Wii Aches — Couch Potatoes Working It Up

Genocaust writes "While the new controller on the Wii is proving to be a success, it's turning out to be more effort than some die-hard couch potatoes bargained for. The Wall Street Journal reports on the newest workout regime for nerds." From the article: "In Rochester, Minn., Jeremy Scherer and his wife spent three hours playing tennis and bowling, two of the games included with the Wii. Mr. Scherer says he managed to improve his scores — at the cost of shoulders and back that were still aching the next day. 'I was using muscles I hadn't used in a while,' says Mr. Scherer, a computer programmer who describes himself as 'not very active.' Mr. Scherer is vowing nightly 'Wii workouts' to get in better shape." "Bunnies Don't Know What To Do With Cows," in Rayman, is another guaranteed way to get your arm aching. Cows are heavy, and it takes a lot of energy to throw them.

Its a choice

Honestly, with the way the control scheme works, you CAN be a couch patatoe and play the Wii just fine.

Its just boring :) When you really get into it is when the workout starts, but its also when the fun begins.

Re:Hummm...

And hey, maybe a pad you can put on the ground! I'll make a game called track n field. It'll be great. Or how about a glove you can wear? That'd be neat too.

Wiimote + Dancemat?

Maybe it'd be worth coming out with an alternative controller, something you'd need to put your whole body into in order to operate it.

You could make a dance game with extra detail, maybe. Two wiimotes, one in each hand, and a dance mat connected as a standard controller.

Come to think of it, that wouldn't only work for dance games. How about a fighting game? Wii Boxing with fancy footwork...

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

You do have to wonder, will Nintendo come out with sensors you can wear on (i.e.) your ankles that use the same technology? I was going to buy a Dance Dance Revolution game but never did because there are all kinds of problems with the dance pads (except for the metal ones that cost a couple hundred). Think about it, if you jump on your controller it's bound to wear out. But doing it optically or with gyros or however this thing works should last a lot longer.

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

"most commercial $30 dance pads right now are lacking compared to the strain DDR gameplay can put on them"

you got to remember that all controllers will wear out if you put enough game time in. Sure the $30 pads won't last forever, but I doubt any of the geeks on here would put enough time in to wear one out. We have one of those cheap DDR pads and it's lasted great for the few hours they've bothered to play with it.

If you really put in the hundreds of hours it'd take for the pad to wear out I'd think it's worth another $30 to buy another one.
300 hours of fun / $30 bucks = 10 cents for a hour of fun. Not a bad price.

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

Something I would prefer would be motion sensor controllers, fastened to the feet, to be a substitute for mat-style dance controllers. I read of many diificulties with the dance pads. If one ponders it, leaping upon your interface is going to increase wear significantly (unless you pay $200 for one made with more durable materials). Wireless sensing will possibly avoid all the physical problems of human/dance interfaces.

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

Well, I for one would much prefer something like little WiiRemotes strapped to the ankes to replace dancemats. I was going to buy DDR but I read about a lot of problems with the mats. And if you think about it, jumping on your controller has to be hard on it (unless you pay a couple hundred for a metal pad). Remote sensing (like the WiiRemote) might avoid all the mechanical Dance Pad problems, perhaps?

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

If you've got a DDR dance pad, you can do this already. ... The dance pad basically maps to the 'face' buttons on a PS2's controller.

One gathering, after a bunch of DDR matches between friends, someone popped in one of the Gundam Fighting games. Imagine 170lb guys dancing on a pad trying to get combos off, as giant robots battle it out on screen.

Scarily enough, one of the group started getting good at it :)

Re:Hummm...

The idea is to have something that'd give you a good workout without being long enough to destroy your TV, or furniture, or little brother. :-P

Re:Its a choice

And Congrats to Nintendo for making that the way it is. Maybe it's just a side-effect and not intended, but making it more fun to be active is a great thing for everyone, young and old.

I just wish I could get my hands on one. I'm not willing to stand in long lines or camp out my local eb this week, hoping to get a chance at one... I'm hoping they'll be fairly easy to get within the next few weeks. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Re:Its a choice

and it looks like they're back in stock.

You must have missed this on the page you linked to: Orders entered prior to Wednesday, November 22, 2006 will be shipped on or after November 28. Orders entered on or after Wednesday November 22, 2006 will ship when our new quantities arrive (week of December 18, 2006).

Re:Its a choice

You have no idea. I tried to avoid launch, because I thought it was stupid to camp for a console. Ironicaly, camping for it probably would have been the easiest way to get one. Now retail stores have no clue when they get them, so you have to head to the stores (if you call, its too late by the time you get there) and just randomly ask face to face every so often. I live near a bunch of stores (like 10-15 minutes on foot), and don't have a car (personal choice, since i'm a programmer and always in front of my computer, its the only way I'll ever get off my ass, so I decided not to get a car for the time being). I've never been walking this much in my entire life.

The Wii literally made me lose 5-10 pounds in a week, and I didn't even BUY one yet.

