The Wii Fit Plus: Even More Fun Ways to Work Out

CrystalNici | Apr 5, 2011 |

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Some time ago in May 2008 Nintendo came out with a new concept that revolutionised the way millions of people would keep fit all over the world. Soon to be copied by other companies the Wii Fit is still one of the most wonderful ways to exercise available. It is fantastic for people who have problems leaving the house, confidence issues about going to a gym, live in unreliable climates that make outside activities unreliable and have a fiercely competitive nature. But alas, there were a few design flaws in the original Wii Fit game, not being able to switch characters so that you could show your competitors how it is done being one of the most obvious. For the determined Wii Fit enthusiast the top scores on the advanced levels were achieved and there the motivation to push yourself to greater heights went out of the window and well all ended up back on Wii Play, placidly fishing.

But fear not!!! In October 2009 kind Nintendo released the Wii Fit plus and to the distant sound of a great many Wii fish sighing in relief, the challenge was back on!

Equipped with all the features of the standard Wii fit, the Wii Fit Plus has a great many improvements to make the whole experience even more enjoyable. You are given a new area to pick activities called the Training Plus area and the activities in here are Perfect 10 (shake your booty for the perfect figure!), Cycling (yes really!), Rhythm Kung Fu (two minutes of being a musical panda!), Driving Range (golf!), Segway Circuit (try to avoid running over the dog!), Birds Eye Bulls Eye (you will have to see it to believe it!), Snowball Fight (even in the middle of summer!), Obstacle Course (just be glad it is only virtual!), Tilt City (requires intense coordination!), Rhythm Parade (for if you always wanted to be a baton twirler!), Big Top Juggling (designed to make your top less big and jiggly!), Skateboard Arena (hoody optional!) Table Tilt Plus (no sides!!!), Balance Bubble Plus (like Balance Bubble only more so!) and Jogging Plus (avoid the temptation to jog out of the door and down to the pub!).Now the great advantage of this game over the standard Wii Fit is that in all the new activites you can switch between players to try to beat the competition straight away, so that while you are having a drink and getting your breath back your husband can be attempting to show you that his grasshopper beats your panda or your sister can try to show you how you are really supposed to shake your booty for a slimmer figure. Once you have your breath back you can switch back and really show them how it is supposed to be done and by getting your breath back I mean from the helpless laughter! Not that it becomes a little competitive at all, no - not much!Other great features of the Wii Fit Plus can be found in the My Wii Fit Plus area which is the place where you can personalise the whole experience. In the Favourites area you can find the activities you have played frequently, recently and rarely. This will help you identify perhaps, why a certain area of your body is not benefitting from your work out. Games that are played rarely may need to be increased to target a different area of your body for example.In the My Routine area you get to design a personalised workout in either or both of the Yoga and Muscle Exercises categories, with specific movements being highlighted to give more intense results on particular areas.In the Wii Fit Plus Routines areas you find pre-designed routines that target specific problems, the routines will be a combination of all five different categories (including the Training Plus) and they will follow on one from another similar to an exercise video will. You have four areas to target;Lifestyle: Shoulders + back, Relax and Warm up.Health: Tummy, Over Indulgence and Leaner Mii.Youth: Posture, Mind + Body and Legs + Hips.Form: Hips + Behind, Arms and Figure.
Also in this area you can find access to a few other interesting features such as the calorie checker. Here, having worked out you can go and the Wii Fit calculates for you the food equivalent of the energy you have burned off, for example a 120 gram portion of mashed potato with butter is the same as 122 kcals, so if you have had the mashed potato today, be sure to burn the calories to match!The Fit cash log shows you where you have earned your Fit Cash points each week. The colours on the graph correspond to the amount of cash you have earned either; in your activity log, which is where you can fill in non-Wii fit activity, such as swimming, walking the dog etc., training plus, yoga, muscle exercises, aerobics or balance games. This helps you see at a glance exactly where you have been focussing most of your training.You also get to change which personal trainer you have in here and also find out how the Wii fit calculates the calorific impact of your activities using MET points. MET points are basically a system that gives points determined by the intensity of a given activity. One MET is equal to the amount of energy consumed by sitting still but the game on the Wii Fit Plus Super Hula is worth four MET's. Four MET's is about the same as a gentle stroll or a round of golf on foot. Once you know the MET value of a given exercise it is really easy to work out the calorific value of the activity performed, to take the example of the Super Hula game again, Super Hula = 4 MET's x weight (say 9st 6lb) x time (say 30 minutes) x 0.48 which is equal to 126 calories burned. It's really just a bit of extra information, but if you can find out the MET of other activities you do, you can work out the calories burned from them as well.

So all in all a really fun, highly motivating way of exercising, most of the family can play although very little children will struggle with some of the activities, but even older people will be able to at least do the balance games. So why not challenge your Gran to a game of table tilt or your son to a snowball fight, it will last for ages as you try to top each other's scores, give you both lots of fun, oh and by the way... you will be getting Wii Fit as well!