Nintendo Wii Console

[Mike]

CNet are reporting that the Wii Fit console will be on sale for £69-99 in the UK. I am quite tempted to try this but I don't know if I want to pay £70 for something I can do in the park. . .

[BarcelonAl]

Mario Kart Wii is out on the 4th April. Play are already accepting pre-orders...not that I've placed one or anything...

[Mike]

Right - zooms off to amazon to place an order pronto. . .

[Mike]

The Nintendo Wii is the least 'green' console on the market with lots of nasty chemicals and plastics in them. Apparently Nintendo is also the worst in terms of planning to reduce the number - they comply with the minimum legislation only!

[Mike]

Nintendo ranks bottom of the pile on the Greenpeace list. Doh. Though it could be because they are not participating in the program. . . they might regret that. I know Apple did a couple of years ago.

[stimpsonslostson]

I've played wii fit...
Full review to follow- as I'm devoting my time to finding one for sale! Bex LOVES it!
p

[Mike]

That sounds like a good review at the moment. I would love to try one, happy hunting.

[stimpsonslostson]

Wii Fit.
The already excellent and innovative game system gets a new dimension with the wii fit game.
Intuitive to use, easy to set up (as you'd expect). This game is supposed to get you excerising in your living rooms via a series of minigames, some of which I'll discuss... There are Balance, Strength and Aerobic games to test different aspects of fitness.
The best games were:
Skiing- Shifting your weight accurately (building core stability apparently). To race down the mountain. Great fun for multiplayer competitions

Step Aerobics- Bex loved this! Just a basic step class with points for timing. (would have been more challenging if the board were higher.)

HulaHoop- The BEST game available! Wiggle your hips to hulahoop and score points for rpm. Addictive and tiring.

My doubts about the value of the exercises was lessened by getting out of breath and sweating after 20mins of hulahoop. Its fun, and I consider the exercise to be a secondary benefit. I wait with bated breath for new skiing/snowboarding games using the board- there could be a whole new line of AMAZING games to come!
There are a few problems...
The board is HYPERsensitive (this could be down to my lack of stability), sometimes the slightest movement gets a MASSIVE response and big movements dont. Which can be frustrating.
Despite the sensitivity, its not accurate with weight estimation. I happily dropped a stone between using the bathroom scales and stepping on the wii board 2mins later! My weight fluctuated wildly and constantly, which was disconcerting as this is supposed to be how it measures your progress on some events.
Lack of multiplayer options. We had a skiing tournament but its such a hassle to go to the menu to change mii's that we didn't bother each time- consequently Bex is sitting pretty at the top of the leaderboard despite ME setting the time!

Still great fun and a landmark in gaming!
p

[Mike]

would have been more challenging if the board were higher

Sounds like it needs a Wii Hack (ie placing a breeze block underneath it!) Have you managed to find one yet?

[stimpsonslostson]

Yep. I think so.
Emma is bringing one back from Ireland (as she did for Alex when they were first released). I SHOULD get it when she returns in a couple of weeks, then you can come and try it in person.
p

[Mike]

That's what I'm talking about!

[Mike]

A Wii Fit was aquired following a massive hunt around West Manchester yesterday. I went to the Rebok Stadium shopping park to visit Argos, Asda, HMV, Comet and Curry's all of which were not selling the device but had a massive variation in prices. The worst was Comet who were asking £139 for a board and two games. The games being Skate It and another I can't remember. Skate It is about £20 and I assume the other is too. Asda were the cheapest at £68.23! Bit of a difference there I think.

The board is quite funny. Apparently I am dead on the normal for BMI which is to be expected. Lizzies I think was way out due to Baby and the fact I translated her height incorrectly - doh! Hopefully she will be more impressed with it once the baby is born.

The game (as above) is split into Yoga, Aeorbics, Muscle and Balence games. They can get pretty mental as you go along.
Balence Games I tried the heading footballs, skiing, ski jumping - Ski Jumping was the best.
Yoga The Half Moon was fun but quite difficult to keep the balence. Very interesting - I had been playing for 30 minutes by this point and the constant stretching and balencing was starting to make the scores progressively worse.
Muscle The pressups were hard! The leg stretching was easier - strangely I got my best results in this categogy with . Funny since my muscles are not what you would call toned. . . .
Aerobic by far the best. The running on the spot was okay. . . not very challenging though. The hoola'ing was the best, tiring and fun. I just kept getting flashbacks of the Rube Tube video of this though and had to make Lizzie promise not to video me and put it on the internet. . . . .

All in all . Will see if I keep it going for a few weeks. The latest Rabids game uses the balence board and so do a few other games so it adds a new dimension.

[stimpsonslostson]

You'll probably find lots of variation in your weight etc, even if you retest yourself straight away. I think its more of a guide than anything else... It keeps telling me that I'm overweight and in danger of "metabolic syndrome" whatever that is. (for the record I'm 12stone5 and 5ft9, giving a bmi of around 26 (24.5 is the healthy overweight boundary)). Not that I really care, I look unhealthy whenever I get much below 12st- which I'd need to to be "healthy" its just muscle mass which is skewing the result- atleast thats what I'm telling myself

[Mike]

. . . . atleast thats what I'm telling myself

Its muscle mass, Phil. Now you have others telling it you too it must be true!

[Mike]

You are not wrong about the weight variation. I lost 2lbs in one day! I wonder if it is because I had eaten a mega dinner on Sunday and on Monday ate normally (or the clothes could be a factor; or the carpet position - scales should be on a hard floor to work correctly).

Also, my Abs hurt from excessive Hoola'ing.