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687 of 693 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The perfect home fitness tool!, 5 Nov 2009
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
First things first, if you already have the vanilla Wii Fit package, then don't buy this. You can purchase the software separately on Amazon for a fraction of the cost, and the balance board is exactly the same as the one you already have.
With that in mind, I will assume that if you are still reading this then you have never used Wii Fit.
Wii Fit+ is an excellent product, that basically makes keeping fit fun and more interesting than it normally would be. Personally I don't have the time to regularly visit the gym, so have to rely on exercising at home to keep fit. I have a workout DVD which is great but gets repetitive, and a dancemat. The dancemat is also great but only really does aerobic exercise. Enter the Wii Fit+. It combines the variety of a dance mat with the complete-body-workout appeal of my exercise DVD. And whats more, its something the kids love too. Yes, with a Wii Fit+, your family will actually be queuing up to exercise!!!
So what do you actually get?
The main component is the balance board. Think of it as an elongated set of scales, that also measures your centre of gravity. You exercise (for the main part) on this. Now, unlike a set of scales, when you stand on it, you don't immediately see your weight. So there is none of this standing on tiptoes at the edge of the scales nonsense you get with ordinary scales (at least in our household!). No, its warts and all stuff here. Besides which, you are going to be on the board for so long that the tiptoeing would soon get tiring. So be honest, and stand proud on it.
Doing so will pay immediate dividends, as the first thing measured is your posture. As soon as you see this being done you will realise that the board is more than just a glorified step block. You then proceed to a series of balance and coordination tests (doesn't take long, but can get boring if you are registering an entire family in one sitting) after which you will be presented with your own Wii Fit age and get to set a target BMI to achieve. You can change all this as you see fit, so don't sweat over the details at this stage.
The key thing to note at this stage is that every person using the Wii Fit needs to register their own profile. If you use somebody else's profile it will screw up the stats unless you weigh and stand the same as them. Oh, nearly forgot, you also get to select a trainer. The only difference is the gender, so again, don't sweat it.
The important thing to check when you first register is your weight. Compare it to your actual weight known from a decent set of scales. If it is the same, all well and good. However, when we first used the Wii Fit I noticed it was underweighing me by about 1/2 stone. Great you might think, but not really, as it screws up all your stats. The reason for the underweighing was the carpet the board was placed on. It was just too thick. I found that if you put a plank of wood underneath the dance mat you get a much more accurate weight. The dimensions of the board are 511mm (20.1in) wide by 316mm (12.4in) long. So you will need something bigger than this to stand on. Bear in mind also that the board itself is 50mm thick, so don't rest it on something too thick or you may find yourself touching the ceiling when you stretch!
Once registered, you have a choice of exercises from muscular, aerobic, yoga, balance and "training plus" to perform. Typical exercises would be press-ups for muscular, skiing for balance and jogging for aerobic. Incidently, jogging is one of the few exercises that doesn't actually use the balance board. oddly enough, cycling does though.
Whatever exercise you pick, the first time you perform it, you have the option of viewing a tutorial on it first. This is more appropriate for muscle and yoga, but is a nice touch nonetheless.
At the end of the exercise you see how many calories you burned and how long it took.
Right, that pretty much explains the Wii Fit. Now we get to the +.
When the Wii Fit first came out, it was great fun, but not much use as an exercise tool (for me at least). The reason for this was because the software wouldn't let you chain a series of exercises together to make a routine. Instead, after each exercise, you had to break your rhythm, and select a new exercise. This made it unworkable. Now thankfully, you have the ability to chain exercises together, enabling you to custome build your own workout. Brilliant!!!
There's other stuff, like multiplayer, and the ability to weigh children and pets, but thats just icing on whats already a very juicy cake.
One final note, to use the Wii Fit + properly, you will need to have it in a decent sized room with enough room to do an ordinary workout. Its no good buying it if its going to be plonked into a tiny computer room, as there will be no space to do the exercises.
You really have no excuse not to lose that gut now!
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294 of 304 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than Wii Fit, 2 Nov 2009
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
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.
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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wii Fit combines FUN + FITNESS + FAMILY, 10 Nov 2009
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wii Fit with board is Extremely Good Fun, and it tires you out, keeps you motivated to lose weight, or burn calories. Cancel the expensive gym membership and invest in this!
Wii Fit or Wii Fit PLUS - definitely PLUS. It has a whole load of extra elements that raises the Wii Fit from good with some annoying bits to GREAT!
The following are in the Wii Fit Plus version only:
TRAINING PLUS: Have fun -
15 games; Perfect 10, Cycling, Rhythm Kung Fu, Driving Range, Segway Circuit, Birds Eye Bulls-Eye (Warning: you will look silly flapping your wings like a chicken), Snowball Fight, Obstacle Course, Tilt City, Rhythm Parade, Big Top Juggling, Skateboard Arena, Table Tilt Plus, Balance Bubble Plus, & Jogging Plus.
WII FIT PLUS: Build up a sweat -
Choose a set routine of Yoga and Muscle work outs or build your own regime. Punish yourself with a long routine or just warm up with a short one - you decide. There are four different set routines Lifestyle, Health, Youth, & Form.
MULTIPLAYER: Laugh out loud -
Compete against your family & friends. This is one element where the Wii Fit Plus comes in its element. And possibly one time when the family will be all together and enjoying themselves.
The Original Wii Fit stuff is all there: Yoga exercises, Muscle exercises, Aerobic exercises, & Balance games (skiing, snowboarding, ski-jumping, table tilt, tight rope, heading...)
FUN FITNESS FAMILY - the new essential FFF for you!
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