Product Description

Wii Fit Plus Software Only Wii

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11 in Video Games
• Brand: Nintendo
• Model: 045496901707
• Published on: 2009-10
• Released on: 2009-10-04
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .57" h x 7.48" w x 5.70" l, .37 pounds

Features

• Users can input the amount of time they want to spend on their workouts or select an area for personal improvement, and Wii Fit Plus will suggest a number of diverse activities for them.
• For the first time, users can mix and match which strength and yoga activities they prefer on a given day. The seamless exercise flows make it easier than ever for users to maintain their daily workout routines.
• Users might be asked to run an obstacle course across a series of platforms, zoom across a beach on a Segway x2 Personal Transporter or flap their arms to help their hilarious chicken-suited characters aim for targets.
• The range of games and customization options will make players want to play every day. They¿ll be having so much fun that their workouts will seem to fly by in no time at all.

Amazon.com Product Description

Wii Fit attracted millions of new players to the world of video games. Now Wii Fit Plus offers a range of new features and enhancements to help players reinvigorate their workouts, along with exercises and balance games designed to keep them fun. Players will find a new dimension to the Wii Fit experience as they easily set their own customized workout routines, or choose 20-, 30- or 40-minute workouts based on how much time they have available. 6 new yoga & strength activities. View larger. The 'Perfect 10' balance game. View larger. Personalization options. View larger. 'Obstacle Course' game View larger. Target specific body areas. View larger. Users will also be able to choose from specialized workout routines that focus on all-around individual personal fitness goals or certain target areas. And with the addition of activities like Skateboarding and Rhythm Kung Fu, players will be using the Wii Balance Board accessory in a variety of new and fun ways. Gameplay As with the original Wii Fit release, Wii Fit Plus is designed, as its name implies, to improve the user's fitness. The game contains a large number of activities that fall into a variety of categories, including: yoga, aerobics, strength training and balance games. With all but a few exceptions, which utilize variations on a standard Wii Remote configuration, all activities utilize the Wii Balance Board (not included, but available with the Wii Fit Plus Balance Board Bundle), either alone or configured with either a Wii Remote alone or the Wii Remote and nunchuck. The Balance Board, like any other Wii controller acts as a motion/pressure sensing device wirelessly synched to your Wii and replicating your body's movements. Each controller employed occupies one of the Wii's four wireless inputs, together mapping the reference points needed to recreate most full body motions on screen. Although this limits the majority of the activities to a single player orientation, various activities throughout the game support up to eight players in alternating play. To use Wii Fit Plus players import their Miis from their Wii system, set up profiles, establish a current physical baseline, set fitness goals, and embark on a routine to reach them. Wii Fit Plus tracks your usage, weight and progress towards your goal over time, giving you a status report as you start each session. At any time players can choose whatever activity they want, whether exercise or balance game, and as they progress in these they will level up in each, gaining points, setting high scores and unlocking more activities. Personalization Option Via 'The Locker Room' The original Wii Fit was designed to have something for everyone. Now Wii Fit Plus raises the bar by providing users with personalization options that allow them to find/create a specific workout routine that is exactly right for them, their family and their lifestyle. One example of this is "The Locker Room." Easily accessible throughout the game, here players can choose from a number customizable options that allow them to maximize their time with Wii Fit Plus without having to navigate through the game menu while in the middle of a workout. In essence this allows players to become their own personal trainer. Customization options available within The Locker Room include: preprogrammed and timed Wii Fit Plus Routines; My Routine, where you choose your own set of activities, optimizing their length and area of the body to be focused on; and Favorites, a notation of activities you frequent, which provides fast access to exercises you enjoy doing the most. Addition Yoga and Strength Exercises Designed as an addition to the already substantial list of focused, physical exercises available in Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus contains six new and challenging strength and yoga activities. But continuing with the game's commitment to personalization, the key to these additions is not in their volume, but in how the player chooses to mix and match them. Do them in the order they are presented, or combine them in whatever order you want. The choice is yours. The player even has the ability to repeat the ones that he/she prefers, maximizing attention and effort where it is needed most. In addition, for those to whom time is a commodity, you can now omit unnecessary interludes between exercises, making for a continuous, timesaving routine. A Wealth of New Balance Games Regardless of the considerable fitness factor packed into Wii Fit Plus, the Nintendo brand is and will always be all about having fun. With that in mind Wii Fit Plus also comes packed with 15 new, entertaining balance games suitable for every member of the family. Just a few of those that players can expect to see are: Juggling; Skateboarding; Snowball Fight; Obstacle Course, a log-leaping, cannonball-evading event reminiscent of what Nintendo icon Mario must go through; and Perfect 10, a balance game designed to promote a combination of physical and mental health. In this final example the player's Mii is situated between multiple color-coated balls, each showing specific numbers, with the goal to swing your hips, hula style, in different directions to tap out a total of ten as many times as possible before time runs out. Key Game Features Users can input the amount of time they want to spend on their workouts or select an area for personal improvement, and Wii Fit Plus will suggest a number of diverse activities for them. For the first time, users can mix and match which strength and yoga activities they prefer on a given day. The seamless exercise flows make it easier than ever for users to maintain their daily workout routines. Users might be asked to run an obstacle course across a series of platforms, zoom across a beach on a Segway x2 Personal Transporter or flap their arms to help their hilarious chicken-suited characters aim for targets. The range of games and customization options will make players want to play every day. They’ll be having so much fun that their workouts will seem to fly by in no time at all. Players also can see estimates of calories burned and can even activate a feature that lets them weigh their dogs or cats.

