I was going to take my son with me to do this story but then I thought: “Nah,
he’s 10, he has enough fun as it is.” Besides, we’d have just ended up
fighting over the controls like at home. And then there was his sister to
consider. To ask Sam to help me to test-drive the new Wii Fit, being
launched this spring, and leave Rachel out of it would have been to invite
total family meltdown.
The Wii Fit, which comes complete with its own special balance board, is one
of the new fitness computer games from the Nintendo stable, which already
includes virtual games such as tennis, boxing and bowling.
Parents have good reason to be grateful to the Nintendo Wii. Pack them off to
their PlayStations or take the old telly-as-babysitter option, and you feel
guilty. Not very guilty, admittedly, but a bit. But tell them to play with
the Wii for half an hour and you can tell yourself that they’re getting a
little exercise (a study in the British Medical Journalsaid as much).
It may not be Swallows and Amazons, but it’s better than nothing. The
new Wii Fit though, according to Nintendo, is the first it has marketed as a
“fitness” game: it has four training categories aimed at improving players’
muscle condition, balance, flexibility and aerobic capacity.
For those not in the loop, the Nintendo Wii has sold more than 2 million
consoles since its launch in Britain in December 2006. It is a
hardware/software package that enables you to play games and solve puzzles
on a TV screen. If that sounds old hat, you don’t play hunching over a
console pressing buttons; you play by actively doing (more or less) what you
would if you were you playing the game for real. It’s virtual reality, in
other words. Hence, people becoming so engrossed in a game of tennis or a
sword fight that they punch through patio doors and such like and end up in
hospital.
So if you’re playing golf, for instance, you swing the wireless control as if
it were a golf club, and then watch your ball disappear off down the fairway
on screen. Or you hurl your bowling ball into a phalanx of skittles. Or you
shadow box as your computer-animated self smacks an opponent around a boxing
ring.
Does that make any sense? Basically, if it weren’t in front of you, you’d
think the Wii was science fiction. It’s the first piece of contemporary kit
that’s made me shake my head and say: “Eeeh, what will they think of next?”
It makes me feel as my own parents felt when confronted with a video, as an
Edwardian felt holding a telephone, as an Elizabethan felt looking through a
pane of glass. If it wasn’t such a laugh, the Wii could easily make you feel
about 500 years old.
Sophie, a publicist, shows me the new hardware for Wii Fit at her office in
Soho. On the floor in front of a giant TV is a pressure-sensitive balance
board about the size of weighing scales. In fact, what the new Wii does is
to weigh you straight away. Along with your height and age, the computer
then works out your body mass index. Mine is 29.36, somewhere between
Medically Obese and About To Drop Dead. “It’s not 100 per cent accurate,”
Sophie says, tactfully. “Muscle weighs more than fat.” “Thanks,” I say. “I
can see why you’re in PR.”
Next, after some rudimentary balance exercises in which I am revealed to be
fundamentally lopsided, the machine computes my “Wii age”. It is 65 (my
actual age is 43). “Oh dear,” says Sophie. I have to choose a “Mii”, an icon
to represent myself on screen. I go for a perky little chap with a side part
and pot belly. He introduces himself. In Japanese. The English language
version is not available yet, but if its success over there is anything to
go by – more than a million copies of the game sold in just over a month –
this game won’t be sitting on shop shelves for long.
I select an on-screen tutor, wondering if it’s morally or legally OK to lust
after a computer-generated fitness instructor. She greets me with what I
take to be a provocative pose. “She’s saying, ‘Hello, you fat bastard’,” the
photographer says. “Nah,” I say, “she’s saying she fancies me. You can
always tell.” “It’s a good alternative for those people who aren’t, er, that
confident about going to the gym,” Sophie offers.
For the next hour I submit myself to a series of sometimes gruelling,
sometimes exciting, often humiliating exertions. I try some skiing, first
slalom, then a jump. Neither is successful. I turn into a ball and try to
roll myself down a hole. I endeavour to keep one hula hoop in motion while
attempting to catch others. It’s all about minute transfers of weight,
rhythm, fluidity of the pelvis, such as dancing, essentially.
I could feel my abdominal muscles taking the strain, so presumably it was
doing some good. Improving core strength and stability is the order of the
day. Nintendo is to ask Liverpool John Moores University to research the
effects of Wii Fit, but anecdotally, I can confirm that you have to make an
effort. Not as you would lifting weights or running, but similar to a
beginners’ Pilates class, or some semi-serious stretching.