Re:Not my choice

Ironically enough, I'm pretty positive that if Lucas Art comes out with a -good- game from the Jedi Knight serie on the Wii that correctly uses the Wiimote, the Wii sales for the next few months after launch will flat double.

Re:Not my choice

Stop with the "Nintendo is for kids" thing. It's not true and honestly, unless you do manual labor for a living (lifting servers and running cable doesn't count) you shouldn't be physically tired when you get home. If you are too tired to play a Wii game then you are probably the one most in need of the little bit of exercise you would get from playing it.

The Wii is the only one of the new systems that is made for adults. Single men under thirty don't count as adults. I don't know one man who wants to come home from work and play adolescent games where you shoot other people. Those games are still pushing the same formula that they did a decade ago when most of us adults got tired of them. I'd rather play a golf or baseball game than Gears of War for the same reason I'd rather spend Saturday playing real golf than I would hanging out with friends.

Make no mistake, the 360 and PS3 are game systems for adolescent boys, not adults. The Wii is the only system that offers gameplay that might be entertaining for an adult or his family. The fact that my six year old son will also find entertaining games on the Wii is a bonus so I won't have to buy a dedicated kids system like PS3.

Re:Not my choice

Thanks for typing out what I was thinking :)

Fact is, what constitutes a "kids game" is quite subjective, and people in different age groups tend to feel differently about it. For example, most people who think of Mario as a "little kids game" are probably under 25 (I'm 24 myself, and disagree with Mario, etc being for kids... Ecco Jr. for the Genesis was a little kids game. Its a total other ball park).

Ironicaly, the previous poster mentionned coming back home wanting to get high and drink, which (if we're going by stereotypes, in the same way one can associate the Wii with kid games), tends to be associated with hormonal frat college teens, a group which are seen as "kids" by about anyone above 30 and a little less.

So honestly, away with the stupid stereotypes. Fun knows no age.

Re:Not my choice

The Wii is the only one of the new systems that is made for adults. Single men under thirty don't count as adults.

You made a good point and sounded intelligent up until that comment.

I'd rather play a golf or baseball game than Gears of War for the same reason I'd rather spend Saturday playing real golf than I would hanging out with friends.

What? You don't like hanging out with friends? Have you lost your social life outside of your family? So single men under thirty aren't adults, and you'd rather play golf than hang out with friends. You sound like an unhappy married man (since you think single men don't qualify as adults) who probably didn't go to college (I say that because you seemed to allude to college students being the "adolescents" who play first person shooters) and is unhappy with his job that he started right out of high school, but that would just be my guess.

That doesn't really matter though. You do realize that you just stereotyped "single men under thirty" while bitching about the stereotype that Nintendo is for kids. Its a lot more convincing when you practice what you preach.

I'm a 23 year old college student, which is probably why I was so irritated with your comment, who loves the GameCube, not to mention the other systems. My roommates and I play Mario Tennis all the time when friends come over before we go out on the weekends. We play Mario Party with our girlfriends. The Mario games are our favorites on the system, and we have probably gotten more use out of the GameCube than the other systems we own.

I'm a little confused on why you say that the Wii is the only new system for your definition of adults while your only reason for that is that adults like sports games more than FPSs. Historically, the PS and XBox have more sports games than Nintendo, unless you are counting all of the Mario sports games. I admit I haven't reviewed the latest list of games for the systems, but even if there are more sports games out for the Wii at the moment, I doubt that that will be the case in another year since, as far as I know, it hasn't been the case in the past.

Finally, my 63 year old father loves the PS2 and plans to buy the PS3. This is because he doesn't like games that require manual dexterity, and the PS2 has the largest concentration of RPGs (which usually don't require hand-eye coordination). He doesn't like sports games and is not interested in the Wii or the thought of using its controllers. The PS3 is the system to most likely have a large number of "standard" RPGs (by that I mean games like Breath of Fire, Dragon Warrior, and FF instead of Zelda or Secret of Mana), so that is what my father wants and the PS3 is the only system for him, a married man over 30.

Re:Not my choice

Try cutting out MSG and High Fructose Corn Syrup from your diet. I cut just those two things and found my never-ending daily fatigue has all but gone away.

I'm not saying it will work for you, but it's done wonders for me. Oh, and MSG "hides" as all kinds of things like textured proteins and autolyzed yeasts.

Anyway, I'm less tired all the time and I'm losing weight. I'm now trying to start exercising regularly... at least now I have the energy for it.

Re:Not my choice

I partially disagree with your argument. Before I start, I'm 21 and finishing up college (not your typical party guy though).

I think Nintendo heavily targets kids, age ranging from around 6-15. What really makes me agree with the statement is that most of the core games Nintendo releases (most especially Mario) is more-or-less an interactive cartoon. I don't mean this just visually, but the story lines are similar to those that you might encounter in a Nickelodeon cartoon (at least the classic ones, I'm not up to speed with current cartoon trends). Often characters in these games do not die, or if they do it is only implied; Mario just falls off the screen or falls on his back, you don't see blood all over the ground as you would with, say, Quake on the Xbox. A lot of the games are simple, and the story lines are not so complex that a kid wouldn't be able to follow it -- although there are of course exceptions. This really sways me to think Nintendo is the family company of the bunch, they really target kids in a safe and friendly environment.

