Nintendo Wii Fit and Balance Board May Revolutionize How People Exercise
It’s crazy late and it’s been a crazy of crazy weeks (but maybe that’s when things are just right, to paraphrase Killing Zoe, no?) but I just had to mention the Nintendo Wii’s newest product offering, a Balance Board that has, according to Engadget, ” dual sensors that can detect your weight and balance on each side as you exercise to the various on-screen Wii activities in Wii Fit.” Wii Fit being an early game title that utilizes the Balance Board.
Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog reports that Nintendo of America’s president asserted at the E3 convention that the Wii is poised to become the number one gaming console of its generation.
I don’t doubt it. The most skeptical of non-gamers is hard pressed to not be impressed by the simple pleasure of swinging the Wii controller like a tennis racket and watching a character on screen hit the ball over the net. The Balance Board and Wii Fit may create an entirely new consumer group that buys the Wii with the primary goal of getting in shape.
This is something that I’ve wanted to see my entire life: an exercise game where you jog or bicycle through a forest or dungeon (or something cool) and partake of some kind of adventure along the way. How great would it be to defeat some great beastly beast while getting your workout on?
ars technia writes: “Nintendo used the E3 platform to tout its strategy of broadening the market instead of fighting over the ‘hardcore gamer.’”
Maybe it’s just because I’m part of the non-hardcore gamer population, but I think that’s super smart. I haven’t owned a game console since I was a kid, and now I’m really starting to want one.
