Wii Sports: Training and Fitness

by David Hinkle { Nov 12th 2006 at 2:15PM }

We've been spending tons of time with Wii Sports and we never took the chance to check out the Fitness and Training modes. In correcting the situation, we found that each are fairly straight forward and just how you would imagine them; Fitness is a kind of Brain Age semi-clone, yet instead of a brain age you are given a fitness age, and with Training you are taken through several scenarios in each of the sports. Fitness mode is a good deal more in-depth, so initially you'd want to head into Training mode before checking that out so that you can train up before committing yourself to a fitness age the system is looking to label you with.

Continue reading for our first ever Wii Sports Fitness mode trial!

So we sat down and entered the Fitness mode of Wii Sports and, honestly, didn't know what to expect. Would we just be thrust into a game of a random sport or would there be a calculated set of tests? Turns out the console has a laundry list of tests for us in order to determine our fitness age. Our first task? Returning serves in Wii Sports: Tennis.

We managed to only miss 4 balls out of a total of 50. Your Mii will move from shallow to deep in what seems to be random intervals. Ball speed never reached high velocity, however the inability to control the Mii's movement caused us to miss some very returnable balls. Oh well, missing only 4 is not so bad, right?

Next up was Home Run Derby in Wii Sports: Baseball. With a total of 10 pitches, the goal for the player is to basically knock it out of the park. Swinging and missing, along with fouling the ball, both result in an out. We managed to knock 2 for yard: first was for 482 feet and the second was an epic 547 feet.

Finally, we had to pick up spares in Wii Sports: Bowling. Picking up spares was a progressive affair, intially having us pick up the first pin and, upon doing so, the game would add a second pin, then the player would need to pick up the first and second pin respectively. The player is given an allowance of 5 gutterballs total before the round ends. We ended up getting to stage 4 before our last gutterball sputtered down the lane.

After completing all 3 trials, the game gave us a fitness age of 64. We're assuming the best overall fitness age one may receive is a 20. Assuming that, we wonder what we'd need to do in order to get closer to that number. We only missed 4 balls in Tennis, knocked 2 homers in Baseball and picked up 3 spares in Bowling. Isn't that at least worthy of a number in the 40's?

Tags: blogathon06, nintendo, nintendowii, sports, wii, wiisports, wiisportsfitness, wiisportstraining

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Optimus Prime @ Nov 12th 2006 1:54PM

Nintendo or Konami needs to combine this with a DDR pad and put out a real dance/rhythm game.

Fernando @ Nov 12th 2006 2:24PM

Can I use a USB Storage drive, like a USB Flash Memory or a USB HardDrive? If not, could Nintendo release later the necesary firmware to do that?

Risse @ Nov 12th 2006 2:26PM

@1

I agree totally with that. Maybe with wiimote it would a full parapara-simulator?

We can only dream...

Mr. Khan @ Nov 12th 2006 2:40PM

Is anyone else intrigued by those Empty Spaces?

Does this show the possibility of downloadable extra sports as many here predicted over the summer?

@ 1 & 3, the better idea would be Bust a Move (which Majesco is already doing) or better yet, New Samba Di Amigo!!!

Come on, Sega, you can do it!

Mike @ Nov 12th 2006 2:40PM

Whats with the question marks?

Joshua @ Nov 12th 2006 2:49PM

Looks like each sport has a column. I would gather when you complete one to a certain degree it opens a new challenge?

josh @ Nov 12th 2006 2:50PM

in brain age, you get new tests the longer you stick with the game/the better you do. might be the same here

Siggy @ Nov 12th 2006 3:13PM

Each sport has its own column. See for baseball maybe you have the hit as many out of 10 as possible. There are 2 more challenges tahtare baseball related that would be in the same column.

Tukka @ Nov 12th 2006 3:32PM

It sounds more like a test of your skill at Wii Sports than a measure of your actual level of fitness (or a workout to improve your fitness). Seems kind of worthless ... maybe a novel way of keeping track of your overall skill at the game, but that's about it. I doubt I'll bother with it, unless somehow the games get more physically demanding as you unlock them.

David Hinkle @ Nov 12th 2006 3:36PM

Mike:

Looks like Siggy answered your question. Couldn't have put it better myself.

Thanks for reading!
-Dave

Hey Alex @ Nov 12th 2006 3:54PM

I wonder if the more you play, or over time, if your age (oddly enough) improves.

Jeffler @ Nov 12th 2006 4:43PM

Mr. Khan,

You do know that those empty spaces are part of training mode. Can't you see the 2 bowling ones? Therefore, there are levels. They just haven't passed the others.

Nintendo_Fanboy @ Nov 12th 2006 4:53PM

DDR is completely possible with the Wii - but in a novel way. Recall that the Nunchaku has motion sensing capabilities as well as the Wiimote. What you would do would be make a leg strap for each leg, insert the Wiimote into one leg strap (being held in there by a plastic container) which has a USB port in it. This leg strap would then wirelessly communicate with the other leg strap (the equivelant of a Nunchaku) to tell the position of your two feet. Add in a DDR pad sensor bar replacement (basically a mat that senses the positions of the contorllers relative to the center of the mat), and vola, DDR.

Wii @ Nov 12th 2006 5:13PM

Not long till they'll take this data and store it somewhere ... ;)

Synthaxx R-or @ Nov 12th 2006 5:51PM

What are they gonna do with it? I mean, we all know we're a bunch of unfit losers. Don't need a game to tell me that.

I like the DDR idea though, maybe that'll be the way for me to lose a couple of Kg.

kofeecan @ Nov 12th 2006 5:58PM

Has anyone ever played that game at the arcade where you are are a police officer? You get a light gun, but you also stand on a pad. When you want to duck behind cover, or shift to the side to go auround a wall, you lean that way or actually duck....anyone think the wii could handle this? That could make for some interesting fun simulation/excersise programs.w How about to run in place to cover, then duck, shoot your gun, then turn and run again? How cool would that be?? And it would be very good at getting folks in shape.

tracked @ Nov 12th 2006 6:36PM

I see a great potential with the Wii. You guys remember the story of the guy who lost weight by riding a bike and playing WoW. Imagine if their was a bike with a game where you can ride in a race and you could watch it in your TV. The faster you pedal the faster you become. If It was cheap (Bikes aren't cheap let alone one with capabilities to communicate with Wii) enough. Gyms would buy it since it would be Fun and a healthy exercise the winning combo in weight loss.

The DDR is actually a good one. But you don't need to strap your legs. All you can do is have a device that is pararell with your Wii Sensor bar. It then projects light on the ground in the shape of a dance mate. It can detect where you stand on and it reports it to the Wii. It could be cheap and space saving.

The technology does work. You can get laser keyboards like that for your phones and Labtops. Saw it on Tv.

@Kofeecan

It can work but there needs to be another bar next to the wii sensor bar. One that can detect where you are. Or the Wii can use the Wiimote to extrapolate where you are. If Wii does get sucessfull. This might come. Only if Companies do want to take risks. Imagine playing FPSs games like that. To bad Halo will never come to Wii.

some person @ Nov 12th 2006 7:09PM

maybe you can control the Mii's with the nunchuck controller?

Sven @ Nov 12th 2006 9:12PM

That's the one problem I have with the Wii: I do a lot of my gaming on my eliptical machine, and I can't see anything good coming out of having a motion-sensitive control scheme while on that thing. As it is, a particularly hairy game of Mario Kart occasionally throws me off-balance, and that's just with the Wavebird. :)

Maybe I'll have to break out my ancient exercise bike.

- SHM