My dad (45) never plays video games. Once upon a time he had an Atari 2600 and quite a collection of classics (Galaga among his favorites). He wouldn't touch a SNES, N64, or GameCube, and I can understand that -- with the Atari you have a joystick and a button, but with each generation the technology took leaps ahead, and now the GameCube has what.. 8 buttons, a directional pad, and two joysticks? For an adult who might have been a casual game player, this might seem intimidating if he was trying to get back into it after 20 so years. I think this is really how you are seeing the Wii appeal to adult users. The Wii has the latest technology, but in a form that any adult can pick up and immediately begin experimenting with without a lot of hesitation or intimidation. If the developers play their cards right, I can really see people like my dad picking up a Wii and playing it from time to time. However, the key here is probably with minigames, and I see this happening already (Sports and Rayman). If games have been out of your life for 20 some odd years, you likely will not be interested in picking up a game that will take several weeks of casual play to complete (ex, Zelda), rather some game you can play for 10 or 15 minutes then put down.

With this, I think Nintendo targets both kids and adults, maintaining a family appearance, but still appealing to adults.

Am I wrong?

Re:Not my choice

The Wii is the only one of the new systems that is made for adults. Single men under thirty don't count as adults. I don't know one man who wants to come home from work and play adolescent games where you shoot other people. Those games are still pushing the same formula that they did a decade ago when most of us adults got tired of them. I'd rather play a golf or baseball game than Gears of War for the same reason I'd rather spend Saturday playing real golf than I would hanging out with friends.

Way to take a not-bad point and stretch it all to hell.

We know Nintendo games go beyond sheer kiddie value for elegant gameplay reasons, but don't kid yourself, its a game with characters that have names like Princess Peach, Luigi, and Toad, and its coloured like an angry fruit salad. The fact that one can look past the PlaySkool elements to see the interesting game design beneath does not somehow elevate the entire enterprise into the realm of what most adults would call ... adult.

A console is not made for any range group ("make no mistake" - i love that phrase. end of debate!) Get a grip. There is no 'adult game'. There are only games we sometimes don't like small kids to play. That's it.

I'll see your GTA and raise you a SMB2

Most of the Mario "kiddie" games you speak of are far more difficult than the majority of the "grown-up" games out there. GTA for instance is a cake walk next to Super Mario Brothers 2 or Mario Sunshine. The myth of Nintendo being a kiddie console is one perpetuated mainly by teens and preteens that think they are too old to play a game with a cartoony main character. Once you grow up you will find that its ok, mario is no threat to your manhood. Oddly enough you will also generally find that immaturity in gaming is usually on the violence for violence's sake crowd. In the end its all about fun and a challenge, Nintendo does a good job of delivering both.

A solution

Maybe this could be a solution for Bovine America. If only they could come up with a video game controller that removed excess complacency and enabled one to recognize propaganda, then we might even go back to having a free country again!

Re:A solution

Well, for Americans who do go outside there is only 1 video game: Frogger. Very, very few cities are designed with pedestrians being something other than poor and/or drunk people, so those of us that do walk/ride bikes everywhere constantly have to basically try to play a giant game of frogger every time we go out. And trust me, the SUV driving redneck isn't much smarter behind the wheel than any of those cars in Frogger, and even less considerate.

Re:A solution

It depends on where you are in the USA. I've just got back from spending a couple of months over there. In Salt Lake City, everything is far apart so you really need a car, but if you are walking (I was staying half an hour's walk from where I was working, so it wasn't too far) then it's quite possible. Intersections that are traffic light controlled are easy to cross, and ones that aren't seem to give right of way to pedestrians; if it looks like a pedestrian is about to cross, then all the cars will stop. On the whole, drivers seemed very polite towards those without cars.

In New York City, the situation was somewhat different. There are traffic lights, but I'm not convinced anyone actually observed them. The strategy for crossing a road in NYC seems to be for all of the pedestrians to huddle on the curb. Gradually, the ones at the back push the ones at the front out into the middle of the road. When there are too many people in the road for the average car to drive over, it becomes the pedestrians turn to use the road, until their density thins enough to allow cars across again.

Re:A solution

I've lived in NYC for a long time and have never noticed that.

What I HAVE seen, is that pedestrians often do stupid things (like not waiting for the light, or crossing without even looking up when going across a one lane side street).

