WiiFit…doesn’t make you fit?

When the Nintendo Wii comes to mind, we can’t help but think that it’s a new way to burn calories. So when WiiFit comes to mind, it just reinforces our belief. But contrary to what the name suggests, Nintendo’s new game for the Wii called WiiFit doesn’t actually make you fit, says Shigeru Miyamoto, designer on the project.

“I forgot to mention something important earlier: I don’t think Wii Fit’s purpose is to make you fit; what it’s actually aiming to do is make you aware of your body,” he said. “That’s why we wanted people to talk with their families about Wii Fit, and become aware of these things together as a group. If you’re standing still, and it tells you “Your body is swaying”, you can see on the training results screen that your body has been shaking. But I think you’d never realize that your body is shaking in day-to-day life. I think becoming aware of things like this about yourself is quite interesting.”

Source: http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/miyamoto-wii-fit-is-not-designed-to-make-you-fit/19355

I’m willing to admit it myself – I’m a bit upset, but also a bit relieved. Let me explain: I’m as health-concerned as the next guy, but I still don’t think that video games will ever help you to stay fit (prove me wrong). I was just pleasantly surprised as, a few months ago, the folks at Nintendo wow-ed me with such a production – however, with such a statement from the designer, I feel a bit let down. Alas, I also feel as though things are the way they should be – you should have to go outside or to a gym or something else to stay healthy – not down to your basement to play the Wii. Sure, it’s fun, but it’s still a video game nonetheless, just a new way to interact it.

Source: http://e3nin.nintendo.com/_img/media/wiifit_sslg3.jpg

What Miyamoto said was what I’d consider a pretty wise observation. I think that the Wii would help more with hand-eye coordination than with physical fitness – training the connection between the mind and the body, as opposed to making the body healthier and stronger. Of course, this does provide advantages, but it still doesn’t exactly make you fit. A game of Wii Sports tells you this – you can play Wii Boxing as much as you want, you’ll never actually become as strong as a boxer that trains: because there’s no physical resistance, and because it’s just detecting motions, not the actual depth. However, you do have to make the right gestures in order to hit the right way, meaning the mind will learn even better how to hit in order to do maximum damage – on the Wii anyway.

Source: http://blogs.sun.com/ChrisM/resource/wiifit.jpg

For example, why was the news about doctors using Wii’s so significant? The Wii’s didn’t make them superhumanly strong. They didn’t get much healthier, or fitter. No, what happened was they gained more control over their body – specifically speaking, their hands. This might not seem too important to us average joes, but when you’re a surgeon operating on people and you’ve been away from work for a long time, the Wii’s a much better way to recuperate your operational skills rather than with an actual victim person.

What does WiiFit do? It does what the Wiimote and Nunchuk do with hand-eye coordination – it improves your leg-eye coordination (sp?). It also allows for a whole new dimension and layer to be added to the realistic physicality of the Wii gameplay, making it ever so valuable. One thing would be nice – why not change the name to…WiiBoard or WiiBalance or something? WiiFit just seems pretty useless now that the designer said what he did.