WiiFit gonna make you sweat

by Justin McElroy { Jul 11th 2007 at 1:19PM }

Nintendo wrapped up their E3 press conference with WiiFit, a game that will not only give players activities to get fit, but also a way to monitor their improving health. The game will ship with with the cleverly named Wii Balance Board, which gives a new method of input that can measure both weight and balance.

Seen in the video are activities like push ups, step aerobics, goalie defense and dance. Though the system had a couple of hiccups in the demo, Shigeru Miyamoto says he's more excited about this game than any other, and that should frankly be good enough for you. There are more pics after the break.

Tags: breakingnews, e307, e3breakingnews, nintendo, wii, wiifit

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

whosmav @ Jul 11th 2007 1:23PM

First!

Shiggy got owned!

Stevo @ Jul 11th 2007 1:24PM

Haha, Miyamoto looks more crazy every time I see a picture of him. He's definitely had too many '1ups' in his day, haha.

KenshinSlayer @ Jul 11th 2007 1:25PM

uh, not interested. i play games to have fun, not look like a retard while doing a fitness program. I exercise in a gym.

sorry nintendo, but your whole virtual domination scares me. ITS MY TIME, AND YOU WON'T TAKE IT FROM ME! MY SECONDS! MINE!

Stevo @ Jul 11th 2007 1:28PM

Wait..Kenshin..are you telling me you'd rather listen to music or watch TV when doing aerobic exercises than a generic 3d rendered person? Can't be!

I understand that Nintendo is trying to broaden their target market...this just seems silly. Who knows though...it seems like anything with the Nintendo brand name is selling like hot cakes right now.

Ordeith @ Jul 11th 2007 1:54PM

Yourself! Fitness did pretty well on the original Xbox, so who knows?

copa @ Jul 11th 2007 1:26PM

This actually looks pretty nice. But I'm not sure the gaming press is going to take this well..

Manuel @ Jul 11th 2007 1:28PM

Think of Snowboarding games with this devise

Barry @ Jul 11th 2007 1:27PM

The hiccups were not due to "calibration issues". It was because the two women who went first and third in the demos were doing the exercises backwards. They were rotating left when they were supposed to be rotating right, etc, etc.

MOST EXCITING TIDBIT: mention of 32 player online medal of honor. That will totally sweet using the zapper.

el tonot @ Jul 11th 2007 1:27PM

I think its time for Miyamoto to learn English!!!! All the Japanese exes know it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Antonio @ Jul 11th 2007 1:38PM

Miyamoto knows English IIRC.

I wish they'd ditch those stupid Miis. Their big heads and bland clothing are annoying.

el tonot @ Jul 11th 2007 1:41PM

Antonio, if he knows English then why does he need a translator?

zwarrior @ Jul 11th 2007 1:44PM

Because he has a strong accent and its easier to understand the translator

DS1O9 @ Jul 11th 2007 1:28PM

looks really cool.

Conbon @ Jul 11th 2007 1:29PM

Wow.
Miyamoto is an absolutely wonderful man. There's no two ways about it!

DIE go @ Jul 11th 2007 1:29PM

no.....shiggy pwned E3! love the games but wheres their version of Bioshock, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, Killzone2, the list goes on. great games, but nothing for the hardcore gamer. boo.

Brian @ Jul 11th 2007 1:29PM

Wiifit makes me cry, but they could the board for a VR style FPS or something? That'd be cool. The device has potential, I just doubt anyone will realize it.

Stick Nutzman @ Jul 11th 2007 2:14PM

Why is "makes me cry" the new buzzphrase for gaming nerds? Get a freaking life.

Brian @ Jul 11th 2007 3:36PM

That's quite the profound intellectual leap you make there. Jokingly saying that something makes me cry now means I don't have a life? I bet you go clubbing all night, right? You a ladies man, no doubt about it. No, you're a social crusader, righting all of societies wrongs. You spend all day at a soup kitchen, feeding the poor. Or maybe you're writing the definitive work on quantum theory. Whatever you do, it's a life. Do you realize how mindless and petty you sound when you insult someone for using what you consider a tired phrase, and then end your post with the undisputed champion of tired phrases?