The biggest contributor to this careless action is probably because NYC is a pedestrian city, and the majority of the people in it do not own a car, or drive regularly (if at all). This makes them less likely to understand why they shouldn't jump in front of a car (a car can't jump to the side like a person can). The good side of this though, is that I think obesity was lower in NYC than the national average. I assume most everyone walking helped with that :) (as opposed to New Jersey for instance, where I've seen people drive the car to the corner for the paper in the morning)

Word to the wise: Wyoming isn't far from Salt Lake

I grew up in Wyoming, where I never saw a crosswalk, and to cross when cars were coming meant death. We Wyomingites often go to Salt Lake for rock shows and whatnot. It took me several trips down there to understand that you had to stop for the people in the stripey line zone. Stoplights I understood...but these fools were just out in the middle of the road! I must have chased hundreds back onto the sidewalk before I finally got it...couldn't figure out what the hell was WRONG with those people.

So if you're walking in Salt Lake, keep a wary eye out for those Wyoming license plates. They have the little cowboy on them.

Re:A solution

Pffft...if you want some advanced Frogger action, I suggest that you go to Beirut. In Beirut, not only do you risk your life crossing the street due to the widespread disregard for traffic laws and signals, but when initiating your street cross, you're not even allowed to look at the oncoming traffic. To do so is considered unmanly.

The frightening thing is that I'm not joking.

How long

before they make a actual exercise themed game?

Re:How long

Wii Sports has a Fitness function, sort of like Brain Age, that's meant to help you stay consistent, but it's not very in-depth. A more in-depth version could do a lot. And the parent is right that the cow throwing game in Rayman gives you a MAJOR workout.

Re:How long

Remember the original Nintendo's game mat, the PowerPad [videogamecentral.com]? You could use it with an Olimpics themed game and compete in track and field events. I recall kneeling on the floor and smacking the pressure spots with my hands to achieve unrealistic scores.

I think maybe something like this may make a venture into the trendy excercise market. If they can sell a big ball for a hundred bucks, they can sell a Wii controller too.

This begs the now cliche question: Why not just go outside and play the actual sport? Alas, there is not a chance in hell.

Re:How long

"This begs the now cliche question: Why not just go outside and play the actual sport?"

Mainly because it's not the most convenient thing in the world to arrange a sport. More than one person is needed to play. Where I work, for example, half my coworkers have a minimum of an hour long drive home AND they have family to go home to. It's not easy to arrange an hour or two to go somewhere and play a sport. On top of this, this time of year, the only way they could do this when there's daylight is to arrange it on the weekend. For our type of work, weekends often mean catching up on chores.

Thanks to the Wii everybody can just go home and play. Two of my coworkers have arranged to play via the net (which, btw, I didn't know was possible...) *and* they've gotten their wives involved. Where I work, the Wii has proven to be both a workout advice and a social event. I don't know if that'll last, but man, it's sure looking encouraging so far.

Re:How long

Why not just go outside and play the actual sport?

It's minus 22 out right now. The only sport playable in this weather is "Run between buildings while trying not to freeze to death".

Brilliant -- like DDR but for the arms

Imagine this as the start of a trend -- play video games and still get in shape.

Re:Brilliant -- like DDR but for the arms

I'm going to have to disagree with this article..

This article assumes that nerds are somehow NOT used to making quick/small jerking motions with their wrists.. I mean.. common.

Re:Brilliant -- like DDR but for the arms

"Please tell me you're joking. Seriously."

Nope...dead serious.

I've written about this before on here....one of the BIG reasons I see today, is that kids just aren't outside playing like we used to when was a young kid. Most everyday after school, we and the neighborhood kids I was friends with (we actually got out and met our neighbors) were always out doing something...football in the street...kill the man with the ball in someone's yard..skateboarding on our homemade ramp (semi-half pipe)....riding bicycles.

Nowdays...it seems that schools are giving too much homework to kids (even 1st and 2nd graders) that take all evening to do...combine this with parents that just don't seem to let their kids out...hell, my folks would pretty much 'toss' my ass outside to go play. The kids today are couch potatoes...playing video games or something stationary.

Yes, I believe parents are overly paranoid and this is a large contributing problem to childhood obesity...along with families not cooking home made meals that are healthy...and eat junk food or the like.

I'm quite sure that there were pedophiles and other bad people out when I was a kid. I was taught to be smart enough to not get in a car with one...etc. I think rather than being a greater danger out there....that there is just more hype and broadcasting of a problem that is nothing new. We didn't have 24/7 news channels back then competing for each other...todays 'news' more often is for ratings rather than dispersal of real news. Parents have all bought into this paranoia....many others just don't take the time to care about their kids.

So, yes...I do see paranoid parents, and ones that are pretty much negligent in overseeing the proper diet of kids as being largely the problem with the overabundance of fat kids out there.

More than unworked muscle aches?

It has been discussed to death that the wiimote could be the answer for so many overweight gamers (which is a great thing) but how easy is it to damage something (ie: back, arms, neck, tendons, etc) due to prolonged usage of this device? I don't own a wii but how accurate to "real" sports movements is it? Do players have to do unnatural movements at times in order to get things "working"?

Re:More than unworked muscle aches?

I've used the Wii. I am also a tennis player and was delighted to see that the real world tennis motions match up with the game as expected. As far as injury goes, I think you are just looking at repetative type injuries that can't be avoided. Since there is no actual contact with anything and therefore no resistance I find it hard to believe that anyone could get injured simply from waving the remote around in a natural manner.

