Last week, I kicked off the Wii Fit Plus blog posts here by getting my feet wet with some of the new Training Plus games to get back into the routine, as well as start me on the road to re-strengthening the leg I injured last year (which hurts to think about, actually, so I think maybe I’ll shut up about that from now on). And, with any luck, maybe shedding a little bit of the weight that spending eight hours a day behind a computer screen writing this stuff might have put on.
This week, I continued with the Training Plus games, exploring some I hadn’t touched and taking on more advanced modes of those I had. And the results… were all-around interesting.
When I left off last week, I had my Wii Fit age down to 33 from a 36 to start, and my Body Mass Index was 31.85, down from 32.06. This week, I wound up going up to 38, then down to 24, which pleased me– I had hoped for another 33… or maybe even a 28.
Then, last night, I tried another test, and came out with a 51. Ouch! I wasn’t quite used to the Memory Test, though, which no doubt hurt me a lot: I only got 10 out of 25 right. Wobbling on the stability test likely hurt me, too, but at least my BMI was down to 31.78.
Still, a 51. With that, I decided to do something I don’t normally do– I tested again, and with much better results. Curiously, my BMI dropped even more to 31.64. I managed to improve my performance with the Single-Leg Test this time, and it gave me the Memory Test again, and I scored a 22 out of 25.
My new Wii Fit Age? 26. Guess which one I told it to keep. It’s still interesting how a few factors can affect it so drastically.
Oh, and while my balance has been slightly to the left or slightly to the right the rest of the week, my retry saw me end with perfect balance. Huzzah!
Moving on to the actual games, I gave the Advanced Bicycling course a try. Just as I’d thought, different parts of the island were blocked off, turning it into a drastically different experience.
The first time I did it was quite rough, though. Your goal is to find and ride through all of the markers on the map, and you can press button 1 to zoom out a bit. I wound up missing one flag that is way off the regular path, and doesn’t even show up when you zoom out.
It was pure insanity; the flag was hidden away at the far end of a cave at the center of the island; I passed it on my initial run from the top of the mountain because I thought it was just a shortcut, and there were flags in the other direction which demanded my attention. I went back to the top, lost track of where I was and took a wrong turn off the mountain, and had to go back up again, and with nothing more telling me where the flag was than there being no place else left.
In all, I spent 26 minutes, rode 10.575km, and lost 102 calories on that excursion alone. I was so exhausted by the end, I forgot to see what my total calorie count for that day was.
In any case, I’d been working out for over 30 minutes. I would have stopped sooner and tried again later, but to do so would have required forfeiting all of my progress, at least as the game saw it.
Fortunately, subsequent trips have gone far better, now that I am less ignorant of where to find that last flag.
The Wii Fit Plus “Working Mom” ad.
In other games… I’ve gotten better at Table Tilt Plus, reaching a high score of 50 twice now. I’ll need to double check, but I don’t think this version of the game keeps multiples of the same score. That would likely explain why some games have only one when I know I’ve played them before.
Wii Fit Plus features a new version of Balance Bubble, which has you steering your Mii in a bubble down a violent river while avoiding anything that will pop your makeshift vessel. I was never very good at the original, and after going a mere 216 meters, I thought this one would be a bust, too– no pun intended.
Instead, my second attempt took me 1503 meters– nearly to the end! And then a bee got me. Stupid bees. Is there any way to beat or avoid those things?
At one point, I gave Skateboarding a try. I’ve never been a good skateboarder in real life, and as it turns out, I am just as bad here. Maybe worse, but it’s been a while since I’ve tried the real thing. Like most games, there is a time limit involved, but I kind of wish there was a “free” mode to just let you skate around at your leisure and get used to the board.
Another new game I tried out was Rhythm Kung-Fu. In time with then music, you lift your knees and move the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to different positions, corresponding to the Miis onscreen. Sadly, it seems the controls– the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in particular, weren’t able to pick up my movements.
The fact that I have no rhythm at all in the first place probably did me no favors, either, and so I approached the Parade game with a bit of trepidation. To my surprise, I was surprisingly decent at it, once things got going. I may even stand a chance of getting good!
You basically march your feet in time with the music. And while that is happening, you shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuk when their respective icons cross circles on the screen to twirl and throw your baton. It’s sort of Guitar Hero-ish, in a way.
I’m sure it’s still the worst parade Wuhu has ever seen, but out of 105 times, I only missed eight, giving me a score of 345. Another plus for me is that I love the nighttime scenery in the town square, so I’ll likely play this a bit more often.
Since the last time I wrote, I have found that the obstacle course can be rather infuriating. I completed it on the second try last week, and had not been able to since, yet I would often come ever-so close. I decided last night that I would do it again.
I think I managed on my fifth try… I wish I’d not reset when failure was imminent on previous attempts, however, since those didn’t count toward my daily total as a result. The end says I made 500 meters, but I’d say 2,500 is closer to the truth.
And I still came to 516, three points shy of my best.
Let me tell you, it’s a lot easier to get emotionally worked up about a game when you’ve put this much of yourself into it. Lucky I wasn’t holding the Wii Remote… or that throwing the Balance Board would require too much work.
The big problem is in how the thing measures steps. One step on the board does not equal one step in the game; more like a step and a half or two. I’d be trying to wait out a wrecking ball, set my foot down, and my Mii would go marching off to his pseudo-demise. Or if I’d try to inch forward, it wouldn’t let me, insisting I use my other foot, and setting off more mayhem.
After all that, I needed to calm down, and Tilt City did the trick. I even managed a new high score, 192– eight points better than my previous best. I also got a new high score in Perfect 10.
If that wasn’t enough, I managed a new record in Snowball Fight, 21 points. I even got “killed” this time, too. Maybe if I hadn’t, a better score would have come, but then there were only two seconds left, anyway.
In any case, it almost seems as though the frustration I endured in the Obstacle Course helped me to perform better in the other games. Go figure.
I didn’t beat my score on Segway Circuit, however, but learning that you can whistle to have the dogs attack balloons and the last mole helped a bit. That should be useful knowledge in the future.
Last night, it only recorded 17 minutes spent and 54 calories lost, but given all the unrecorded Obstacle Course time, the true numbers are likely a lot higher.
And that’s my update for this week. All in all, things are going pretty smoothly, and at least I’m losing a bit of weight. Next week, I think I’ll try some of the other exercises. I will likely write shorter blog posts, too, as the bulk of the new games have been covered, so I can focus more on results.
