The Tao of Gaming

Well, the latest acquisition for our Wii is WiiFit. I generally stand with the reviews:

• The balance (Yoga) and strength training seems reasonable.
• The basic idea is sound.
• The implementation sucks.

All the little details scream that nobody thought this through. There's no 15-30 minute workout. To do 30 minutes of work requires doing 15-20 different things, each of which takes several clicks to start. So 20 minutes of exercise takes 40 minutes. Lame. Where are the pre-built routines? (Strength, Flexibility, etc?) There are only two trainers (Male and Female) instead of a variety of personas (like a supportive instructor, drill sgt, etc). The games have a few good ones, but are mostly lame. And again, you waste about 50% of your time, since most of the games take 30-90 seconds, then you have to go back to the menu.

I'll probably go through it at least to see all the various strength & yoga exercises, but I could have gotten those from a book. For $5, instead of $90.

If WiiFit inspires people to actually exercise it would be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. But I think it will wind up being wasted money for most people, since it will give them the illusion of working out.

Update: OK. After having done (and watched) a bit more, I think part of the issue is that the Wii unlocks things slowly. One of the things that it unlocks is doing longer duration (time or reps) exercises. And it also gets less chatty fairly quickly. That helps. Also, you can see the Consumer reports initial thoughts.

My loyal and faithful readers have never led me astray.

Sadly, several of you have now lost your "loyal and faithful" status, as my copy of Boom Blox shipped sans fun.I mean, it was more fun than a tie or shirt. But I was happy to turn it off after 30 minutes both times I've tried it. The kids seem amused, though. (I'll admit that the competitive games may be fun, if I were playing against an adult).

And I think that the designers for the Wii really need to understand — I don't play video games so that I can go through a menu every 1-2 minutes. This isn't rocket science.

Rock Band appears to be shipping for the Wii next week, though.

Although wii are also out $150, thanks to Rock Band. Although if you have the ability to create a personalized character (ala XBox version) then I haven't noticed it (either in the rules or menus). Is that an unlock-able? Don't know.

Sometime soon someone is going to make a video game that teachs actual instruments and makes it fun. (I've seen videogames that do just that, but they were poorly executed). Arguably Rock Band does just that for the drums (It sure looks like the same skill set to me, apart from reading music, but I'm not a drummer ...). Until then we'll always have Sousaphone Hero.