Penny arcade said it best...

I think http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13 [penny-arcade.com] eloquently puts the point across.

Frustrating news for the young Sebastion

Since the wii has wifi, Sebastion isn't allowed to play with it.

Wii are out of shape

I mean really really out of shape. I've known this for awhile, but it's nice that I have something I can do that I enjoy that actually gives me a bit of a workout. My SO and I are playing a lot of Tennis together. It's less of a learning curve and more practical to play a few best of 3 games of tennis every night than to go out and do it in cold wet seattle. And surprisingly, we can work up a sweat after a half hour to an hour of tennis.

The bowling is really easy on the arms. Baseball can be hard on the pitching arm. Boxing is a real work out. And golf is kind of relaxing and is more of a precision game. Several of the Raving Rabbids games have tested our metal. I seem to be really good at the running and rhythm games, and my SO is great at the shooting and fine manipulation games.

All in all, it was fun to notice that little bit of pain in the back of the shoulder that lets you know you got some exercise. Something I rarely feel I can do much of anymore, which is really just a mental block and lazyness on my part. Still, if they could figure out some way to get your legs to workout in this games, it would be something better for youth to do besides the regular sit and stare video games that I grew up with.

Excellent!

This may help the obesity rate among kids. It has been climbing at an alarming pace, and now that we have a workout program disguised as a video game... Things are bound to get better.

Re:Excellent!

It takes approximately 30 minutes of exercise a day to maintain a healthy fitness, and if you're working up a sweat hitting virtual tennis balls, you will be burning calories. It's like doing jumping jacks.

Hasn't been a problem so far...

I've been playing quite a bit exploring the landscape of the latest Zelda game. As long as I hold my wrists strait while playing, I've found it a much lighter stress than using a mouse. The closest thing to an ache I've gotten was while playing a precision flying minigame for more than a half-hour - having to hold the pointer perfectly still to pop these stationary balloons as the camera pans around your character's flying figure is akin to trying to hold your hand out in front of your body for a similar time... extremely easy at first, but your muscles do tense from the focus on a position. Sitting cross-legged on a chair, and occasionally resting my elbow on my leg pretty much fixes that issue with me though. Swinging both controllers, almost an endless number of ways and times though, hasn't itself been much of a stress at all, even now at the end of the game, and after going through a 50-floor optional battle-fest.

Nintendo has done a very good job so far making a comfortable and light controller. Players concerned about wrist or arm stress should compare against mouse usage, and be willing to take breaks if they have to do the same when using a mouse. Don't be afraid to rest your arm on something while playing, or to be creative with 'lazy' ways of performing the same action if it must be repeated. And, if it's really an issue, consider getting some cheap light weights (1-5lbs) and do some light exercise while watching TV at night or something - this works for even the oldest or the youngest people out there, from my experience.

Ryan Fenton

Re:Hasn't been a problem so far...

The machine is actually very simple - in appearance, it's just a CD drive with power and eject button, plus the chord to the TV. The only unique aspect on the outset is the sensor bar and Wii remote+nunchuck. You put those together, and it's a VERY portable party gaming unit. The only vulnerable aspect is the chord on the sensor bar's wire that plugs into the back of the Wii - it's thinner than most chords I've ever seen, so would have to be kept out of reach of kids or animals that would be tempted to pull on or bite it, or out of an area where someone may trip on it - it would snap quite easily in such a situation.

Once it's connected and running, it's a very simple yet effective user interface. The only configuration choice at the outset involving the remote is if the sensor bar is above/below the TV. The controller doesn't have to be aiming at the TV, it just has to be 'seen' by the sensor bar to register movement - orientation and other aspects seem to work wonderfully relative to having the remote in front of the TV. Intuitively, any user of the remote can quickly learn the 'sweet spot' of having the remote in the right place to get the cursor where they want. You can go into the console's options menu to get to sensitivity options, and even see a sensor-bar's eyes-view of where the remote is, which helps to set a single 'sensitivity' value from 1 to 5. Once you've set that, the remote settles into the role of an extra-special mouse, with attachments. Like a mouse, there are certain movements that are natural, certain pixel-perfect aimings that are hard to get just right at times, but in general it works to get fairly accurate relative movement and aiming working for software. It is inherently more three-dimensional than a mouse movement (in games, you will 'thrust' it forward, rotate it, etc.), but the mouse analogy is the most common metaphor in common usage.

The games, subjectively, are extremely well-crafted for launch games. They offer a quantum leap beyond the advanced tech-demo feel of the Dreamcast release set. The interactivity of the Wii-remote demands a certain ability to explore the world you are presented, and in the games I've tried so far (only Zelda in a really full exploration so far), the meat is there, unlike the rather dry and selectively-interactive environments of the Dreamcast games. As an example, one of the most expansive games on the Dreamcast was Skies of Arcadia - and while it was a good game, it had a lot of non-interactive environments, which for me, really hurt the exploration aspect of the game between plot points and isolated side-quests. Wii games in general, so far, seem to offer that kind of interactivity - but we'll have to see how many games are released, and how third party and ported games fit into the overall picture of what ends up being the Wii games landscape.

