Nintendo says Wii Fit Won't Make You Fit

Wii Fit is Actually Designed to Make You Stand Still

In a previous post here, I defended Nintendo Wii Sports against the media tide of disillusionment in the value of the game as real exercise. I also added Wii Fit was intended to make you fit but according to Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, who conceived the idea of Wii Fit, I was wrong.

"I forgot to mention something important earlier: I don’t think Wii Fit’s purpose is to make you fit" said Miyamoto

Buried deep in the US site Wii.com, and commented on by Kotaku, he indicated the true purpose of Wii Fit is not to get you fit, but in fact to help you stand still better.

Miyamoto explains, "If you’re standing still, and it tells you 'Your body is swaying', you can see on the training results screen that your body has been shaking."

I still believe that Wii Fit will help you become fitter, because it tracks your weight which will make you aware of the exercise you need to do. Having said that, there is a brain training style feature on Wii Sports to test your fitness age.

We use similar tracking software with Gamercize; the GZ Personal Trainer was released in early 2007 and is accessed online or on a mobile phone, so I do know the importance of tracking health indicators. Recording your weight, BMI, Waist/Hip ratio and resting heart rate and seeing them change over time on the graphs does give added motivation to keep going in the right direction.

The Wii Sports fitness age check, Wii fit in general and the GZ Personal Trainer are all good examples of how technology helps motivation. The only thing that is unclear now is - what is Nintendo's key message for Wii fit to the consumer?

I guess the only way to be sure is to go out any buy one... oh... now I get it!

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