Customer Reviews

Take that Balance Board out of the closet
If you're like me, you got the Wii Fit, used it a few times, and put it in the closet once the novelty wore off.

The best thing to happen to the Wii Fit was a little something called EA Sports Active. It was released by Electronic Arts a few months ago, and they raised the bar for what a fitness title should look like. The influence of EA Sports Active on Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus is very apparent, and the Nintendo folks did a great job of taking Wii Fit to the next level.

The first thing to note is that Wii Fit Plus is not a "sequel" to the original Wii Fit, but rather it contains all the content of the original Wii Fit and adds a number of improvements. In other words, if you don't have Wii Fit already, you can skip it, buy Wii Fit Plus with the Balance Board. If you already have Wii Fit, you can buy the Wii Fit Plus game only.

For those with the old Wii Fit, the conversion of your old profile data to the new is quick and seamless. It just takes a couple seconds and voila, all of your old weight data and workout data is available in Wii Fit Plus.

The first improvement, clearly influenced by EA Sports Active, is that instead of choosing individual strength and yoga exercises ad-hoc, you can choose from a number of pre-configured workout routines. "My Wii Fit Plus" is a virtual locker room, where your animated balance board (as chipper and encouraging as ever) walks you through the process of choosing a workout routine based on any number of specific goals, ranging from better health to improving specific parts of your body.

The activities are still broken out by category: Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Games. All of these are identical to the old Wii Fit, except that there there are a 6 new Yoga and Strength training exercises which add some more variety and challenge to those categories.

But here's the part of the review I'm sure you've been waiting for. The biggest improvement in Wii Fit Plus is the addition of 15 "Training Plus" activities.

Perfect 10 (Workout intensity: 2 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): A game that tests your math skills as much as your flexibility. Numbers will appear on giant mushroom, and you bump your hips to hit the numbers that add (or subtract) to 10 or 15 or 20. You won't be losing huge amounts of weight from this one, but it's a great way to test your mind and body coordination and this is one you'll play over and over again to try to beat your high score.

Island Cycling (Workout intensity: 4 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): This is a game that uses the Balance Board (you step on the board with your left and right foot to simulate bicycle pedalling) and the Wiimote (which you use to steer). The game itself looks a lot like the cycling game on Wii Sports Resort, except you move your feet instead of your hands. Unlike that game, this game isn't timed; rather, you need to cycle around a large island collecting flags. The island is beautifully designed with amazing details. This is definitely one you can spend a lot of time on and not even realize you were exercising.

Rhythm Kung-Fu (Workout intensity: 3 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This is the first game that put a huge smile on my face. Using your Wiimote, the Nunchuk, and the Balance Board, you have to strike different "kung fu" poses in rhythm to delightfully cheesy kung-fu movie music. It's essentially a game of "Simon Says", where you mimic the moves of a groups of Miis standing behind you (and if you have family or friend Miis on your system, you'll see some familiar faces).

Driving Range (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): Sure, golf has been done in Wii Sports, in Wii Sports Resort, and in games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Wii Fit Plus brings something a little different to the table, though. You position the Balance Board vertically, and swing your Wii-mote like a golf club. There's a "swing analyzer" which is surprisingly good not just for casual video game golfers but also for real golfers to analyze their form. It measures the straightness of your swing, your weight distribution, and gives a pretty good indication of how far your drive will go.

