Comments on Wii Fit: The Review

My weight fluctuates one or two pounds per day depending on humidity, hormones, meals, and how much water I drink. I weigh in once a WEEK. That's it. Any more than that and you are too focused on the scale and not in a healthy way.
I also see how my clothes fit as that is a better indication of weight loss than any scale. As you build muscle and lose fat, your scale weight will go up. Your clothes will sag but you might actually weigh 4 pounds more.
This box sounds like something that will eventually be put into a closet and conveniently forgotten about. I know it would at my house.

No wonder. You're supposed to be doing these in the nude. Take more pictures after you get it right.

Some of us are willing to pay good money to stand nude on a piece of video game equipment and have a japanese woman hector us about being too fat.

What the fuck is that, a bongo? A djembe? What is that??

Get outta here, hippie.

they should install one of these pads in front of the cash registers at mcdonald's and if you weigh too much, then you can't order anything until you lose the weight on the kids' playground equipment (which seems to have disappeared from fast food places)

Penny Arcade, Wii, my girlfriend, Wii, Penny Arcade, Wii, my girlfriend, Wii.wiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~

Someone please post a few more stories and get this image off the front page. It should only take 5 Savage posts on child abuse or one ECB screed.

If you just stopped playing video games and got rid of the television you could spend that time outside doing active things and not have to worry about a working out in front of the tube..

...a little girl’s voice usually exclaims, “Oh!”

You sound so sensitive about your weight.

Thanks for the update Sam. I've been on the fence about the WiiFit. Can't say this review particularly sways me into purchase territory, though.

Wait. What?

"I’ve become more sedentary since losing my last office job"

The HELL you say.

this thing sounds like crap in sooo many ways. oh, where to start...the weight obsession and justification (!) program, how about that for SICKNESS? and it, like so many human idiots, doesn't even take into account that your muscle mass just might be replacing your fat mass, thus making you actually heavier, albeit fitter. uhg. we're all doomed....

"A nine-year-old etc. etc." Thanks so much for the fucked-up mental picture. You need better friends.

You bought a video game to get you into shape, and you're surprised at how poorly it actually helps?

also just fyi, it looks like you have the thing on carpet. i don't know about wii fit boards, but for scales, putting them on carpet often makes them inaccurate.

Sam---Let's be generous here and say you used up 300 calories each day for seven days for a total of 2100 calories. That's equal to about 2/3 of one pound you could have lost.

Instead you gained 4 pounds or 14000 calories. Sooooo, take the 2100 plus the 14000 equals you ingesting about 2500 EXTRA each day of the week. An average guy might eat 2000 every day if he's careful, but (apparently) you ate more than double that.

You mean to tell me you were eating 4500 calories every day for a week and you wonder why you aren't losing weight by hopping around in front of a TV??

Scales, in general, don't help you lose weight, except on a weekly or monthly basis, because the fluctuations increase stress, which tends to increase eating.

Reduce stress - methinks the job stuff is why you gained weight.

@17: Your data here is strictly obsessed with weight and calories, which is exactly what's wrong with Wii Fit. It doesn't take into account muscle mass/growth, fluctuations in weight throughout a given day, water weight, and so on. Beyond that, I already mentioned I'd been watching my diet even more than usual for my week of use, and Wii Fit's not my only source of exercise (nor is exercise new to me).

I suppose I should emphasize that I didn't post the four pound growth bit to sound upset or surprised. Weight gains happen, whether via fluctuation or actual overeating. Perhaps I am outpacing my daily fitness -- Wii Fit plus wandering around town and being active -- by eating too much.

But I could find that out just as well with a weekly or bi-weekly weigh in. What Wii Fit does is encourage a daily weighing obsession, and this thing could really be bad news for kids and other users who haven't had long-term gym memberships, who haven't gotten their diets turned around (and if you're desperate to know, I once had a 25-pound turnaround as a result of a half-year diet/exercise overhaul, so I figure my fitness awareness is decent). If some other kid has the same result as me, Wii Fit doesn't offer tools like daily eating charts to check and track calorie intake, nor does it make a profound suggestion to do so for those who don't see weight loss.

Based on the soreness, heart race boosts and sweating, I don't mind claiming that Wii Fit makes an impact; people have "hopping around in front of a TV" ever since workout VHS tapes, anyway. But if you really want to mock it, there's one thing worse: the kid who doesn't even do THAT much per day because his piece of plastic has taunted him with a daily weight graph.

I see a market for add-ons and supplementary materials.

