I don’t like my Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board.
I loooooove my Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board.
When I decided to purchase an exercise game for my Wii console, I spent a lot of time researching the different fitness and exercise games out there. I wanted to find the game that would give me the best value for my money and from everything I have read and heard, I decided to go with the Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board.
The Hit List
These are the top 4 things that I love about my Wii Fit:
- Super Fun Games
- Challenging Workouts
- Highly Customizable Routines
- Easy Progress Tracking
Time Passes By So Fast When You’re Having Fun
I’m the laziest person I know when it comes to going to the gym, so I knew that the game I chose had to be really entertaining so that I don’t get bored with it after a couple of days.
The Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board is all about fun. The mini-games are really fun to play, and I sometimes forget that I’m supposed to be “exercising” because I get so absorbed in the game.
My personal recommendations are the Rhythm Kung Fu (surprisingly hard!) where you throw punches and kicks along with the Miis in the studio while standing on the balance board and holding on to the remote and the nunchuck, and the Obstacle Course where you control your Mii by squatting and straightening your legs to get through the obstacles.
One big advantage of the Wii Fit Plus over its predecessor, the Wii Fit, is the better multiplayer support. Watching friends and family flap their arms like a chicken while playing the Bird’s Eye Bull’s Eye game is just hilarious!
Challenge Yourself
The Wii Fit Plus comes with all the activities initially found in the Wii Fit, plus fifteen new balance and aerobic games and six new yoga and strength training exercises. That’s a lot of activities to choose from so that you can play for a long time without getting bored. The balance exercises are surprisingly hard. I was certainly surprised to know how weak I was at first.
And, the more you play, the more levels you unlock, so that you will always be able to have a challenging workout.
Mix and Match
If you want a long, continuous workout, this game has built-in routines that were designed to improve specific fitness areas. These are divided into 4 major categories: Lifestyle, Health, Youth and Form. Each category has several routines that are created by combining several activities that target specific areas like your hips or your shoulders and back, or routines that aim for specific goals such as for relaxing or warming up.
Another major improvement in this edition of the game is the capability to create your own routines. If you don’t like any of the pre-loaded routines, and you want to create a routine that will better suit your needs, you can! You can either string together any of these existing routines to create a longer, more intense workout. Alternatively, you can just mix and match the available activities, put them in the order that you want, and repeat them for however many times you want. (Please don’t push yourself too hard! =) )
Of course, we don’t always have the time for a full workout, and the Wii Fit Plus realizes that. Instead of selecting a routine or just specific activities, you can set your workout for a specific time frame.
Measuring Up:
To me, one of the strengths of this game is its ability to measure and track my progress towards my fitness goals.
When you first play the game, you will be prompted to record your weight (the balance board doubles as a weighing scale) and height to calculate your BMI, or body mass index measurement, which is a quick and easy way to determine if you’re overweight. It will also ask you to setup your target weight. The next time you play, the game will prompt you to take your measurements again and will show you how much progress you have made.
The game also features a calorie counter, which uses METS, a measure of an activity’s intensity, to determine how many calories you have burned during your workout.
It will also show you a list of foods and their equivalent calories, so that you can know how long you need to work out to burn off that yummy chocolate fudge bar from last night’s dinner. Neat right? Although as one review site has pointed out, it can be rather depressing, too, when you see that after all the exercise you have done, you’ve only burned the caloric equivalent of a single prawn.
The Downside:
I do have one minor gripe about this game. Like some reviewers have mentioned, I also occasionally experience some timing issues. Sometimes the game lags a little when recognizing my movements. It doesn’t happen too often but it can be a little annoying when it does. Otherwise, I’m perfectly happy with my Wii Fit Plus.
Also, some reviewers mentioned having inaccurate weight readings from the balance board, but I’ve never had a problem like that with mine.
The Price Factor:
Nintendo lists a suggested retail price of $99.00 for the Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board bundle. However, you can still get 10% off this price if you purchase it online. You can get it from Amazon and other online stores for under $90.
If you already own the Balance Board, though, you can just buy the Wii Fit Plus game for under $19.
Considering the number of entertainment hours I got out of this game and the big improvement in my fitness level, I consider that a great bargain.
Want to Find Out More?
Amazon has reviews from over 900 people for this game, and a great majority of those people gave the Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board a 5-star rating. You can also check out the game’s official website for more information.