Segway Circuit (Workout intensity: 3 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): In a clever co-branding deal, Nintendo teamed up with the folks at Segway for this game. In it, you ride a Segway around the island trying to pop balloons that are being put up around the island by pesky moles. Like a real Segway, you lean forward to move forward and you lean back to go back, steering with the Wii-mote.

Bird's-Eye Bull's-Eye, a.k.a. Flying Chicken (Workout intensity: 5 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This is the one you probably heard about, and it (along with Obstacle Course) is the winner. Your Mii dons a chicken outfit and has to fly from target to target. How do you fly? By flapping your arms. You can either flap your arms with your hands extended, or do a "chicken dance" type movement by bending your elbows. Either way, the Balance Board will amazingly detect how strongly, quickly, or slowly you're flapping. Like a real bird, you flap faster to get better control, and you flap slower to soar great distances. You control where you're moving by leaning on the Balance Board.

Snowball Fight (Workout intensity: 2 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This one is just plain fun. You use the Wii-mote to shoot snowballs at an invading army of Miis (again, if you have custom Miis stored on your system you'll see some familiar faces), and duck left and right to hide behind a barricade to avoid getting hit yourself with snowballs.

Obstacle Course (Workout intensity: 5 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This is the game I was most looking forward too, and I was not disappointed. You run in place on the Balance Board to make your character move forward and you straighten your knees to make him jump. In the process, you'll be navigating around huge swinging wrecking balls, moving sidewalks, and falling logs.

Tilt City (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 3 of 5): I admit, I'm not so crazy about these "tilt" games, maybe because I'm just not very coordinated. This is a game where you need to tilt the Wii-mote and shift your weight on the balance board in a coordinated fashion to steer colored balls into the right container.

Rhythm Parade (Workout intensity: 4 of 5, Fun 5 of 5): This was another one to put a huge smile on my face. You're basically a drum major, marching in place to the sound of a beat. Like rhythm games like Helix and Samba Di Amigo, you move your Wii-mote and Nunchuk to match on-screen cues. The better you match, the bigger your marching band becomes (and again, you'll see familiar faces join in the band if you have custom Miis).

Big Top Juggling (Workout intensity: 3 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): No, this one won't really teach you how to juggle, but once you're done you'll have the same satisfaction as if you did know how. It's a game where you have to stay balanced on a giant ball (using your feet on the Balance Board), while at the same time keeping 1, 2, or 3 balls in the the air by flicking your Wii-mote and Nunchuk.

Skateboard Arena (Workout intensity: 4 of 5, Fun 4 of 5): This seems like a pretty fair representation of riding a skateboard. You position the Balance Board vertically and stand on it like a skateboard. You can build speed by pushing off your back foot. You steer by moving your body back and forth, and you can jump by straightening your knees. You go through a series of exercises just like a real skateboarder, from jumping on ramps to riding on rails to doing tricks on half-pipes.

Table Tilt Plus (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 3 of 5): This one is a lot like those labyrinth games where you're trying to steer a ball around holes (in this case, you're trying to get balls into holes).

Balance Bubble Plus (Workout intensity: 1 of 5, Fun 2 of 5): Same sentiments as I wrote above. This is an improved version of the old Wii Fit Balance game where you're floating in a bubble trying to navigate your way through a maze.

Basic Run Plus (Workout intensity: 5 of 5, Fun 3 of 5): This is a variation of the jogging game in the Aerobic games section of Wii Fit Plus. Like that game, you control this one by running in place on the Balance Board, and you're treated to a lot of great scenery and new paths to explore on Wii Fit Island. An added feature is that at the end of the game, you'll be quizzed on things you saw, which is added to your final score, which surprisingly makes the run a lot more interesting, as you make sure to carefully observe every little detail as you're running.

Other improvements:

1) The use of METs and report of calories burned. What does METs stand for? METs (which stands for Metabolic EquivalenTs) is a standard way to measure energy expenditure. One annoyance with the old Wii Fit was that whether you did an exercise that used no energy like a stretching exercise or one that expended vast amounts of energy like Super Hula Hoop, your progress was marked by the time spent or "Fit Credits" that didn't mean anything in the real world. With Wii Fit Plus, METs are used in conjunction with your body weight and the time spent to calculate the number of calories burned. There's even a neat little function in My Wii Fit Plus where you can see the number of calories you've burned in terms of food (you can even choose the type and amount of food you want to burn off and set it as a goal).

