Wii Fit Plus

[RedShell]

Should preorder from GAME during strikes mate..they sent this to me last friday and i received it yesterday too! Though it's a Christmas present so couldn't play it! Find it weird how GAME are getting the games in like a week before release....

Yeah, I went with Play as they were a few quid cheaper. That and I'm not really in a rush to get my hands on this one.

NSMB Wii won't be coming from Play.com though, that's for sure.

[welsh_gamer]

I cancelled my pre-order on Saturday. I've been back on Wii Fit for the past 3 weeks after a long break, and I mainly just work out with the jogging or 30 minutes steps, and the odd stretching excercise. Would just be doing the same with 'Plus' after the short novelty of the new Balance Games disappeard, so no point in wasting my money - even if it would only cost me around thirteen pounds.

[dazzybee]

And it has a proper multiplayer mode (best thing about it). I'll give detailed thoughts over the weekend, just been too busy to take a look.

[RedShell]

My copy arrived yesterday, have put a few hours into it so far...

 

Pretty much all of the new balance games are awesome, cycling so should have been done this way on WSR! The bike control is much more responsive and intuitive by holding the Wii Remote horizontally and tilting it to turn, plus it obviously makes a hell of a lot more sense to be using your legs to create the momentum.

It's great fun building up loads of speed especially coming downhill and then slamming on the rear brake while turning to do a skid! There are some massive jumps to be found as well.

 

Another game I must mention is the flying chicken one, it makes you look like an absolute buffoon, but is such a great laugh and a truly bizarre experience the first time you play it. There's something about it that feels kind of entrancing, although that might just be down to me being a big fan of Pilotwings. But yeah, when I started playing it I suddenly thought back to 15 years ago and playing the bonus game on the SNES version of Pilotwings, then I snapped out of the daydream and realized that I was actually flapping my arms like a bird to control what is basically exactly the same game, I was like "wow, this is completely mental!" It seriously made me think about how far gaming has come.

I know that's probably going to be hilarious to some people on here, but that's genuinely how I felt.

 

Would go into detail about more of the games, but I think you get the gist of it by now.

To sum up, I'd say if you enjoyed balance games on the original Wii Fit, well then you definitely want to be upgrading to Plus for the new stuff.

 

Personally though, the best reason for the upgrade is the streamlined and customizable routine system. It may seem like an insignificant feature, but trust me it absolutely makes a huge difference and is a superb improvement that's alone worthy of the upgrade to Plus if you're still actively using the first game.

I did a 30 minute custom workout yesterday, the same combination of yoga and muscle exercises I'd normally do on Wii Fit.

It's great only needing to calibrate the Balance Board once at the beginning and then have every exercise on your list start up automatically instead of having to watch the results / piggy animation, then select 'quit' go back to the menu, choose the next activity, etc... after each one.

Makes it much more enjoyable and a lot more effective too I reckon, as there's practically no downtime in-between exercises now.

 

So, how many N-E peeps have picked this up I wonder? A lot less than there should be I'm willing to bet.

[dazzybee]

Oooh, I forgot to post. I like it a lot, but have some issues with it. The custom routines are great, but it's ridiculous that you can't add in the cardio stuff or any balance games....rhythm boxing and super hula are integral to my daily wii fit routine...

 

Also, why is there only a select amount of games that are available in multiplayer? Again, another ridiculous decision by Nintendo. Let us decide if we think we'd enjoy playing games in multiplayer.

 

Still think we should be able to have more options on how many and how long we do an exercise and of course it should be DLC.

 

WHy do Nintendo always seem to leave us (or just me) feeling like they could have done more?!

 

ANYWAYS, more positively. I do think it's great. Like RedShell says, some of the new balance games are great. I really liked Kung Fu, sort of reminded me of Rhythm Tengoku. Love the bum bouncing game, love the platform game, surprisingly liked the snowball fight game. Some though, however much I enjoyed them, I thought would I play these again... some of them probably not.

 

Oh, and the skateboarding is also really good.

[RedShell]

The custom routines are great, but it's ridiculous that you can't add in the cardio stuff or any balance games....rhythm boxing and super hula are integral to my daily wii fit routine...

Yeah I can see how that would be annoying if those are an important part of your routine, doesn't really bother me though as I tend to focus more on the yoga/muscle stuff and then just chuck a few aerobic/balance games in afterwards.

 

I think the reason behind not being able to add them is to try and make the routine flow as smoothly as possible, having the trainer with you the whole time is a big part of that. If the other games were appearing too it would kind of break that feeling of doing a serious workout, well that's the only reason I can think of for it being the way it is.

 

Have discovered another downside to the custom routine thing though. You know how on Wii Fit it would occasionally change your trainer? Well, unlike before when it would revert to your usual one after the first exercise, in custom routine because it keeps going once you start it means you get stuck with them for your entire session!

I had to spend half an hour with the dude trainer today, not cool.

 

surprisingly liked the snowball fight game.

Have you unlocked Super Advanced mode yet? It's seriously funny. I really wasn't expecting the aspect that makes it more difficult, was a nice surprise.

[Ike]

Yeah I really like the new games, the chicken one if funny, reminds me of the Balloon Fight mini game from Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and snowballing is good fun. The platfom one is probably my favourite, feels like your in a Mario game even the music sounds Mario-y (not sure if it is from a Mario game, it sound kinda familar). The preset routines for focusing on certain aspects is a great feature as well.

 

Plus is much better than the first game.