FrankTheCrank @ Jul 11th 2007 1:29PM

Sorry guys, I love my Wii, but is this it? Another two controllers? And three games?

JodyAnthony @ Jul 11th 2007 1:29PM

I think it looks pretty nifty. As long as its $50 or less, I'll buy it. If they try to pull some $70 crap no thanks.

Truepatriot @ Jul 11th 2007 1:30PM

FUCK YES WATCHING A GROWN MAN BE WEIGHED RULES!
seriously wtf was that about come on nintendo make some fucking games.
its nice that theyre including the attachments for games with the games.

Tsunami @ Jul 11th 2007 1:31PM

That looks like the next-gen Powerpad to me.

madcapslaugh @ Jul 22nd 2007 2:20AM

thanks someone for realizing this is just the new powerpad. and just to let you know i loved my powerpad, it was the only thing that got all of the kids in the house playing together, which is one of the key points of the wii. the potential for this new hardware is huge, im just a bit disappointed in all the negative nancy's out there that just assume that nothing creative can come out of this

JodyAnthony @ Jul 11th 2007 1:31PM

@barry

I'm pretty sure they were doing it right. they weren't watching the same screen you were, they were watching a different, smaller one.

if you rotated them 180 degrees so they were watching the big screen, you'd be able to tell they were doing it right

mrfong @ Jul 11th 2007 1:33PM

@ el tonot

He does know english, he just prefers Bill Trinen to translate for him :P

Anyways, the Wii fit board is a pretty neat peripheral, I'm interested to see how it could be used in other games.

Konny @ Jul 11th 2007 1:33PM

Awesome.. i spend $600 a year on running shoes and probably another $400 on race registrations.. this'll surely cut down on those costs... freakin not!

This was their big news? A plastic pressure plate? And, they are gonna need to reinforce it and widen it for the American market.

JodyAnthony @ Jul 11th 2007 1:35PM

ZOMG KONNY U R SO KEWL

Iggy Koopa @ Jul 11th 2007 1:34PM

Deeply depressing.

I prayed that they wouldn't end with some casual garbage for morons. But they did.

So Miyamoto says he's "more excited about this game than any other"? Again, deeply depressing.

Steve @ Jul 11th 2007 2:16PM

I'm always amazed at the lack of imagination shown by the sort of harcore gamers that, well, read sites dedicated to gaming. I'd always assumed that it was a demographic particularly well suited to flights of fancy when presented with new and shiny toys.

Here you have a peripheral that a) can detect body motion to a relativley high degree of accuracy, b) will sell a ton of units and c) be cheap enough to pack in with a game if necessary. This is coupled to a control system that can sense the motion of your hands and allows a great deal of flexibility with traditional control setups. And yet thousands of people can see no use for this outside of the Wii Fit program Nintendo demo'd today?

At the very least you could couple this with the Zapper to give a very cool game of Time Crisis where you actually duck for cover rather than hit a pedal. Same goes for FPS games of course, and I would have thought that the potential in some sports games would be obvious. Apply this technology to Wii Sports and you could actually get enough input to the system to translate not just what the racket / bat / club is doing but what the player is doing as well. SSX is another obvious one of course, and you could certainly integrate it with fighting games reasonably well too (although more Super Smash Brothers than Virtua Fighter I suspect).

But it seems people would just rather whine about how Nintendo doesn't care about the hardcore anymore. Despite the fact that they showcased four of the biggest games of the next year at this event (SSB, Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Zelda) but why spoil a good rant? Are Nintendo exclusivley focused on the hardcore? No, and thank god for that, at least someone is trying to do something new (and this from the owner of a 360, PS2, Wii, DS and gaming PC by the way so no, not a fanboy).

A @ Jul 12th 2007 12:09AM

steve- i think we can come up with uses for it. but this is what ninny came up with. more casual games for the masses (*snicker*... that's a pun). maybe if they showed us the next goldeneye on it, i'd be a little more excited.