Ryan Fenton

Penny-Arcade plays the Wii

She says that while it might be more fun to play the games more aerobically, it's possible to play without leaving the couch.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13 [penny-arcade.com]

Also,

"It's harder than playing basketball," says Kaitlin Franke, a 12-year-old from Louisville, Ky.

I find this absolutely ridiculous. This article is horribly worded and this quote seems completely out of context. What is harder than playing basketball? The writer seems to make it sound like the kid is talking about actually moving the wiimote around, but I suspect he is actually referring to some specific game being exceedingly difficult to complete. Maybe it gives you a little exercise, but as the spokeswoman from Nintendo says,

"It was not meant to be a Jenny Craig supplement," she says. "If people are finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more."

I should also point out I do not yet been able to get a Wii.

DDR?

I just want to know how long before we get some good DDR games, with a supporte mat, for the Wii.

Both arms?

I get plenty of right-arm exercise in front of my PC, but I could do with something that works on my left arm, and preferably doesn't make you go blind ;)

This is great

When I was a kid, the only way we could convince our parents to buy us an NES was to convince them that the Power Pad (I think that's what it was called) would encourage us to be more active. I don't know if they really believed us, but that christmas, there was a brand new NES under the tree with the Power Pad. We actually used it for a little while too, though the only game we had for it was some kind of olympic sports game. It soon gathered lots of dust though after we discovered much more fun games. Here's to the new generation of kids who get to convince their parents to get them a Wii "because it will keep them active". And here's hoping that these newer games might be fun enough to keep he kids interested and active.

I recently purchased a Wii...

And the system is amazing.

I decided to see how many calories I actually burned, so I attached a small fitness monitor to myself and played away.

After about 20 minutes of play, I was up to 97 calories. That isn't have bad, a very light work out.

If you want a real work out get Kinetic on PS2

It has real work out programs designed by nike motion works: cardio, tai chi, yoga, firming exercises, etc.

It's a program that also scales with use. The eyetoy is a better controller than the Wii to me as well, since you can use your whole body. Like the Wii controller you might have to adjust your lighting for perfect useage and keep an area clear for movement. I also suggest getting a mat as well. I was a judoka for a long time, and I still get a good workout from this system.

It's really not that bad.

I seem to recall having spent upwards of 8 hours on two consecutive days playing Wii games, and only a couple tired me out at all.

It actually hurts less than a traditional controller, because I can keep my hands comfortably separated.

slightly OT

but does anyone have any games the recomend for the Wii, I'm pre-ordered zelda today but was also interested in that red steel game... what's good?

(In case your wondering I live in the UK and we get it on the 8th of December)

Re:slightly OT

When I got my Wii I had pre-ordered Zelda, and Marvel: UA. On impulse at the store, I picked up Rayman Ravening Rabbids and Rampage: Total Destruction.

Zelda is a solid buy. I have some problems with it, but nothing earth shattering.

Rampage: TD was worth the money, but just barely. Comes with the original Rampage, and (I believe) the SNES version. The new version is enjoyable as multiplayer, though I was shocked to find out it maxed out at 2 players. The Wii controls are tacked on, and I'm sure the game would be just as enjoyable on another system.

Marvel: UA was a waste of money. Popped it in for 30 minutes, and my girlfriend and I (both comic book fans) decided we'd rather go back to Wii Sports.

Rayman Ravening Rabbids was a game I actually rank above Zelda in value. Solo, it is mildly amusing, but it's a fun party game. The controls are simple to master, but the minigames are difficult enough to have high replay value. Try out "Bunnies Love Hip Hop Part 2" for an example of this. The fact that the turn-based multiplayer version of the plunger FPSes require you to pass the controller around rather than everyone using the controller they've been using for EVERY OTHER DAMN GAME is an annoying UI problem, but not a game-breaking one.

The biggest shock was how much my in-Laws loved playing over Thanksgiving. The two non-gaming ~60 y.o.'s picked up every minigame they were exposed to immediately. In fact, my mother-in-law's bowling tips added 60 points to my game. My father-in-law loved the crunching noises people made as Lizzie ate a group of tourists... (hrm, okay, that was mildly disturbing). They went from considering video games things kids do to asking to play the instant they finished their pumpkin pie. The biggest sign that Nintendo had succeeded in doing what it was supposed to was when "Okay, we'll try it for a while" turned into "well, if you don't mind, could we".

Final warnings: if you are purchasing the system for the Wii Store or Internet features, wait. The functionality is slow, unreliable, and as I found out on Friday, can end up temporarily bricking* your Wii. I'm sure they'll get things fixed eventually, but as someone hoping for a quick, painless online experience, it's been quite disappointing.

