night after dinner and before going to bed we are playing on the Wii. In place of surfing the web and watching TV, we play tennis, baseball and bowling; we train on various training exercises; and we take a daily fitness test to find our “Wii Age”. So rather than sitting motionless in front of the computer or TV, we are swinging our arms in response to the various sporting requirements. Clicking on a mouse or a television remote doesn’t constitute as bona fide motion if you ask me. Swinging your arm with the Wii controller to simulate sports play doesn’t constitute as bona fide exercise either if you ask real athletes, but at least the motion is bigger AND sometimes we actually do break out in a sweat, especially when we engage ourselves in a heated match of tennis. It’s heated because I get mad at him every time he beats me, but that’s beside the point. The point is that we actually are moving more because of the Wii. It’s sad, but it’s true. And I dare say this is true for many of the other Wii owners out there. I highly praise Nintendo for developing this console and all its interactive games.

Now I patiently but eagerly await the release of a new game called Wii Fit. Combined with a new controller called the Wii Balance Board, players can engage themselves into heart-healthy activities as:

• Yoga exercise
• Step aerobics, including a game in which the player steps on and off the Wii Balance Board in rhythm to the background music
• Hitting on-coming soccer balls by leaning forward
• Press ups
• Hula hoopping
• Ski Jumping, in which the player squats as low as possible while maintaining balance and then quickly stands as fast as possible to gain a good jump

The steps aerobics game sounds similar to the Sony PlayStation’s old Dance Dance Revolution. The concept of stepping to a musical rhythm sounds similar even though one has a dancing connotation while the other simulates aerobic exercise. If this is true, I definitely will be playing the Wii steps aerobics often. Back in the heydays of DDR, I was a hard-core fan and “danced” out a sweat almost every night. I still have that game tucked behind our main entertainment unit and I can switch out the Wii for the PlayStation anytime I fancy a good dance. But if I can get the same sort of exercise/satisfaction with the Wii, why go through the trouble of switching? On this note, I hope Nintendo develops more active games for the health of all its gamers.