Just got a Wii Fit+. It’s a disappointing improvement, with some good ideas, unevenly implemented, and some bad ideas retained.
To lead off, the yellow-green color is best described as ‘bilious’. The greenishness is offputting, and the yellowishness interferes with the target circles. The characters haven’t improved. He still sounds like a frat-boy-jock, and her hair now looks like a featureless helmet.
More substantively, Nintendo can’t make up its mind if the Wii is for people who want to be fit, or for casual gamers — extremely casual gamers. I think it’s come down on the Xcas side, and that’s a shame. One example of this is how the intro screen for each of the yoga/strength exercises has both an animated sketch and [Demo] [Start] buttons. The demo is primarily useful to someone who has never done that exercise, or who has done it so long ago that they can’t remember what it does even if they look at the animated sketch. How many people are like that? I’m not the smartest brick in the wall but not only can I remember things, I can usually figure out a totally new exercise merely by looking at the sketch. The Wii knows I did those exercises yesterday, why not at least default to the [Start] button?
At the same time, on the exercise game side (as opposed to the straight sweat-it-out/we’re-not-out-here-for-fun exercises) they provide the sketchiest of instructions for many of the games — flap your wings, get the ball in the hole. Yes, you can learn the nuances of the games, but only if you play them a while.
I am left with the impression that the target audience is casual game-addicted people who don’t exercise.
Tags: wii fit