[dazzybee]

RANT TIME

 

This game exemplifies what annoys me about Nintendo. Firstly, it's not much of an update. Only 6 new yoga and muscle exercises total. Yes the 15 balance games is good, but it is an exercise game, not a mini game compilation. It annoys me there's no DLC opportunity, instead they'll release new expansion packs I presume, meaning all content being repeated over and over (like this to Wii fit) which is a decent-ish alternative, or even worse, you'll be required to change disks. But anyways, thats a future thing, but the lack of forward planning/thinking is annoying. As already stated, I hate they only let us have a few select games in multiplayer when they could let us decide what we want to play. It annoys me that you can't do balance games in the routines.

 

Here are my new gripes, and they are so bad, I can't believe no one else has mentioned it, OR I'm missing something.

 

ROUTINES

 

You can't save routines. You just have one routine that you have created and play through, change it and it changes it forever. RIDICULOUS.

I can't add in a new exercise in the middle of a routine, I'd have to delete the exercises and slot it in and re-add everything. RIDICULOUS.

 

And the most RIDICULOUS of all. So RIDICULOUS I MUST be missing something. In the routines, it automatically puts the exercises at the easiest setting. So you'll do the fewest reps of everything. And you can't change it. Please someone tell me I'm missing an option because I've looked, and I can't find it. If this IS the case, then oh boy Nintendo really have outdone themselves. This leaves what is already a badly implemented feature (but integral) completely useless to me.

 

Why can't Nintendo just make their stuff fully featured? Why is it always gimped? Is it really that difficult for them to have this game as a PAY and PLAY feature "just in case" they may want to use it instead of releasing new game after new game? Is it really that difficult to have online leader boards (even if it was just with friends) on the balance games? The added competition would make us all do more exercise!! Is it really that difficult to let us decide how long and how many times we want to do an exercise for? Is it really that difficult to save our routines we create? And modify them slightly? And maybe even send them to friends?

 

NINTENDO, IS IT REALLY THAT F*CKING DIFFICULT!!???

Edited November 8, 2009 by dazzybee

[RedShell]

You can't save routines. You just have one routine that you have created and play through, change it and it changes it forever. RIDICULOUS.

Yeah I discovered this issue a couple of days ago when I went to make some changes to my routine. Having multiple save slots for different lists certainly would have been nice.

Even so, this system is still loads quicker than the old method of doing a workout on Wii Fit, where you spent way too much time navigating menus/calibrating the BB.

At least to clear the routine list it's just a single click and adding exercises is pretty quick as well so I don't think it's that bad really. And not at all when you compare it to the old way!

 

I can't add in a new exercise in the middle of a routine, I'd have to delete the exercises and slot it in and re-add everything. RIDICULOUS.

Actually you can. There's no need to delete anything, you just select an exercise on your list with A (will make it greyed out) and then choose another exercise on the left to replace the selected one on your routine.

 

And the most RIDICULOUS of all. So RIDICULOUS I MUST be missing something. In the routines, it automatically puts the exercises at the easiest setting. So you'll do the fewest reps of everything. And you can't change it. Please someone tell me I'm missing an option because I've looked, and I can't find it.

No there doesn't appear to be an option to change it. The workaround for this is to just add multiples of whichever exercise you want to do more reps on. The only potential problem with this method is that you'll be getting a 10-15 second delay between sets which for some people might lower the intensity of the exercise, but I added 3x lunge to my routine today, so 60 with a short pause between each set of 20 and I can honestly say it didn't. My legs were starting to burn towards the end of the last set.

It seems like you can add as many of a single exercise as you want to the routine list too, so you could do like 600 lunges if you felt like it!

 

But yeah, I hear what you're saying and how some of the decisions Nintendo make with the interface/content can seem really bizarre, but you have to remember that although having shit loads of options and ways to set stuff up would be cool for guys like us, fact is it'd probably just confuse the hell out of people that are unfamiliar with games and technology in general, which is blatantly the main audience for titles like Wii Fit.

[dazzybee]

I can't imagine anyone, even my mum, not wanting to decide how many and for how long she does exercises for. But like you say, there IS a way around it. (never though of that, damn it )

 

I will say though, about adding in new exercises. What you're saying is SWAPPING an exercise for another, which I knew you could do. But I'm on about adding a new exercise in the middle of a routine without losing any.

 

Played it loads more again today, and I'm positive it hasn't saved all of my scores from the exercises. Have you found this RedShell?

[RedShell]

I will say though, about adding in new exercises. What you're saying is SWAPPING an exercise for another, which I knew you could do. But I'm on about adding a new exercise in the middle of a routine without losing any.

Oh I see what you're saying now, yeah no way around that one I'm afraid.

 

Played it loads more again today, and I'm positive it hasn't saved all of my scores from the exercises. Have you found this RedShell?

I think scores are only saved in the training section, so anything you do on a custom routine won't be saved as far as I'm aware.

I'm kind of glad I don't see the scores that much any more, no more continual reminder that my sister holds the number 1 spot on most of the yoga exercises.

[dazzybee]

Hmmm, however much I think it's a great piece if exercise software; much improved over Wii Fit, in some ways, it's infinitely more infuriating. The two biggest new features are pretty useless (multiplayer and custom routines). Still just don;t understand why Nintendo would make such stupid mistakes, feels as rushed as Animal Crossing did last year...what have Nintendo actually been working on again?!!? Also, why has NO review picked up on these major deficiencies? Rushed through it probably? And why does no one interrogate nintendo on this?

[Josh64]

Got this today and I'm loving it! Instantly I realised it's way better than the original. Finding out how much you have burned off after each game is great. Some of the balance games are really awesome, Im loving cycling and the marching! Can't wait to play it some more tomorrow.