Wii Fit Plus – WII – Review

A little over one year ago, Nintendo
launched a new pseudo-game that was packed with peripheral innovation and
offered no loopholes for anyone determined to stay on the couch. That game was
Wii Fit, and its peripheral, featuring the most sensitive technology of any
gaming device, was the Wii Balance Board. Built with the message that working
out can be a fun and moderately creative experience, Wii Fit soared to the top
of the charts all over the world.

Wii Fit Plus, the much-hyped
follow-up to Nintendo’s resilient workout machine, comes to the Wii with
mountains of anticipation behind it. That’s because, for all the people who love
the original Wii Fit, every single one of them has at least one thing they’d
like to change.

Changes, however, are not a part of
this upgrade. Priced at $20 for the disc alone and $100 for the Balance Board
combo, Wii Fit Plus is an enhanced version of last year’s hit. This means you
get every feature – including every workout – from the original Wii Fit plus
15 new mini-games, six new exercises, the ability to form your own 60-minute (or
shorter) routine, and a calorie-counting feature that tells you how much you’ve
really accomplished playing Bird’s-Eye Bull’s-Eye.

A look at some of the categories within
the pre-made routines.

Work It Out

Aside from the mini-games (which
we’ll get to in the next section), Wii Fit Plus’ most distinct new feature is
the option to build a routine. You can build one using any of the strength or
yoga exercises, including the six new exercises added to the list. This allows
you to instantly move from one to the next without jumping through menus. The
game also keeps a running tab of the estimated calories that you’ve burned,
allowing players to determine if their routine was worth the effort.

If you’d like some advice, Wii Fit
Plus offers a series of pre-made routines that are dedicated to improving your
health, lifestyle and other attributes. These routines incorporate the same
strength and yoga exercises you can use to make your own routine plus several of
the mini-games.

In the area of new exercises, yoga
receives the Spine Extension, Ground V and Gate, while strength receives the
Balance Bridge, Side Lounge and Single Leg Reach. None of them are particularly
groundbreaking, but they are at least challenging. The Spine Extension, for
example, requires that you put one foot on the Balance Board, stretch the other
one behind it, put your arms behind your back, and bend over. On top of that,
the game expects you to put about 60% of your weight onto the front of your
foot; initially, however, your body will want to put most of its weight on the
back.

Existing Wii Fit owners may be
surprised to see that the BMI/Wii Fit Age insanity that annoyed people in 2008
has returned to annoy people in 2009. The BMI still tells people they’re bigger
than they are, and the Wii Fit Age is still based on silly mini-games that are
beatable after a practice round or two, not after actually improving your
physical health.

This man is demonstrating Wii Fit Plus’
pet-weighing feature, designed for those
who just can’t bear to let go of their four-legged friends, not even when
weighing them.

Training Plus … or Minus?

The Training Plus mode is where
you’ll find the 15 new mini-games, some of which are sequels to the mini-games
of the original Wii Fit.

Tilt City: Too fun for its
own good? Perhaps, because there doesn’t seem to be any way that this mini-game
could possibly be a good exercise (which likely explains why you only burn a
couple calories for every minute or two of play). Still, as a mini-game,
you don’t get much better than Tilt City, which turns the Wii remote and the
Balance Board into platform-tilting objects. There are three platforms – two on
top and one on the bottom – that must be used to guide several colored balls as
they fall from the top right corner of the screen. It’s not a super-difficult
mini-game by any means, but you might just go crazy trying to achieve a perfect
score, and you will definitely come back for more.

Skateboard Arena: If the new
Tony Hawk is anything like this mini-game, Activision should have a huge hit on
their hands. In Skateboard Arena, players must skate over various colored
markers to advance through each stage, all the while treating the Balance Board
as if it were a real skateboard. This means that you’ll turn the board 90
degrees toward your television, stand sideways, and kick your foot off the floor
to gain momentum. It’s simple enough that anyone can do it, but intricate enough
to show us that there’s some real depth here – and hopefully inspire developers
to take the Balance Board more seriously.

