Wii Fit Plus tries to juice it up

Tired of working out to the same exercises on the Wii Fit? A new version is designed to offer a fresh batch of challenges.

The latest edition, dubbed Wii Fit Plus, will offer new exercises, yoga activities, and balance games, the company said late Monday.

Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus

(Credit: Nintendo)

People will be able to customize their workouts by choosing the amount of time to spend on a specific exercise. Wii users will also be able to select an area for improvement, and the Wii Fit Plus will suggest various activities to help.

The Wii Fit Plus will offer 15 new balance games and 6 new strength and yoga activities. Two of the games, Skateboarding and Rhythm Kung Fu, will use the Wii's balance board in new ways, Nintendo said.

Other challenges in the Wii Fit Plus include running an obstacle course, traveling across a beach on a Segway, and flapping your arms to help characters in chicken suits aim for targets.

Exercise buffs will be able to see how many calories they've burned. And if your cats or dogs needs to get in shape, Nintendo said they can check their weight on the balance board using the Wii Fit Plus.

Available October 4, the new Wii Fit Plus comes bundled with the balance board for $99. Existing Wii Fit owners can buy a Wii Fit Plus upgrade CD for $19.95. Wii Fit has had strong sales since its debut last year.

[Heathen17]

Nintendo needs to add the pedometer to the Wii fit like they have with the DS...

[vertig0730]

Yep, I am really going to attach the Wii Fit board to my belt and walk around.

[The Wiethoff]

They already have that sort of, you put the controller in your pocket and walk around

[shinkukage09]

I lol'd heavily at vertig0's post.

[spiffy1001]

I'll buy it

[C0mmanderB0nd]

Sure lots of americans bought it, but how many are actually using it.....

[gws1966]

I'm a citizen living in Colorado and my wife & I use the Wii Fit regularly to supplement our regular exercise including skiing, biking, hiking, golf, and yoga. The fit is great for balance and core muscles. What's with the 'americans' comment?

[gws1966]

I'm a citizen living in Colorado and my wife & I use the Wii Fit regularly to supplement our regular exercise including skiing, biking, hiking, golf, and yoga. The fit is great for balance and core muscles. What's with the 'americans' comment?

[ddesy]

The "Americans" comment is likely due to the type of exercises presented. Generally the balance and flexibility exercises are not as popular as the strength and weight loss ones for many Americans. That's one of the primary reasons that EA Sports Active has a good market still available.

[seamonkey420]

@gws1966

i think its the fact that we americans are an overly obese society that shows no sign of changing even w/a video game to try to help.

i bought a few pals wii fit but none have continued using it after a month or so.

[thelemurking]

To be honest, I rarely ventured into the yoga and training aspects of it and played it more for the balance games, later picking up Shawn White Snowboarding and Skate II and using more for games than exercise. I hike and camp every weekend, take a cayak with me if I am going to be near water and I work in an old building built in the 20's with an ancient cargo elevator that I refuse to use, so I am constantly running up and down 3 flights of stairs. I am in pretty good shape and get regular exercise, so I never bothered with the yoga and other things that was part of the Wii Fit package. I was more into the balance board, which I do use frequently.

Granted, the Wii gets way more use when I have company over, and most of my gaming is PC based, but I love the snowboarding / skateboarding aspect of it... I imagine the balance board will collect a lot of dust when Tony Hawk's Ride comes out with it's own board.

[gbitts]

upgrade CD, what is this the dark ages?

[popshed]

The biggest improvement they could make would be to give it the ability to identify trends in your stats over time. Currently it's all too absolute in the messages it gives.

Put on 2lbs from one day to the next and it criticises you and you're asked to select from a list of excuses for your poor performance. And it'll do that irrespective of whether you had an anomolous day the day before where you dropped 2 or 3 lbs for no good reason. It needs to recognise anomolous data and smooth it out. I've lost 35lbs over the last 9 months but it still gets to me when I get berated for not knowing why I haven't lost weight every single day without fail.

BTW, I lost that weight by running with the dog every morning following 4 weeks of achieving precisely nothing doing exercises with the Wii Fit. I still use it every day to monitor progress back in the real world.

Tthe only way you can use weight is by diet and "AEROBIC" exercise which is what burns the calories - so you would lose weight faster running with the dog - plus you have someone to talk to!

However, if you can do all the strength and yoag exerciese you must already be fit and supple. The wii exercises do challenge if you do them properly - but don't burn fat.

[gordoncmyers]

I did Wii Fit for 3 months and it actually got me into running. I did lose about 15 lbs. I think the Hula Hoop is still pretty hard. The Yoga and strength stuff are still thing si use. I monitor my weight and activity every day on it. Now I'm training for 10ks. this got the ball rolling for me and I still find value in it.

[Mr_fleabite]

Nintendo has mastered the art of selling accessories and repackaging/ slightly retooling old material. Sure buy the "cheap" wii system and then comes the onslaught of aftermarket crap and rebadged games. Too each his own I guess, nintendo is doing well and seems to know its market. My guess is nintendo will need to come up with something big for the wii or a major revamp within the next 1-2 years or they'll see a sharp drop off in sales/ use. That's just IMHO.

[ZeppelinMaker]

The major failing of the Wii Fit, in my opinion, is my wife and I cannot use two Wii Fits simultaneously (on the same system). We would like to exercise together, alas not with this system.

[vinsandiego]

I started using Wii Fit on the 1st of January 2009 and by mid May had achieved my recommended weight, dropping 50lbs. It helped me create muscle tone... a first for me. However, I agree with the comment made by 'popshed' that being criticized on a day when your weight may increase by 2lbs when the previous day you dropped 3.5lbs was a little annoying. Just this week I started using EA Active since I had grown a little bored of the Wii Fit exercises and needed something new to keep me motivated. I was surprised when the morning after my first EA Active workout my legs were in pain.... obviously worked muscles that the Wii Fit was missing! I'm really loving the EA Active (however, I do wish it had a daily weigh-in like the Wii Fit) because of the resistance band (does anyone else think that it's way to loose?)

[amyleitch]

do you need the original wii fit to get the new wii fit plus.
so could i just buy the plus with the board and not need to get the wii fit aswell..