Unfortunately due to Supreme Editor Matt damaging his back and Jay not being interested in any fitness regime that doesn’t include squirrels or ninjas, I was asked to review Wii Fit on their behalf. Sadly, as it turns out, a combination of long working hours and me being too tight to fork out £35 a month for gym membership has left me still carry a little extra weight from Christmas (well the past two to be more precise).

The Wii itself used to be a fantastic way to get me up on my feet and moving around, but if you’re anything like me by now you have perfected Wii bowling, tennis etc with simple flicks of the wrist whilst sitting on the sofa! (A skill taught to me by the editor monkey himself!). Then I heard about Wii Fit! Ever since I saw the first trailer for it on Youtube over 6 months ago I have been excitedly anticipating its release and finally it’s here: the perfect but gentle way to get me off my bum! Plus it looks more fun than running on a treadmill staring at a blank wall.

The great thing about the Wii Fit concept is that it offers the opportunity exercise regardless of weather - very important in Britain - and it’s not too expensive costing the equivalent of just over two months gym membership. First thing was to look at the weight restriction on the box…25 stone...Phew my boyfriend didn’t waste his money!

Next I needed to create my profile, so I selected my Mii and I was ready to go! Then it was time to test my balance. You stand on the board as you normally would stand and then it tells you which leg carries what percentage of your weight. The aim of this is for you to become more aware of your posture; later it gives you the chance to try and adjust your posture and even manipulate it through a series of tests that involve you shifting your weight to achieve certain targets. However this is not as easy as it sounds, as I found nearly falling off the board on numerous occasions.

The great thing about this is that you can lock your profile so no one else can see your weight, BMI etc. However at the time I was standing in front of my boyfriend, and both my Mum and Dad, so no point in locking my profile they would all see the ill affects of my current lifestyle anyway. The Wii board niftily doubles as a pair of scales, allowing Wii Fit to cleverly use all the profile details you filled out for your Mii, such as your height, date of birth etc, to give you your BMI. Admittedly I’m not the size I would like to be but at 5ft 7inches about a size10-12 I don’t consider myself big but sadly according to Wii Fit I am borderline overweight!

I was already feeling pretty depressed - my family trying to console me – when the games decided to ask how much weight I would like to lose and in what timeframe. It gives you a handy guide, as you select the number of lbs you’d like to loose it simultaneously shows your BMI dropping. The idea being that you can see your recommended weight loss. When I finally reached my ideal BMI I was shocked to see that my recommended weight loss was 1 stone 3 lb! With images flashing through my head of me looking a little like Skelator I decided to set a target of 8lb in 3 months, far more reasonable I think! Emphasising the fact this is a game and should not be used as a method of calculating your ideal weight loss! A fact that I think Nintendo should emphasis more.

The Wii board is highly sensitive which proves quite a challenge whilst playing some of the balance games; the skiing slalom in particular I found to be quite an art to get just the right pressure - trying to guide my mii in between the flags and not hitting them was really difficult and that was on beginner! At times this can get really frustrating but its addictiveness keeps you going and when you do succeed it’s a great feeling.

One of my favourite balance games is the hula one - I found this so addictive! Having achieved on my first attempt at super hula 789 rotations in 3 mins (Achieved by the fact that my Mii was using more than one hoop) I was rather chuffed to be rated ‘super rocket’. However the next day I was in agony. Yet another thing to bear in mind with this game, don’t push yourself too hard! Whilst this game is addictive you have to know your body’s limitations.

This is where I introduce you to your Wii Fit piggy! You piggy records the time you have spent on Wii Fit and when you reach 30mins a warning appears on screen telling you to take a 10-15min break and drink plenty of water. This I felt was a really cool feature as otherwise I would have forgotten and eventually ended up collapsing due to dehydration.

Another favourite mode of mine was Wii Jogging. This is done independently of the board, so armed with the Wii-mote I start jogging, the controller acting as a pedometer marking my progress. Still suffering from the hula game the day before I slowly amble my way round the course managing to keep up a good pace, then I try to be clear and sprint the end, only to fall flat on my face. Ho-hum.

Wii step aerobics! This has quiet a nice format and is at a gentle pace. However, one underlying problem I found with this was the Wii board’s reaction times. They give you some music to bop away to with all your Mii friends but when you move in time with the beat it doesn’t appear to register that you’ve stepped on it at the exact time you have which leads to it telling you that your reactions are too slow! This I found to be really frustrating along with the accompanying beep for every move you make again off time with the beat completely throws you! this led to another problem I discovered: how do you stop?!

If you’re anything like me when you start to screw up on anything like this you like the option to start again. However, Wii Fit doesn’t appear to allow you this option! You have to muddle through to the end or in sheer frustration restart the Wii (something I ended up doing a couple of times)

Unlike Wii Sports you can take you wii age/bmi test more than once a day. The Wii gives you an option to discard or save over you current tests result for the day, which is great for people who feel they screwed up the test and would like to take it again. However I wasn’t bothered as I didn’t want reminding of how old or overweight it thought I was.

One really annoying thing I found was having to hold on to the Wii-mote. I wish that they could have found a way to integrate buttons into the wii board it would have made life a lot easier rather than me attempting balance, shooting my arms up from my side thus nearly launching the Wii-mote half way across the room almost impaling my poor chinchilla (yes I have one of the old straps… really should replace it).

You might have noticed that I haven’t yet mentioned how the game looks. As with most wii games of this type graphics is not their main focus opting for the more cartoonish style. This is fine by me as I felt the interaction was far more important and it’s simple style was clear and non-distracting. Another great feature included is that you can download this game straight on to the Wii so that you can access it without having to have the disk in.

Even though I found several things that frustrated me about this game I still was drawn back to it again and again, refusing to give up. With so many features to unlock and varying difficulties there is plenty to keep you entertained and is a great game for the family as you can compare your fitness, and watch each other looking completely foolish whether it’s wiggling your hips playing hula or attempting to stand on one foot doing yoga. Overall I think Wii fit can be declared a success! Nintendo again successfully managing to attract the non-hardcore gamers market and make a product that everyone can enjoy.

There are so many different functions on this game- yoga, muscle training, aerobic exercise and balance games I could talk about this for ages! But I won’t, as I know you are already halfway to the door wallet in hand ready to buy yourselves a copy. The one important thing I got out of this was that at the end of the day Wii Fit is really fun and addictive but it is important to bear in mind that it’s game and not a personal trainer. Ignore the BMI and weight aspects and just have fun!