2) Balance Board improvements. With the old Wii Fit, each time you started a new routine, you'd need to wait for the Balance Board to calibrate. I suppose this was intended in the case where multiple people would be sharing the Balance Board, but it got annoying very fast. Wii Fit Plus is a bit more intelligent, in that it'll sense whether the weight has changed and give the option to recalibrate only if it has. I've experienced a number of "false positives" in which it thought my weight changed when it didn't, but that's just a minor annoyance compared to the old way. I was actually a bit puzzled as to why the Wii MotionPlus wasn't used in this game, but with the improvements to the Balance Board they really weren't necessary.

3) The ability to measure a child or pet. This is a gimmick, of course, but a totally fun one if you have the aforementioned child or pet to measure. :)

Overall, Wii Fit Plus is a winner. To Nintendo's credit, they weren't content just to rest on their laurels, but they came up with improvements that truly breathed new life into the Wii Fit.

What's old is new again! And fun!
Like another reviewer, I couldn't wait for shipping so I picked this up at a local store. I had long made up my mind that for the price, I was definitely getting this title even if it started to receive mixed reviews.

For those that currently have the Wii Fit, Nintendo has kept most of the same old familiar menus and music (and yes, the words of encouragement that are helpful the first time, but repetitive and annoying after that - no change there).

However, they've added lots of cool things. This is not a comprehensive list, but just my initial review and thoughts on a few of them. There are 15 new balance games and they are just plain fun. A few of my early favorites:

- Rhythm Parade. I almost skipped over this one because of the title but it's a fun little musically themed 3 minute (at the beginner level) activity that has you marching and "drumming" with your Wiimote and nunchuk. I quickly warmed up and the minutes were over before I knew it. I enjoy this more than the Hula Hoop activity and it makes you move the entire time.

- Island Cycling. Looks like the environment from the Run modules, but you're on a bike this time. You use the Wiimote sideways to steer (a la MarioKart) and walk on the board to simulate pedaling. The faster you walk, the faster you bike.

- The Training interface. For the first time, you can customize your workout. You pick from Yoga or Strength exercises (no Balance, though) and customize your workout. Wii Fit Plus will tally up the minutes and you can save the routine. If you click on the animated Balance Board he'll ask you how much time you have and put together a routine for you. You can also pick one of the routines for a specific target area, e.g. entire figure, posture, etc. These are all brief (6-9 minutes) but interesting and beneficial.

- Pet and child weight support. Got a pudgy child or pet? In my case, I have a fat chihuahua (really!) and am actively trying to slim him down. Since I'm looking to exercise and trim a few pounds myself, this works out. I can now weigh myself AND him and keep a running time line of our respective losses. This all sounds silly, but will be well used by me. It motivates me to weigh him as much as I weigh myself and make sure he is trending down, not up. I would imagine Nintendo did some research here and realized that this would be a valuable feature.

- Quick stats option. When you're doing a body test, you can simply do a BMI and weight quickly without all the fluff using the Quick stats option. This is good for people who like to weigh-in before work, but do their workout sometime later in the day.

- Calories for food. This is a bit over the top, but it's cute. The game asks you to pick a target calorie loss per day in terms of a food item (in my case, it's a 190 calorie vanilla ice cream cone). All throughout the workout, you tick down the calories toward your "goal".

All in all, it's a solid game. You can't beat it for the price. It's a marked upgrade and will entirely replace the current Wii Fit disc. All of the original games, yoga, and strength moves are included on this disc.

Enjoy!

An improvement for sure, but still some frustrating things
I'm assuming that anyone viewing this is buying just Wii Fit Plus, without the board, and so am evaluating this as an upgrade to the original. I was so excited to get this upgrade as I was a fan of the Wii Fit from the time it came out, but it's since been put in the closet in favor of other exercise games (my current favorite being the Gold's Gym Shape Boxing). So I had high hopes for this, particularly after getting the awesome Wii Sports Resort. But I'm not as thrilled with this as other users. Since the pluses have been pretty well covered by others, I'll just mention my gripes with the game (I definitely like the improvements, but those are well advertised and mentioned numerous times by other reviewers so will just save you the hassle of reading all about them again).

