I'm Back on the Wii Fit Bandwagon!

**REPOSTED FROM http://ghningtest.ning.com/profiles/blog/list **

A few months ago, I made an ambitious promise to myself - that I would spend at least a month or more exercising to Nintendo's self-help/feel-good game of the year, Wii Fit. But between spending way too much time reading and working a retail job (plus school), my Wii Fit time had all but diminished.
I suppose the same thing happens to anyone that joins a gym, as those ambitious fitness promises are all too slowly broken. Missing my "Wii Fit" fitness regimen still filled me the same self-loathing you feel after weeks of skipping my workout, and then realizing that 'this time' might not have been the 'right time'. Still, I'm glad Wii Fit managed to make me more conscious of my very unhealthy diet/ lifestyle, and that's something that no other game this year could do.

That's right. Regardless of how cool it felt to parkour, I'd stand little chance scaling my house and executing graceful jumps over to my neighbors' rooftops. But getting myself to get up and stand on a scale to do Yoga poses and other stuff worked like a charm. It might lack some focus and polish (like the ability to follow a set regimen of workouts to burn fat in certain areas of the body - i.e. like my gut), but its still a good experience.

Its easy to complain that Nintendo has lost focus with the people that made their products successful. And as betrayed as core gamers have felt, there is something I feel is right with products like Wii Fit. It's a different experience and one that I welcome next to all the space marine driven shooters and open world games. Something like Wii Fit or Wii Sports is unique in and of itself. Sure, those hi-def games were much more entertaining and sported higher caliber presentations than most of the stuff on Wii, but simple fun - a.k.a. most of the stuff Nintendo's put on the Wii - is still a good thing and its still manages to be just as fun.

Its what manages to make a friendly game of Boom Blox multiplayer shift into a tense free for all. And that feeling is still alive on the Wii, despite the negative sentiment out there.

So, I for one, am glad to be right back on the scale giving it another try and slowly become more invested in my physical health. I've already admitted to myself a long time ago the affects of Wii Fit are more placebo than anything else, but I still desire something to get my physical fitness ego rolling, and for a gamer like me, making it a game is a good place to start.

(Images courtesy of Gaygamer.net and multiplayer.mtv.com)

Balancing Act - Or Day One of Playing with Wii Fit

It's 4 a.m. in San Francisco, and while I struggle with yet another sleepless night, I can't help but marvel at today's turn of events.

As I found myself awake last night (again), I spent most of the night reading up on Nintendo's leap into the world of family fitness. This leap is something that I've always been curious about both a gamer and a guy who likes to try interesting things. But alas, it seems that the older I get, the more i become agitated with my lack of healthy habits. I don't like jogging, I hate sweating, and I've been blessed with a fast metabolism that's slowly slowing down the closer I get to 30. Instead of fruits, salads, and the occasional jogs, I wallow in my unhealthy state, blindly convinced that it will never get the best of me.

Who am I kidding? But maybe the fact that I dwell on it is proof that it's affecting me, right now. But rather than get all esoteric and bore you with some psychoanalytical thinking, I'll just get to the point - I bought "Wii Fit" today.

There, I said it.

Now before you close this browser and stamp off, convinced that I've finally lost my marbles (or the few that I had to begin with), here me out: First, I don't believe that Wii Fit is designed to make you more slender or physically fit than I do any other contraption that you see on late night television. You know, the pills, clothes, or DIY workout stations that fit in your closet, guaranteeing new ways to lose weight, or your money back (incidentally, I wonder if anyone has ever actually sacked up and confessed that one of those products didn't, demanding their refund and scowling with contempt for their delusional short-comings). Anyway,...


The reason that I bought "Wii Fit" wasn't for the promise that I'll lose weight (or get fit), but the motivation to try and be more conscious, and hopefully do something about it. Maybe this is the same thing that motivates people to sign up for the nearest gym, or read tons of books on healthy practices they can enjoy during their everyday life. Regardless if this over priced bathroom scale becomes nothing more than a $90 dust magnet, it still one step closer to me actually doing something about this gut that's growing between my chest and my mid-section (you know, the area formerly known as my stomach).

Plus, I've got bigger regrets than a measly $90 bucks. Like the time I bought "Steel Battalion", and slowly watched my geek cred rise like it was inflated stock (that thing sat in the closet for months after I played the game for a two weeks straight). Was it awesome? Yes, but was it worth it? Absolutely not.

It just feels so bizarre to me that I even own this product. I mean just read how awkward my gaming tonight was: I returned to "Soul Caliber IV" and vanquished another three floors of computer generated scum and villany. I fired up a quick session of "Halo 3" co-op campaign, and relived my favorite moment battling the four-legged Scarab Tank. Oh, and I started my first night of "Wii Fit" at 2:30 a.m.

See what I mean. It sounds so bizarre!

But even if I know the concept of Wii Fit helping me lose weight is a placebo effect at it's best, I'm still curious enough to give it a shot. Yeah, it's a lot different than the stuff I normally seek from my games, but isn't that why I play games in the first place - to try new and exciting things that I normally don't do. That could be solving mysteries as the curious Professor Layton, terrorizing the busy street of Paradise City. These are still fun things to me, and maybe I can weave Wii Fit into that gaming diet.

But what really concerns me right now is: Is anybody playing Wii Fit, right now? June sales data shows that "Wii Fit" sold half of what it did in May, that's the debut month in case that seems unreasonable. But my concern is that I hardy see any of Wii Fits impact in the stuff I read daily.

Are supply problems holding this back because the Wii system is still averaging insane numbers mother to month?


Couch Potatoe, Confirmed
Maybe a month from now I'll still be playing "Wii Fit"? Or maybe I'll just give in to real excercise and get a bike?