EihBeir @ Jul 11th 2007 1:33PM

This is gonna be expensive. The last console that told me I was fat I launched through a wall.

fawazr @ Jul 11th 2007 1:33PM

wiifit is cool and all but that board will be awesome when it's used for other games.

TheMyth @ Jul 11th 2007 1:36PM

This is the dumbest thing I've ever freaking seen. First, Nintendo really needs to rein-in Miyamoto. Was he a gaming genious at one time? Yes. Is he bat-shit crazy now? Also, yes.

So the biggest criticism of the Wii is that there are very few non-gimicky games meant for traditional (or if you prefer, hardcore) gamers. Nintendo's solution? More gimicky mini-games!

Hey, do you want to be a superhero and fight monsters with machine guns? Well TOO BAD! Nintendo wants you to spend $100 to do pilates, even though you can do it, right now, for free. Dance monkey! Do your pilates!

Exo @ Jul 11th 2007 1:45PM

Yea hes crazy cause "stupid casual games" he makes have outsold even the ahol series or any other blockbusters in recent memory.

faboo @ Jul 11th 2007 1:37PM

Track and Field anyone?

i didnt see anywhere the WiiFit and the remote working the same time.

Tismatron @ Jul 11th 2007 1:42PM

that wiifit will sell millions, trust me, and think of the implications for strafing or something in an FPS, or running on the spot for the mario and sonic olympics…...it can be for the hardcore as well...

It REALLY INCENSES ME how some fanboys are like IWANTKIDICARUSMARIOGALAXYMETROID3KIDICARUSHARDCORELEVENTYONE!!!!!what people have got to realise is that nintendo is just like any other company in existence, they set out to make money, not to please their fans, no matter how much you think they love you, all that matters to them and their shareholders is money in pocket, and this is precise business sense, this will definitely be a hit, its a genius idea.

also, why not cater more for the expanded market, if you look at the percentages, theres a much much much bigger potential market than actual market, it just makes sense to go for them, they know mario glaxy and mario kart will sell, they don’t need to show it off, it is unimportant, especially at a worldwide conference where the world is watching, it is the place perfect for expanded market, wii fit will catch the headlines and imaginations MUCH MUCH better to MANY MANY more people than a MMO or FPS for wii. and in turn this greater advertises the wii, its actually genius by nintendo.

RHP @ Jul 11th 2007 1:35PM

This looked pretty cool. There's a number of possibilities where it could be kinda fun.

BNinjaC @ Jul 11th 2007 1:35PM

Nintendo has left me behind with a broken heart.

Why Ninty? Why?

Rask @ Jul 11th 2007 1:35PM

I don't think the Wii can be considered a gaming system anymore.

Nintendo seems to be distancing itself from actual gaming and more towards an electronic self-help devices.

Sony's gonna have to drop the ball pretty damned hard not to win the best presser of E3 award.

oni-link @ Jul 11th 2007 1:36PM

Sounds very innovative a definite pick up for casual/non-gamers and a must if your a true gamer and would like to pick up something that is sure to be a collector's item. Besides I'd rather pick this shit up for $80 than pretend to be a rockstar with Guitar Hero!!!

mrfong @ Jul 11th 2007 1:36PM

Oh, I forgot to mention, I wonder what the weight limit is on the board :P

Chad @ Jul 11th 2007 1:38PM

This is just further evidence that the wii is juat a gimick. Who the hell paid 250 to exercise with their wii, no one i konw.

JodyAnthony @ Jul 11th 2007 1:49PM

This is just further evidence that Chad is a moron

Jonathan Tran @ Jul 11th 2007 1:39PM

All they need now is a game that requires balance board + two wiimotes, and we will be in the Matrix

axt113 @ Jul 11th 2007 1:40PM

I think you guys have to accept that this is going to sell by the truck load, and like Wii sports will probably be huge on every news channel for weeks

Mr Khan @ Jul 11th 2007 1:41PM

I don't get what all the hate's about, i mean its not like they are making these games in lieu of making hardcore titles, there is certainly room enough for both (as they themselves are saying)

IMO, WiiFit is kind of meh, but that board has all kinds of kickass potential