The most influential game blog endorses Wii Fit
Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 3:21pm by Blake
From the hilariously entitled It’s Shocking, We’re Pissed, Wii Fit Sorta Works by Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku:
The Balance Board games on Wii Fit actually are pretty great. If you can still stomach mini-games (ungh), then these games are entertaining and, in a way, more fulfilling than Wii Sports… When I saw Wii Fit at E3 last year, I hated it. Really, really hated it. And when I bought it for this feature, I still hated it. Then I started using it, and the hate started dissipating. Nintendo’s doing its own thing now, for better or worse. And taking Wii Fit for what it is, the game works. My wife and my kid really enjoy it, and it’s a horrible cliche, but playing it with them has been good fun.
Glad to hear it. You guys know I’ve been itching to play the ski jumping mini-game since E3 last year, as well as reanimate my interest in fitness. [FIXED HEADLINE]
February 29th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
This is good ” news” . I also am all about the hate on this thing.
Another plastic peripheral in the living room , another gimmick. Or so I thought. Looks like I may be wrong about Wii fit after all. That is cool because if it is fun, and I can have some fun with a few friends occasionally with it, then great. It might become another must have for the Wii in 2008, which has very few must haves so far…
February 29th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Don’t mean to nitpick BUT “influencial” is not a word. The word you’re looking for is “influential.”
Otherwise, interesting post!
February 29th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Yep lots of hate too bad for these guys. Really just enjoy what you can. Kotaku has been like this for a while now. LOL this may be them trying to cater to the reader ship. I know lots of guys who stop going there due to all the hate. I’m hardcore but really the only time I take games seriously is when working on them of real tournaments. It seems like lots of people forgot how to have fun.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I hate it too. I suposse will have to try it to see if the hate dissipates hehe.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
omg.
read that article.
or let me paraphrase: ‘i’m fat and this helped me work out’
I’m not kidding. That’s what it says.
You know what, yippee skip for you if you can’t jog without being in front of a TV with a IR remote in you pocket.
But I still see EXTREMELY limited gaming potential here. And I don’t need a wii and a scale to work out. So this article just reinforced how little I care about this thing.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
yeah i’m still not even on the fence with this thing, but i’ll have to try it myself before i make the final verdict. however, if it does work as well as he’s claiming, then we might possibly get a few good snow, surf, & skate boarding games out of it.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
So I guess WiiFit IS it, after all!
February 29th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I’m pretty sure Wii Fit is not aimed at people who already work out on their own, deepthought, much like Bowflex and Thighmaster and all those other gadgets.
For that reason, I’m also pretty sure you’ll be able to get Wii Fit really, really cheap in about a year on the used market, at tag sales, through freecycling, from random relatives….
February 29th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
It’s cool that he was able to admit that he “hate hate hated it” before buying it and that after owning it, he likes it. It takes a big man to admit he was wrong about a video game. Well done Mr. Ashcraft.
February 29th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
@deepthought: You’re entitled to your opinion, but where the hell did you get ‘I’m fat and this helped me work out’ out of the article? I think you’re trying to read into it a bit too much.
The fact of the matter is, of course you don’t need a balance board peripheral to work out, but Wii Fit gives more incentive to people who normally might not work out otherwise by presenting it in a form that’s attractive to gamers. And if you seriously can’t see gaming potential, then in my opinion, either your thinking capabilites are extremely limited, or you’re simply looking for ways to hate the thing.
February 29th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
OMG everyone here is fat !!!
March 1st, 2008 at 12:33 am
@Krizen
‘I suffered a horrible embarrassment at a Paul Smith boutique, where I used to shop regularly, where none of their sizes could fit me. Hello fat American! But, as I approach thirty, the slow realization has set-in: We don’t live forever. (That, and you can buy big designer clothes in America.)’
‘Then winter hit, I got cold, and I got wrapped up with several big magazine features and writing a book. I became a hermit. Well, a bigger hermit. Too busy to get out in the fresh air, I wanted something that would let me stay in shape inside. Something like Wii Fit.’
‘There was an instant appeal for the title for both gamers and casuals players. Here was something that could make us not tubby.’
now of course, if you read it, you can tell his height/weight isn’t really overweight given his BMI. BUT, since he filled out from 130 to 170, and this based on cooking and not through muscle gain, while he quit smoking (an appetite supressant), we can pretty safely assume this fellow was (is?) overweight, regardless of his healthy BMI range (which is based on height/weight and does not consider body fat).
That’s where the ‘hell’ I got it.
March 1st, 2008 at 6:58 am
This is sad really, that people display such a negative attitude towards not only Wii Fit but to other similar titles. Yes, Wii Fit is perhaps catering to a different audience but (assuming that it is in the same vein as Wii Sports) it is something that anyone should be able to enjoy. Its a game, it is made to be fun so no surprise that people are having fun with it.
Why do we think that we are suddenly too good for games like Wii Fit? Its totally pathetic and frankly disgusts me.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I am being driven ever more and more and yet still more crazy by the multitude of gaming blogs and websites that can’t seem to get over themselves and just have fun with games anymore. Not just the websites either, but the people who visit them as well. It seems like everytime I visit a site or forum (especially forums) there is at least one person who is ranting about blowing off such and such game for lacking such and such feature (online, HD resolution, 16×9, voice chat, specific control option, 60fps as opposed to 30+ fps, etc.), for catering to the “casual” market, using to many colors (BROWN FTW OMGLOLIAMALOSER!!!), or even simply having “Wii” in the title. Not one bit of that nonsense mattered to us back in the day when we were all still realatively new to gaming. Atari gamers didn’t throw fits over control schemes or graphics. They didn’t go into twenty page rants about how some particular game wasn’t aimed specifically at them, and thereby casting doom on all game-kind! The same rang true during the NES days, and while some seeds were sown during the SNES and Genesis era we at least still remembered how to have fun. The one’s that harp on about not wanting certain games in “their” game industry or that a console that doesn’t output *input minimum resolution of choice here* isn’t a “next-gen” console at all are simply jaded. Great explorers of the past that settled on one island for too long, and now they’re afraid of the ocean that got them there in the first place. Stop trying to play the technology; the games are way more fun!
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:30 am
“This is good ” news” . I also am all about the hate on this thing.”
Wii troll, why do you still linger? As Daniel Primed said, it’s quite sad how negative people are about the Wii. *sigh*
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 am
It’s almost a chore reading your comments, Wii Wii.
You’re the stereotypical bitter negative gamer who stereotypically accuses positive gamers such as I of being “blind fanboys”; with the few examples of proper punctuation that you muster with each paragraph you come across as a shining example of the idiocy of today’s youth. In quarrels such as ours you’re always the one to put others down first, and that’s because deep down inside you don’t feel loved or respected. Now go on. Go on and write your wry, “witty” (in your mind) response about how I have you psychoanalyzed to a T. Do it because you’re a miserable, predictable CRY BABY. You lack the intelligence to actually confront someone with an opposing view without resorting to childish name calling and sarcasm. And it’s POOCHY, goddammit. You can’t even taunt someone properly.
*Fully expecting a weak, predictable response from you where you pretend to have not bothered with my allegedly predictable response*
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 am
However you choose to respond, Wii Wii, know this:
Maelstrom’s Blue Ocean predictions will come to pass.
The days in which your opinion matters are numbered.