[*] After attempting to access the store, all Wiimotes refused to acknowledge they were synced. Wii refused to resync them because it was convinced it had four synced Wiimotes already registered. No input to the Wii was possible. 10 minute phone call to Nintendo acknowledged it was a known issue, and they were able to give me a fix that got me up and running again. Still, I have yet to have a good experience with the Wii online.

Coming soon from Nintendo...

Just so you know, this is the new Wiimote, coming next year.

Wiimote 2.0 [barbell.us]

wow

I find this semi-completely asinine... Getting a workout playing virtual tennis? Save yourself the cash! Why not find a buddy and go to the court in the local park?

That being said, I know there are circumstance where the virtual version might be more beneficial- such as here in New York come winter (8 months of the year), physical disabilities (this could be a good way for rehab patients to workout), etc- but seriously... thats not the majority of people who play this. And the majority probably won't play in workout mode. Oh well. Great compromise Nintendo.

Aches after 3 hours: duh!

In Rochester, Minn., Jeremy Scherer and his wife spent three hours playing tennis and bowling, two of the games included with the Wii. Mr. Scherer says he managed to improve his scores -- at the cost of shoulders and back that were still aching the next day.

How stupid can you be? Of course after playing tennis and bowling (mimicking the real movements) for three hours will give you hurting body parts. It's the same (worse actually) if you actually go to the tennis court and play for three hours, and nobody complains about that. Some people need to get a bit of common sense.

OK, that's it.

I think we can now officially declare humanity to be doomed when exercise means playing a video game. Could the last human please turn out the light when they leave? Oh, and remember to turn off the console and plasma TV too.

North Korea...

Maybe Japan finally realized with North Korea rattling sabers that having of their youth sitting on a couch being fat, lazy, and brain-dead wasn't so great long term.

Americans reject the idea and make new controllers in 3... 2... 1...

RPG style

Most people think that exercising and waving your arms around while playing video games defeats the games purpose. But i think its brilliant, its kind of like an RPG simulator console so you are the character. plus i need the exercise, watching star trek and playing on my PSP all day isnt really good for my health. -Zonk, how do you know so much about the gaming world?

wii elbow

I smell a repetitive stress injury in the making and products liability lawsuits to follow.

What happened to DDR?

This isn't exactly new. DDR was quite a workout just a few years ago, and Nintendo themselves had that goofy controller pad for sports games some 15 years ago. I'd bet our current bushel of couch potatoes won't get much out of swinging a half-pound chunk of plastic around. But time shall tell.

Weirdest Rayman game

I don't have my Wii yet, but I actually bought Rayman in anticipation and played it on a friend's console.

Anyways, there's this one game where you're looking at a beach, and rabbits in scuba gear are coming towards you from underwater. You've got to shoot them with carrot juice. You use the wiimote to aim the hose, and you rapidly move the nunchuk up and down to pump carrot juice...

You know, I would have thought that I'd have more staying power in that game, but holy hell was I wrong. Maybe I was pumping too hard, but my arm was fricking tired at the end of the, I think, 50 seconds you needed to last to beat it.

It's Fun

For those who don't get it, the Wii is going to make doing a bit of exercise FUN. I used to lift weght's, but it's SO BORING; lift, return, repeat, rest.

Wii Sports Boxing.. best workout ever

My girlfriend and I started playing Wii together (she pretty much hates all video games and I'm a gamer dork) and we have pretty much decided that Wii Sports Boxing is an awesome workout..

A few 3-round fights and both of us are catching our breaths.. (We're not in bad shape either.. she's 21 and I'm 24). The one thing the Wii does is get my ass off the couch. Even when I'm playing games like Zelda or Red Steel, I find myself standing up intently and precisely swinging the Wiimote around.

Boxing, though, is a whole different kind of workout.. I've done real boxing - and there's nothing like it. But, with Wii boxing, you can actually beat up your girlfriend and feel good about it. I love how intuitive it is.. She hasn't played any video games except for Grand Theft Auto (and that she did rarely) and she beats me about as often as I beat her.

I will admit, the graphics for the Wii are HIGHLY dissappointing. They are seriously bad. I would've thought Nintendo would at LEAST improve them somewhat to look halfway-decent on a 720p HDTV. Oh well.. Maybe in the next round of console wars we'll get a Nintendo system that's a ton of fun to play AND has good graphics. I agree with Nintendo, though.. gameplay is definitely key. There's a reason I have a Gamecube and a Wii.. and no Xbox or PS2 (or the newer ones.)

Just a question

I don't know exactly how this controller-thing works, but the article got me interested. I mean, is there a Wii version of "Leisure Suit Larry", and corresponding controllers, or uhm, stuff?

exactly what happened to me!

I'm reviewing a Wii for a magazine, and after 3 hours of bowling, tennis and baseball, my arms and back are killing me!

Two words.

"Drum Hero"

Exercise the very reason I want one..rumble?

The activity factor is the very reason I like the Wii rather than other static form of gaming. I don't have one yet but it certainly looks like fun.

  Do the Wii remotes have rumble? I've read reviews about how boxing and golf feel weird due to no feedback, even a small bit of rumble would help to make it feel more real and also help you gauge your response.

