One fatty at a time?

Not content with giving your brain a jolly good work out on the DS with Dr Kawishima's Brain Training Nintendo have waged war on the global obesity epidemic with Wii Fit, a full alternative to that gym membership you signed up for.

The balance board

to get you into shape. It's a bold move indeed, promising to help out with the world's health via a medium that many claim have contributed to its problems in the first place. So, how does Nintendo's new flagship Wii product stack up, or more importantly, am I any fitter from playing it?! First things first, let talk about the Wii Balance Board. It's a very sturdy piece of kit, more than rigid enough for the most festively plump of players to stand on. It's packed full of sensors, which are able to detect weight and movement extremely accurately. This is the crux of Wii Fit and how it works out your body, so it's a good thing it's accurate. The only obvious problem you'll find is if your house leans slightly, as despite the Balance Board calibrating every time you switch it on, you'll still find on occasions that it has you off balance when you're standing pretty straight. Workouts take place in the form of a variety of exercises or game modes, yoga positions, muscle workouts, balance tests and aerobics. The gentle yoga poses shouldn't be laughed at though, they're not just for the girls. In fact, some are so tough that even a reasonably athletic man like myself struggled to maintain balance! The muscle workouts range from lunges to press ups and many more old gym favourites, all utilising the balance board's capabilities to show you if you're doing it right. It's really very clever when you realise that, by checking your distribution of weight, Wii Fit can determine if you're in the correct position for the exercise.Where most of the game elements are to be found is in the balance tests, ranging from heading footballs to downhill skiing and the awesome ski-jumping game. You won't believe how bad your posture and balance is until you play these games for the first time. Meanwhile, the aerobic exercises include simple jogging (using the Wii Remote and not the board), hula hoop and step workouts.