Let’s get one thing straight. Wii Fit is not for serious athletes. It is a home exercise system designed for remedial exercisers and serial dieters like myself, who want to lose weight but consistently fail to leave the house.

It consists of a balance board which, in conjunction with your Wii console, measures your body mass index, weight, and centre of gravity. It gives you a body test before moving on to “training” – a choice of yoga, muscle exercises, balance games and aerobic exercises, and you can work towards certain goals, unlocking new exercises as you go.

You play with your Mii – the little character of yourself you make on the console – and it calculates your “Wii Fit Age” based on real age, BMI and your performance in two balance games. I didn’t understand the game, and was given a Wii Fit age of 58. The cheek of it!

After a few training sessions I have brought it down to a worthy 32 (I’m 24). I am notoriously rubbish at things like yoga and aerobics – even if I’m doing the exercises, I’m usually doing it all wrong, and not “feeling that stretch on the calf muscle” or whatever. But on the Wii Yoga sessions and muscle exercises, a friendly instructor advises you to keep your centre of gravity, shown as a moving dot, within a guideline circle, and you can actually feel it working.

But it’s tempting just to do the fun stuff – the balance games include heading footballs and ski slalom. Simple and fun, they are easy to play and hardly feel like exercise at all. The aerobic exercises – hula-hooping, stepping to music in the jolly company of your Wii’s other Miis, or running a short virtual track with them – are more work, but they’re still so dressed up in virtual cuteness that you really don’t notice.

In fact, my flatmate and I have come to think of our Wii mat as a friend. Don’t feel sorry for us, it talks to us – “Step on me!” – and provides wise words of encouragement. Of course, it’s harsh when it needs to be. “That clearly wasn’t your cup of tea,” it said after a particular train-wreck of a balance game. “Do you find yourself tripping over a lot?” Hmph.

But what’s the use of new-found abs of steel if they’re blanketed with blubber? As a course that has been translated from the original Japanese, it is perhaps not designed with Western fatties in mind; it doesn’t mention diet, but I think it’s fair to assume that we are supposed to “eat healthily”. I have responded with a further bout of crash dieting.

If, sticking to a reasonable diet, you persisted with a combination of exercises, I suspect you might achieve some of that mystical “toning” that gym people have. And if, like me, you’re more likely to have the odd go and pat yourself on the chubby back, it’s still fun, therapeutic, and better than nothing.

Wii Fit is out now for the Nintendo Wii (£69.99)

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