Hands-on (and flapping like wings): Wii Fit Plus
Gallery: Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
The first game involved flying across a body of water onto small islands while a timer counted down. Each landing extended the timer briefly, so the faster we flew, the more distance we could cover. The idea of precision flying onto small target islands was reminiscent of Pilotwings or of Super Monkey Ball's wonderful "Monkey Target" minigame, except ... controlled by flapping your arms. In a clever use of the Balance Board's weight and balance measurement capabilities, the game registers the vibrations your arm movements make on the board and translates it to speed of on-screen wing flapping (by a character in what looks like a chicken suit). Leaning forward allows you to fly faster, and you can turn by leaning left or right. We were able to land on one target easily, and we were able to aim correctly at the second island, but we hit the side wall of the tall island and couldn't get high enough in the air to reach ground level. It's important to note, since Wii Fit Plus is an exercise game, that after flying in, our arms were tired.
The next game we tried was the "platformer" level described at the keynote. Basically a series of gauntlets involving swinging wrecking balls, sliding platforms, and jumps, it reminded us less of Super Mario Bros. and more of the diabolical Sasuke/Ninja Warrior show -- not at all a bad thing. In this game, players run in place on the Balance Board, straightening your legs to jump like in the first game's ski jump event. After each successful run, you're put into a harder level.
We also briefly played a snowball fight game, which uses the Balance Board to control a cover system. Your avatar stands behind a barrier, and you can lean out to toss snowballs at opponents with the Wiimote.
Other games available, which we didn't try, included things like skateboarding and "Rhythm Kung Fu." One thing that we'll regret for the rest of our lives, even after the game is out: we didn't try the Segway game. There's a game that uses the Balance Board to simulate riding a Segway. How could we have missed out on that? And how is that exercise? And how could we have missed out on that?













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Storm Eagle @ Jun 8th 2009 9:09AM
Yawn. My Wii Fit board still tells everyone that stands on it that they're 10 lbs heavier than their actual weight.
mr nimblewick @ Jun 8th 2009 10:58AM
Just keep telling yourselves that.
Feba @ Jun 8th 2009 10:59AM
Then use the weighing thing to subtract that weight.
Markez @ Jun 8th 2009 12:04PM
My buddy's balance board use to always bork people's weight as well. Nimblewick, seriously, maybe your experience is otherwise, but it absolutely screws peoples weight up for some people.
lockheede @ Jun 8th 2009 1:15PM
Just strip down to your skivies when you do the weigh-in.
Why are you all looking at me like I'm a weirdo?!
Premature ejaculation man @ Jun 8th 2009 9:10AM
Do you know if the old games will still be in it? The new games don't sound too good.
Also will there be/is there a super monkey ball game that uses the balance board?
BobSuperJr @ Jun 8th 2009 9:16AM
A dog? What? How can your dog do balance games?
It also looks like it's just some older games mixed with a new UI and a few games, but that's about it. :P
Toasty @ Jun 8th 2009 9:32AM
Now THIS is a dog who cares about his weight.
Jay Voorhees @ Jun 8th 2009 9:33AM
Maybe some day, somebody, somewhere, will realize that there are goofy footed riders out there and accomodate them in their games. Shaun White broke my heart...in more ways than one.
mocax @ Jun 8th 2009 9:38AM
so they going to sell the wii to pets now..... :D
Jack Spicer PSN: watsuke @ Jun 8th 2009 11:33AM
Day 1 purchase.
aristokrat @ Jun 8th 2009 11:41AM
Wow, that Converse ad that keeps coming up at the end of videos has got to go. Someone beatboxing through a loudspeaker only makes me want to kill your company's CEO, not buy any of your products.
Partner @ Jun 9th 2009 10:41PM
I want the playlist feature right now - I seem to spend 10 minutes of every workout just clicking through menus. Something like 9 clicks to get to the next exercise (assuming you don't get the extra annoying warning in the calibration phase.)
grumpypuppet @ Aug 4th 2009 9:08AM
Agree, wholeheartedly. I feel like I spend more time selecting exercises than *doing* them.
geek-master @ Jul 21st 2009 10:58PM
so when you get the game do you save it to your hardrive then when you put in your old wii fit game wii fit plus on the hardrive is added to the first wii fit?