Skateboard Arena

Bird’s-Eye Bull’s-Eye: It
looks ridiculous, and if played in front of others will likely feel ridiculous.
But there’s something curiously special about this mini-game, which takes
players (and their Miis) and puts them in chicken suits. With this suit, you
magically have the power to fly – but only if you’re willing to flap your arms
like a chicken. That’s the ridiculous part. It works really well though; the
game is really good at measuring how fast you’re flapping your arms, which
translates into either hovering or ascending maneuvers. To steer, lean your body
in the desired direction; to descend, just stop flapping. Fly to and land on
each of the targets to win.

Balance Bubble Plus: In
addition to the original balance-challenging mini-game, Wii Fit Plus offers a
much more difficult version called Balance Bubble Plus. If you thought you had
to be precise before, wait until you’re sliding in between bubble-popping walls
or find yourself stuck in the dark with only a spotlight to guide you. It’s
ultra-challenging, to say the least; your patience will be tested the moment you
start playing. But like the original, Balance Bubble Plus is a lot of fun.

Table Tilt Plus: The
ball-sliding, platform-tilting joy of the first Wii Fit is another mini-game
style Nintendo felt the need to upgrade, and the fans couldn’t be happier. No, I
haven’t taken a poll, but I know that once they step onto the Balance Board and
struggle to maneuver their balls across these very small and dangerous obstacle
courses, they will be hooked. I certainly am. This is one of those mini-games
that will make you consider taking Nintendo’s advice to lean on furniture to
help keep your balance.

Snowball Fight: If you’ve
ever wanted a children’s version of Time Crisis, this is it. Using the Wii
remote to aim and throw snowballs (not unlike the way you’d use a lightgun), and
using the Balance Board to peek out from behind a protective shield, Snowball
Fight is super quick and super fun. As far as console development is concerned,
Namco Bandai (maker of Time Crisis) and Konami (maker of an arcade shooter where
you move your body to avoid gunfire) could learn a lot from this.

Snowball Fight

Driving Range: A golf game
that measures your balance while swinging the Wii remote, Driving Range is not
as cool as the golf game featured in Wii Sports Resort. The game clearly shows
your success – or failure – using the sputtering red dot formula that
demonstrates your progress in yoga. If nothing else, Driving Range is
interesting. But it isn’t likely to be a mini-game that holds your interest.

Big Top Juggling: Simple but
slightly clever, this mini-game challenges players to balance on a large
inflatable ball (which is simulated by the act of balancing on the Balance
Board) while juggling various objects (simulated by holding the Wii remote and
Nunchuk while swinging your hands in the air). The controller portion isn’t the
most intuitive, so catching an object can be a royal pain. But if you can train
your body to stay steady for a minute or two, the rest won’t seem that
difficult.

Rhythm Parade: Geared toward
the casual gamer, Rhythm Parade combines the icon-scrolling gameplay of a music
game (where icons scroll by and you must respond at just the right moment) with
the task of walking in place. The result is meant to simulate a marching band –
you control the leader, waving your arms at specific points as you march through
the parade.

Perfect 10: When your Mii
gets dropped into a world of numbered spheres, you’ll need your brain – and your
hips – to survive. Each sphere features a different number, and you’ve got to
shake your body in the direction of those spheres to collect and combine the
listed numbers until you reach the number 10. While not the most thrilling
mini-game in the bunch, it certainly has what it takes to engage the non-gamer
(or merely casual) types that bought into the first Wii Fit.

Rhythm Kung Fu: The
fistful antics of Rhythm Boxing are taken to another level in Rhythm Kung
Fu. Using the Wii remote, Nunchuk, and of course the Balance Board, players must
study a group of Miis and copy their movements, resulting in calorie-burning
fun.

