Last week Nintendo announced its intended European and U.S. release dates for its new Wii Fit: April 25th in Europe and May 19 in the US. The internet buzz on this newest line of games for the Wii is mixed, but commentary from people who’ve actually tried the game (released since December in Japan) seem pretty positive. Wii.com has a fun-to-read series of interview-style articles discussing the game from initial concepts to the finished product. In the first one, Shigeru Miyamoto talks about how the concept for the game came from his own fascination of watching his body. He started recording his weight, noticing how much exercise he needed to change his body, and thought that it would help people to see body analysis as fun rather than work.

I think it’s important to make discoveries like this about yourself. I forgot to mention something important earlier: I don’t think Wii Fit’s purpose is to make you fit; what it’s actually aiming to do is make you aware of your body. That’s why we wanted people to talk with their families about Wii Fit, and become aware of these things together as a group. If you’re standing still, and it tells you “Your body is swaying”, you can see on the training results screen that your body has been shaking. But I think you’d never realise that your body is shaking in day-to-day life. I think becoming aware of things like this about yourself is quite interesting.

Wii Fit comes with a new type of wireless peripheral device, the Wii Balance Board: It’s part fancy scale, part pressure sensitive controller. It has four sensors that allow it to analyze your balance and determine whether or not you are doing some of the exercises correctly from the way your weight is distributed. The basic Wii Balance Board holds a person up to 300lbs, but internet chatter suggests that there either is already a version that holds more weight or that there soon will be. 1up.com’s Torrey Walker did a test of the device back in December, and shared his experience with 1up.com readers.

The guide in Wii Fit is an anthropomorphic Balance Board called Wiibo. When the game starts up, Wiibo explains the importance of maintaining a proper center of balance. After registering a Mii and reading a short Brain Age-esque lecture on health, balance, and exercise, it’s time to input your height and birthday. Using the entered height and the reading it takes from the board, Wii Fit then calculates your Body Mass Index (BMI), a statistical metric of your weight based on your height. At this point, my svelte Mii swells embarrassingly. “Futori-sugi desu!” the Wiibo cries in a high-pitched robotic voice. “You are too fat!” The weight measured by Wii Fit (which is not shown by default) is roughly six pounds higher than on my standard scale, but Wii Fit’s assessment is nevertheless correct.

Wii Fit combines weight tracking (you set a goal and a time period) with games and exercises. It has programs for yoga, balance games, aerobics, and muscle training. While critical commenters online are pointing out that these are all things you can do on your own, the game interactivity may be exactly what keeps people involved in their new exercise efforts. The marble game in the trailer reminds me of the old Marble Madness arcade game, though without as intricate a board. There are also snow boarding and skate boarding games as possible future releases to go with the Balance Board. Since WV is one of the states leading the nation in obesity, with the rest of the nation not that far behind, even a little bit more exercise might be a help. As Torrey Walker says at the end of his article:

There may be no easy route to fitness for me, but Wii Fit feels like something I could do several times a week. And it makes me smile.

And shouldn’t that ultimately be the point?

Read the Wii.com interview series:

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Read Torrey Walker’s review at 1up.com

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Read a related article at Diet Blog

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Check out the Wii Fit product page on Amazon.com

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Check out the eC3 trailer for the Wii Fit game on YouTube: