Wii Fit Plus: Feeling The Burn

Nintendo featured its balance board-controlled fitness game Wii Fit Plus at Gamescom this week, ensuring that there was little to no wait to go socks-on with the Wii sequel. That gave us plenty of time to burn some calories.

The Gamescom demo featured nine of the fifteen mini-games promised for Wii Fit Plus, six of which we got to try, thanks to attendees showing far more interest in things that weren’t Wii Fit related at the show. Coincidentally, five of the mini-games we played were already previewed by Totilo at a Nintendo event in New York. We gave Snowball Fight, Bird’s Eye Bull’s Eye, Tilt City, Obstacle Course and Segway Circuit a go. Another, Perfect 10, we played for the first time.

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That mini-game, pictured above, asks Wii Fit Plus players to do a little math while also shaking their hips. Direct your hindquarters toward the bumpers that will add up to 10 with a little hip-check or butt thrust. Not the most intensive of workouts.

What was intensive was Obstacle Course, a platformer that’s about as close to a Super Mario Bros. game as Wii Fit will likely ever get. It requires regular “running” and “jumping”—squats, really—to hop across platforms and avoid swinging balls and rolling logs.

Almost equally straining was Bird’s Eye Bull’s Eye, mini-game that puts your Mii in a chicken suit and requires serious arm-flapping. It’s exhausting. It’s also a little harder to control than your average Wii Fit mini-game, probably the most frustrating of Wii Fit Plus’ offerings.

Segway Circuit was about as physically demanding as riding a Segway. One really needs to lean forward or backward, tilting the Wii Remote side-to-side to steer. It’s a bit of work on the calves, but not much. But it does feature the Frisbee catching dog from Wii Sports Resort and a character that looks a lot like Monty Mole from Super Mario World.

The easiest of the work outs was Tilt City, a mini-game that’s really not much fun and does little to work the legs. The same for Snowball Fight, Wii Fit’s answer to a first-person shooter.

Wii Fit Plus’ mini-games are less recognizable than what Nintendo offered in the original—not unlike Wii Sports Resort’s collection of games—but a little more inventive. Some offer serious sweat opportunities, particularly Bird’s Eye Bull’s Eye and Obstacle Course. If you’re looking for something to mix up your Wii Fit workout, it may fit the bill.

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