Rhythm Kung Fu

Island Cycling: There was a
degree of sense tied to the idea of running in place with the original Wii Fit,
which offered a running mini-game (it’s also featured here, of course). But no
matter how many calories can be burned, it seems silly to participate in a
similar act when trying to simulate bicycling. Obviously not everyone can
bicycle all year long, and not everyone wants to own an exercise bike. Still,
this is not at all a replacement for the real thing.

Obstacle Course: More
running-in-place action (or lack thereof). The thing about this mini-game is
that it could have been really cool. You control a Mii as he/she runs through a
Mario-inspired course filled with wrecking balls, separated platforms and other
hazards. In a Mario game, these are easy to survive; in Obstacle Course, they’re
practically a nightmare. Not because the game found a clever way to make them
challenging, but because the controls suck. You must run in place on the Balance
Board and lift yourself (but as Nintendo has told us from day one, not actually
jump in the air) to make your Mii jump. The game fails to accurately measure
when you’ve stopped or started, and no part of it feels natural. Perhaps I’m
expecting too much, but look at the potential; with a little work, Nintendo
could have replaced the Mii with the plumber himself and we’d be clamoring for a
full-fledged Mario game in this format. But as it stands now, it’s little more
than an obstacle you’ll want to avoid.

Basic Run Plus: Very similar
to the original Basic Run but with the addition of a quiz at the end. The game
wants to know if you can remember what you saw, because apparently those who
took the time to notice the color of the virtual water (or which cat was running
with you) are in better shape than those who didn’t bother to pay attention to
these trivial details.

Segway Circuit: There isn’t
much of a mini-game here. While I have no doubt that riding a real Segway is a
blast, the Balance Board is hardly a substitute. Contrary to what we’ve all
heard about the actual Segway, it doesn’t feel natural to lean forward to
increase your speed, at least not in this mini-game. Turning is awkward, and the
only real goal is to pop balloons. Some people might like it, but I wouldn’t be
surprised if this is the mini-game Wii Fit Plus owners avoid.

Flap like a chicken!

Should’ve Been a Plus-Plus

Wii Fit Plus is no doubt an upgrade,
but with most of the emphasis put on the addition of new mini-games, it isn’t
quite clear who the upgrade was made for. Was the game designed for the casual
gamer crowd that doesn’t use their Balance Board much but would love a
mini-game-filled excuse to pull it out of the closet? Or was it actually
designed to satisfy the needs of Wii Fit’s core audience? The former seems like
the obvious group, since there isn’t much here in the area of superior fitness.

Many will be pleased by the addition
of pre-made and homemade routines – I am too. But it isn’t like you couldn’t do
a routine in the first game; it would just be much, much slower (you’d have to
select each exercise individually) and fail to show how many calories you may
have just burned. If those are things you can’t live without – or if the
mini-games are enough of a draw – the $20 price tag is a fair bargain. If not,
however, you’d be wise to wait until the next inevitable upgrade.

Gameplay: 8.0
As a mini-game collection, Wii Fit Plus is a likable upgrade. Even with the
lousy mini-games, there are so many good ones that it’s hard to argue with.
Those who wanted a superior workout, however, might be disappointed.

Graphics: 5.5
Not a single visual upgrade has been made.

Sound: 5.0
Same score, same jingles, same sound effects.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
The challenge of the original remains, and while some of the new exercises
are difficult, most of the new mini-games, though fun, are geared toward the
non-gamer crowd and are therefore very easy.

Concept: 6.9
The concept depends on how you look at Wii Fit. If you see it as one giant
source of mini-games, this upgrade comes off as a shining star. But if you think
of the game as being a workout device, this is only a minor upgrade.

Multiplayer: N/A
Taking turns isn’t really multiplayer.

Overall: 7.7
Worth a purchase by anyone who loves mini-games, and certainly worth buying
as a Balance Board bundle if you don’t own the original, Wii Fit Plus is an
upgrade that’ll satisfy one audience but could disappoint another.