How does one code an anime Japanese schoolgirl to say "Lay off the beer and hot wings, Bubba" anyway?

@6: You'll love what I'm set to review on Thursday.

I don't like video games much, but I find the Wii Fit perfectly charming.

Sam--- Ummmmmmm, no one would know you put on 4 pounds if you didn't say so. Wii is a program/machine--- IT can't be obessed even though you are professing not to be so.

BTW I am not mocking it. Describe running or lifting weights: they sound insignificant until you do them.

My point is that biology can indeed be about numbers. Here a calorie is a calorie. And there is just no way you put on even one pound of muscle in one week doing Wii.

Getting in shape should be your goal as other posters (and yourself) have mentioned, but the Wii has no way of measuring your pants size changes or your muscle tone.

I say keep at it.

@21 - Penny Arcade for the Wii?

@ 24

http://www.rainslick.com/

Your review mainly focuses on the whole weight thing. It's fine to find fault with that, but it would have been nice to have seen more reviews of the minigames (yes, I know you mentioned you like them), more review of the board itself (and the fact that other games will make use of it), etc.

@21

Doubt it. I've probably already know everything about it, tested it, played it, beat it, beat it twice, etc...

I guess I'm just confused because I don't read music reviews all that much. I was under the impression that you were freelancing to review games, because you're a gamer. Then I found out you only just bought an XBOX, which pretty much eliminates all traits of the above-average (and arguably average) gamer. I didn't mind because the Stranger isn't exactly the right place for it, and you don't write terrible reviews, but now you seem to link to Penny Arcade, and when you don't, all you talk about is the fucking Wii. When you're not talking about the Wii, or linking to Penny Arcade, you're posting just to post that you have (or you're getting) an advanced copy that you'll be reviewing soon and neener-neener-neener.

It's all become slightly irritating. Although I enjoy your posts, it is my duty as a Slogger to give you this shit. You own a Wii, and an XBOX with maybe 3 games (Viva Pinata, Halo 3, GTA 4--if I missed any, doesn't matter). You call yourself a gamer constantly. You are not a gamer. You just happen to play some games and read Penny Arcade.

@26: It's because the minigames aren't that substantial. Some are very basic proofs of concept that feel too much like thinly veiled exercises--heading soccer balls by leaning left and right, catching fish by leaning left and right to slide on a block of ice, walking in place to go along a tightrope, leaning forward to pull off a ski jump. Cute, sure, but snoozers.

Three of the games are amusing, but the balance board ultimately limits them. Downhill skiing (and its snowboard variant) forces you not only to lean side to side to steer, but you also adjust speed by leaning forward and backward. Cool use of the board's four-way sensing. But this is a pain to control precisely; lose your footing in the least, or topple too much toward one side, and your race is screwed. Fun in very short bursts, but annoying to shift your weight around for long periods of time. You roll around as a hamster ball in another game, and the other good one sees you shifting a table with your weight to get little marbles to move to the right places. These are slightly more patient with natural imbalances, and they prove the Wii Balance Board is appropriately sensitive, but again, not comfortable to use for long stretches.

What also makes the Board a little weak is that only one will work with a single system; don't expect to get two or three at the same house and race together in future games. Won't work.

*I.

Wii Sports is a pretty good workout for someone like me stuck in a wheelchair. I can get up a pretty good sweat boxing for 3 rounds or playing a few sets of tennis. I'm not losing any weight but my arm strength is getting better and I am getting some pretty good cardio.

@Poe: This is coming from the guy who still hasn't accepted my Xbox Live friend request from over a month ago.

As you can see, I haven't connected to XBOX Live in months. I'll renew a year once Gears 2 is out. Right now, I haven't been playing enough live to throw down $60. That's booze money, and I'm toying with the Piece of Shit 3 for now, still waiting for LBP. But Drakes, Heavenly Sword, and (surprisingly) Warhawk are reason enough to purchase one, and the numero uno reason is the BluRay, sound excluded. Might as well own the one that plays games. I like commas.

I'll accept it when I get around to the box again. And I'm not trying to be hostile, if that's how I'm coming off. It would be nice to see more news outside of the Wii and what Penny Arcade is famously mocking in current gaming industry news. Tell us everything you're doing.

My biggest itch is the Wii, dude. It's like talking about American Idol now.

I'll have a temp tag in threeish weeks, though. E-mail me your gamertag and we can play some Gears.

(RE)

If you can't see e-mails, ask Amy Kate. She has moi permission to give to you.