My shoulders are killing me from Wii Boxing

I'm the champion Wii boxer in my group of friends, so I'm always up, and the only way to be really good at boxing is to throw your arms fast for the punches, and I can say from first hand experience, my shoulders are killing me. It really feels like I went to the gym after a long absence. Incidentally, I haven't been to the gym in 4 years, so that probably didn't help. It's totally worth the pain though. Every single night since I've had it, I've had a party at my apartment. It's great game when you have beer pong in the other room, and the people who aren't playing can box or golf or whatever.

Wii Tennis Workout

I've been playing the 1st Wii Tennis training mini-game to get a nice aerobic workout. It's simple enough to keep going without much frustration. What I do is take a step forward on the same foot as the arm I'm swinging with and when the character gets close to the net, I'll switch it up and side step in the direction of the swing. About half an hour of that I get a good workout.

 

So when do they come out with heavier controllers?

If we're all going to be getting exercise from this, I think a lot of people would be interested in increasing that by using heavier controllers. Also, I have to wonder if it's good for your elbows to be swinging your arms wildly for a long time with no real weight on them.

Sounds great for rehabilitation and toning up!

I had been thinking the Wii sounded much better than the PS3 with its current level of games and now I really would like to get a Wii!

It would be *extremely* cool to have a number of wireless sensors you can strap arond parts of your body and with maybe soft bands you can close with velcro, and do a daily workout to the Wii. It could either be a game (like those embedded games for exercise bikes) or maybe a game-like monitor of how your progress goes. With sound and maybe images (though probably wouldn't be looking at the screen) it can see if you are slacking towards the end, or how high an angle you get on your leg lifts, etc.

This would be great for rehabilitation, and if it can store your progress you could even get a graph, and maybe a suggestion to add a few reps. If nothing else as a timer it would be useful, for example I do leg lifts to rehabilitate my knees from a skiing accident and though once in a while I get psyched up, it is boring, you have to look at a watch to time so many seconds of each part, and so on.

I would be willing to plunk some cash down if I could get some of these sensors and a monitoring app for the Wii that would accompany me with these leg lifts and why not pushups and situps too? With the Wii you could do pushups with a cartoon bear on your back telling you to suck it in!

Anyway I'd also like to say I would prefer trying a golf game than a shooting game after work too. And I have gone 6 months without watching my TV either and done just fine but I would hook it up again for this kind of a "game". If Nintendo knows what's good for them they'll start a new division for this stuff.

Sony of course will just never get it. I was hyped about their supercomputer stuff promised for the PS3 but so far it just looks like a bunch of overheated silicon that can only be put through its paces by large companies willing to brave the brink of bankruptcy for years on end. And I also was upset to play the PS2 with my very young nephews, all the titles they had were very violent, and made them uneasy, or were just too hard to play!

Just from what I've heard so far, Wii is undoubtedly the best game machine out there and undoubedly has the best games. I may not be representative but I am attracted to machines by one or two interesting looking games. For the Saturn I liked the Nights game (Japanese), and there are two music games that would make me buy a DS. Doing sports is fine but if you have little time, or just want some pure fun, or have a family, the Wii sounds right on target.

Loss or gain of support

Will the extra exercise gain support for video games or lose it? I wonder the affect this will have on american obesity, and sadly I also wonder the "legal" effects. I can see someone arguing that having to move the controller realistically is the next step in the evolution of murder simulators.

Wii Workout..

Miyamoto himself is set to make a workout game.. however there are more options... tae-bo games for instance. Or virtual jump rope.. two controllers representing the ends of the jump rope, and if you jump you and the controllers would go up, and the Wii can register that.. The Wii controller is really inspiring me into new gaming ideas... the possibilities are endless. Ice-Hockey games could be made fun and intuitive.. even basketball. And bow and arrow shooting.. press A to hold the string, and pull the string by moving the Wii controller backwards, release the A button to release! That would feel quite real! (you've got sound from the controller too!).

Not Much Needed

Actually... the sensor in the Wii will pick up small motions too. You don't have to work out every time you play, but you look stupid sitting on the couch when the person next to you is jumping up and down.

Hack it and hook it up fo the ultimate

I wonder what kind of snsors can be added to this thing. Can we get some sort of "End of Days" experince gong here? We can put on the brain bucket and experince the ultimate internet computer sex imaginable. Think of the possiblities. Who cares about bowling or tennis. I wana get a real work out...

Let me be not the first to say

PATHETIC.

I agree with the tag.

What's next, finger weights for chronic typists?

Re:In other words

If you equate "ache" with "injury" then you're just a washed-up, fat, lazy pussy.

Re:FIRST WII FISH POST!

"I AM A FISH!"

Mr. Rimmer, this is the 11th time you've failed the astro-navigation exam. Don't you think you're just not cut out to be an officer?

Re:On Weed...

Red team go, red team go!

Re:PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Nintendo Wii

Quit whoring your lame site on any article that mentions games. If you have something to say, say it in your comment.