First, it gives you 15 new games but they all appear on their own screen, rather than incorporated into the balance and aerobic games panels so you have to kind of remember which are which (and I guess some aren't really either). Couldn't they have just spent a little time reorganizing things rather than this obviously "added on" kind of screen? I also continue to be frustrated with the lack of accuracy. Things like the math game where you have to bump your hips in certain directions, it constantly is reading me incorrectly, which particularly in that game really messes things up. Likewise trying to aim in the snowball fight was an exercise in getting a Wii remote to work properly. The games that require stepping onto the board in time with the music continue to baffle me, I've yet to determine what will get it to register good scores on these no matter how perfectly I seem to be on the beat. Kids in particular it often has trouble with (we are guessing this is due to their considerably lighter weight), and when we've played with other people, they always seem to have issues with some action or another. They'll suddenly stop running or jumping in the middle of the obstacle course for instance, and much swearing will ensue. It's not for lack of practice, the game just behaves really flaky. I've played other similar games (like the aforementioned shape boxing) that are not nearly as bad at registering my movements, and so this continues to frustrate me. After having experienced how much better it can be in Sports Resort with the motion plus, I just had to keep reminding myself it's not all about getting higher scores, but getting some exercise. Hard for my competitive nature though, when things keep going so off kilter.

The new games are a mixed bag for me. There are a few I enjoy, most underwhelmed me considerably. I really wanted to see a lot more stuff that is *exercise* in this version, but seems most of the aerobic type games involve running in place on the board (the flapping game being the exception). This is a big issue for me as I had a bad knee and cannot run for long on such a hard, high-impact surface. Otherwise, it seems a lot of the new games are more balance games, that really aren't much, if any, exercise. Bumping your hips to do math and throwing snowballs is all very fun, but I have plenty of other Wii games to have fun with. Some of the games we really like...they just aren't much exercise (Tilt City and Juggling for instance). Granted the Wii Fit has always been only light exercise, but I really hoped to get more that really got me moving....in different kinds of ways. I also would have liked to see more of the games just with extended times, so you aren't constantly exercising for 2-4 minutes and then stopping to start the game again. Would it really have been that hard to do another, longer level for the stepping or boxing or even the newer games like skateboarding? This continues to be a major issue with the Wii Fit, and doesn't seem like it would have been that hard to address. On the flip side, I wonder about some of these games and how appropriate they are to do for any amount of time. When I've played the chicken game at more advanced levels for instance, I often have shoulder pain from all the flapping...not a real normal arm motion for most people. The game can pressure you into pushing to do these motions at higher speeds that is appropriate, so use caution particularly with children...or us older folks that don't know when to quit either! It's also not hard on some of these games to get running fast enough to lose track of your place on the board and misstep on the edge. Overall, when compared with other exercise programs out there now, it just really doesn't have that much for even a half-decent aerobic workout, and I've since come to appreciate games that don't require dragging out the Wii Fit board, and that I can do on a yoga mat and/or with shoes on to reduce the impact issues, and that do the exercise(s) at a strictly controlled speed and intensity to reduce chance of injury.

Another issue for me was that the custom workouts only use the strength and yoga training. Due to the physical issues I have (and limited space), very few of these are doable for me, so the balance and aerobic exercises are what I want to do most of the time. Likewise with the kids I know, these are what they want to spend their time on. I was so frustrated to find that I am still having to spend 50% of my time navigating around and don't have a way to line up a bunch of games and just play them straight through like I was expecting. Considering the issue with the short length of the games, this is a real issue that should have not been overlooked. Another thing that drives us a little batty is all the screens you have to click through with each new player. We do *love* the new feature to switch to another Mii and play as a guest, but when you do this, it won't unlock new levels for that player, or track their Fit credits. There really needs to be a SKIP feature for all those screens that none of us read anyway. The Fit Plus seems to have even more of them.

Overall, I am glad to have some new games to play with it, and for anyone that is new to the Wii Fit, it's got a lot of worthwhile improvements over the original such that there's no reason to buy the original over this one. And if you still regularly use your Wii Fit, there's enough improvements and new features and games that you will definitely want to consider getting this. For those of us that have gotten tired of it and moved onto other, better exercise programs I don't think this is going to bring enough to the table to get that board out of the closet for long. The new games are fun and being able to create your own list of yoga and strength exercises is a nice touch and may keep you entertained for a short while, but overall I was disappointed with the lack of growth in terms of this providing a decent everyday workout. But for $20 or less, it still may be worth considering, not necessarily as an exercise program, but for a batch of pretty fun games. I would still love to see a Fit Plus Plus that addresses some of these issues though. It also would be nice to see a Wii Fit Kids that has games of easier skill level for younger children. A lot of these games are pretty challenging for kids to get through even at Beginner level (heck, even the adults needed a LOT of attempts to conquer the beginner obstacle course levels). It also tends to give "overweight" messages to kids that are of perfectly normal weights for their age...not a message that they need in this overly-image sensitive time!