I try walking a tightrope between skyscrapers
“How did I do?” I ask Sophie. “Well, your Mii just fell to his knees crying,
so not good,” she replies. We move on to heading a football, where you have
to bend and lean on the balance board to connect with incoming footballs.
Occasionally, in a nod to Sir Alex Ferguson’s motivational techniques, a
boot rather than a ball will smack you in the face unless you dodge it. My
heading wasn’t bad. Then I try walking a tightrope slung between two
skyscrapers and came back to earth with a bump. Yoga is next and I’m not bad
at standing on one leg.
Finally, we arrive at the macho stuff, thigh bends, press-ups, stuff that
requires brute strength rather than any finesse. I need a score and I get
one: four stars out of four, polite oriental applause from the tutor. “Well
done,” says Sophie as I collapse red-faced into an armchair.
That final discipline was properly difficult. Why not just do the press-ups on
their own, without all the electronic wizardry? One answer is that the Wii
provides a range of stats, personal targets, graphs and the like, which are
a good incentive to keep going once the initial enthusiasm has worn off.
Mostly though, all this wizardry simply makes mucking around making a chump
of yourself even more fun than it is already, which is fine by me.
Nintendo’s Wii Fit is to be launched this spring, price to be announced.
Preorder the game at Amazon.co.uk. For
more information, log on to nintendo.co.uk
or call 0870 6060247. The Nintendo Wii costs £179.99 for the console and Wii
Sports package; games cost from £19.99
Numbers game
1,830 calories the average amount of calories burnt a week by children
using the Wii console (based on a 12.2hour average gaming week)
130 beats a minute the heart rate children can reach while playing Wii,
compared with 83 beats a minute when playing sedentary games
27lb the weight loss you could achieve over a year by playing Wii
Sports for 12.2 hours a week.
SOURCE: Figures taken from a study by Liverpool John Moores University into
the effect of playing Wii Sports
Other high-tech ways to work out
POWER PLATE, from £5,000 Favoured by the likes of Madonna, Claudia
Schiffer and Heidi Klum, the Power Plate has gained a reputation for a
no-sweat (literally) workout. It rapidly vibrates, contracting your muscles
20 to 50 times every second, which the maker claims will stimulate muscles,
burn fat and tone you up. But don’t be fooled by celebrity endorsement.
Anyone who has seen Madonna out jogging knows her stick-thin physique is the
result of more than good vibrations. And while the Power Plate may improve
muscle tone, an aerobics class will give your heart a better workout.
Stockists www.powerplate.com
GAMERCIZE, from £99 Any seasoned gamer will tell you that most
fitness-themed computer or console games quickly become boring. What gamers
really want is to firm up their thighs while still being able to plug into
their favourite franchise. Step in Richard Coshott, who, in an attempt to
stop his game-loving kids from evolving into couch potatoes, invented
Gamercize, fitness gadgets which plug into your PC or console. If you stop
exercising, the game pauses.
Stockists Available in stepper or cycle, www.gamercize.net
iJOY RIDE, £399 There’s no firm scientific evidence to support
iJoy’s claim that its horse simulator improves circulation, tones you up and
boosts your immune system. But, if nothing else, it will have you chuckling
as you rock back and forth like a polar bear at the zoo. Stay in the saddle
for an hour while completing a bizarre mix of aerobics and thigh gripping
and you can burn up to 400 calories. The price, however, may mean that you’d
be better off popping down to your local stables.
Stockists ijoyride.co.uk
X-DREAM, £6,999 Half-exercise bike, half-computer console, the
high-tech X-Dream allows you to ride through a variety of terrains, from the
Highlands to across deserts. It also allows you to create a rider profile,
right down to hair colour and clothes and, unlike standard exercise bikes,
is designed to simulate as closely as possible the experience of riding
outdoors so you feel every gear change and new terrain. You can even link up
with up to five other X-Dreamers and race against each other.
Stockists To prebook, x-biking.com
HYDRO PHYSIO LIFESTYLE UNDERWATER TREADMILL, £35,000
Electricity and water don’t usually go together, but running in water reduces
the chances of injury as it puts less strain on your joints. Some studies
also have shown that training in water is more effective. However, if all
you want is a pert bum and tight thighs, you could spend the money on a
77-year membership to your local gym.
Stockists hydrophysio.com
LAURA DEELEY
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