Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board (Wii) - White

That is so true!!! We are in our 70's and, like other people our age group, have various aches and pains. Anyway, since getting the Wii Fit Plus + board we have had so much fun with it. It is played on every day for at least 30 mins, both doing the exercises and the games. My wife has gone down a dress size and we virtually fight to use it. When one of our friends come round we have such a laugh because it comes out again and we all have a go on it. Much better than watching TV. You exercise without realising it and I would thoroughly recomend it to all age groups. Get buying if you haven't already done so.

Having had Wii Fit for over a year and been quite frustrated by the time it takes to work through the routines I was very keen to give this a try to see if there was an improvement over the original. It certainly is, you get everything you had with the Wii Fit plus a number of extras.

There is quite a lot that is new on Wii Fit Plus, some of it is a novelty like the ability to add in either your pets or a baby - all that does is allow you to weigh them on a regular basis so that you can check their weight. Helpful if you have pets you are trying to slim down and useful perhaps if you want to check your baby's progress but don't worry they aren't allowed to exercise so Nintendo haven't 'lost the plot'.

There is the facility to plan a workout although the only sections you can choose from are the Yoga and the Muscle exercises. This is a handy little feature as it totals up the time so you can choose the right number of workouts to fill say a half hour slot and then use that on a regular basis. If I have a criticism of this feature it is that it only appears to let you have one custom workout stored at any one time - I would have preferred the ability to store half a dozen.

That said there are some preset routines which you can choose from to allow you to work on specific targets such as fitness, flexibility etc and this is very useful. If you prefer you can also ask the Wii Fit to design a routine for you.

I do love this flexibility because very often I want to do a half hour workout and I used to hate waiting for all the interval between exercises. The slight downside is that it doesn't score your performance for each exercise but in any event that used to get tedious to me so I am pleased that I can now avoid it.
Nintendo have also added a whole new section of fun 'games' called Training Plus which include things like skateboarding, snowball fights, flying like a bird, juggling - I could go on and on. I have tried them all and they are good fun, some more so than others from my perspective, but I think it is fair to say that there is something for everyone in that section and they would be hilarious at a party as some of them are especially tricky to master. If I have a criticism of this section it is that I would have liked some instructions on how to do them but to be honest once you have tried and got a rotten score you soon learn what you should be doing to do better!

I love the fact that Nintendo have also introduced a little brain work into the exercises as well. One of the features when it works out your brain age required me to balance whilst clicking on random numbers in ascending order - sounds simple but when you are trying to keep your centre of gravity in the centre and use you brain to select numbers you do need to concentrate. Similarly in one of the fun games you have to swing your hips to hit 'mushrooms' whose numbers add up to 10 which means doing quick mental arithmetic whilst exercising - great fun and a good way to smarten up your mental arithmetic.

Other new features includes the provision of a MET Value - A MET value is added to each exercise, in order to calculate calories burnt. MET stands for "metabolic equivalent" and is defined as "the ratio of the work metabolic rate to the resting metabolic rate". Sounds complicated but in practice it just gives you an idea of how many calories you have burnt during your workout which is useful.

Nintendo have provided some expanded training modes - Aerobic & Jogging both have additional courses, Step Rhythm Remix includes new songs. There are 3 new Yoga exercises and 3 new Muscle exercises. All this plus the option for Multiplayer mode to allow all the family to join in.

So do I think it is worth buying - yes I do, it has renewed my interest in keeping fit and that can't be a bad thing.

I would describe myself as a games console and video games NON-enthusiast. But when the Wii was first released a few years ago, I have to admit that because of friends' anecdotes and rave recommendations of the Nintendo Wii console, I became tempted. A few months after the initial furore I did look into buying one for myself, but I found the very deliberate phased release of limited number of consoles (which kept the price artificially high) rather annoying, so I gave up and decided to wait a while until it became more widely available. But it then disappeared off my radar of "must buys" for various reasons, and I forgot about it, and stopped following any news or releases of The Wii and games/accessories. Until my GP said I should think about losing some weight (about a stone to be precise). I tried via diet alone (I am a bit exercise lazy ....), but it only worked for a few pounds, which came back up after Xmas anyway. One of my friends suggested the Wii Fit ...I said .. the what? I looked into it, and having read some reviews, I bought the console and Wii Fit Plus package at the same time. The good thing is that now you can buy them together (and including good games with the console and the Plus software with the balance board) at pretty much the same cost that the Wii console alone with maybe a game or two were when it was first released - not including the Fit package.

I am told the Wii Fit Plus is far superior to the original, I can see why. From the moment you set it up, the guidance for a NON-enthusiast like me, is spot on and before I knew it I had it all planned and the exercise regime sorted and better understanding of the types of exercises suited to me.

To cut a long story short, that was 3 weeks ago. I have so far lost half a stone without getting strained or any aching joints/muscles :-) I exercise with the Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board, about 5 times a week. The targets and graphs are a real bonus which to a numbers and science geek like me is a really interesting feature anyway.

My favourite activities on the Fit Plus software are: Steps, Hoola, Snow sports (Ski Slalom, Ski Jump, Snowboard slalom) Rhythm Kung Fu, Boxing, Driving Range, Cycling. Eventually once I lose the weight, I will start concentrating on the more toning/muscle building and Yoga exercises.

Highly recommended