Getting The Right Balance

Have had a bit of time to try out Wii Fit for myself and have enjoyed the experience immensely : it is obviously an entertaining concept and, especially for unfit people like myself, far more fun than going to the gym or doing press ups in the garden! However, since it is an expensive product , (almost half the price of the console and almost double the normal software price range) I do feel I have the right to demand and expect more from this product than if it was “wii sports” which came included with the console or “wii play” which came with a free controller.
Experts in fitness say it should not be taken seriously as a fitness product or as a means to lose weight but , on the other hand, Wii fit is targeted at “home” people or families having fun exercising together in the privacy of their own homes and at no extra expense. On top of that, its also fair to say that , if it were not for this product, a lot of people, myself included , would hardly be excersing at all : Jogging with Wii Fit, for example, is a hell of a lot more fun than jogging in real life. So well done Nintendo for addressing an relevant issue in a world where over half of americans today are overweight .
My problem with this product lies in the board itself : whichever way you look at it and from whatever angle, the board is really a balance / weight board. It may be harsh to describe it that way since a lot of research and time has been spent on it but that is the truth. All the exercises and games that you do in this game are measured by the allocation of your weight at a particular time. The program reminds you quite often how importance balance and posture is to obtaining a healthy body but I cant help wondering just how accurate the data produced during an exercise is. This problem is obvious when you try out many of the more amusing exercises : heading the footballs for example, can be done simply by moving your weight from side to side rather than moving your head in the right direction. Doing ski slalom is more about shifting your weight at the right time rather than obtaining the right body positioning needed to ski properly. All this means is that , rather than measuring how good someone is at skiing or yoga , it measures how clever people are to shift their weight at the right time!
Maybe that’s too critical for such an innovative product. But it’s a product with a lot of future promise : Nintendo just need to spend a bit more time finding the right balance between entertainment and accuracy!