Where Can I Buy a Wii

Rating

INTRO:

After years of wanting a Wii, we finally got one! And, of course, like any overly-excited newbie, I couldn’t wait to get the new WiiFit (WiiFit Plus). I picked it up at midnight, with the Balance Board. (TIP: if ur buying from brick-and-mortar stores, call ahead, it took me an hour to convince them that it was ok to sell it to me, and it was already 12:30a!) I got home, set it up (took just a few minutes, mostly unwrapping) and played until 5am! I was nearly falling asleep between games, but it was so much fun, I couldn’t stop! Now, THAT’s a motivator to work out! It even asked if I was a ‘NIGHT OWL’ and I had the option to keep my “day” ‘open’ until 3am, for those late-night workout sessions!

THE GAMES, & WHY I LOVE THEM:

Without leaving my 12′x12′ living room, I can do: Circus Juggling, Skateboarding, Island Cycling, HulaHooping, Rhythm Parade, Segwaying, & Perfect 10 – these are the ones I like the most right now. My current favorite is the Bulls-Eye game (you flap your arms to ‘fly’ over water and reach platforms!) It’s just awesome! And, it’s cool that most of the activities are all on the same island – so you can bike it, run it, walk it, fly it, segway it, float it, bounce it, etc.! I also like that, in most games (not the Bubble one, tho), you don’t ‘die’ if you do it ‘wrong’. Nothing’s worse than almost getting to the end of a cycling game, and then running into a tree and having to start over – ugh! But, with WiiFit, it’s so pleasant, you just maneuver your way back on track! No stress! Yet, I like that u still do collect points – I already have a competition to ‘beat’ my BF’s scores – I even left him a ‘note’ on the wii to try to beat mine in a couple of games, when he woke up! We haven’t tried the ‘multiplayer’ mode yet.

STRENGTH, FLEXIBILITY, & KEEPING TRACK:

I LOVE the ‘make your own’ routine – you pick as many activities as you want, from dozens of Yoga Postures, and Strength Training choices (they even tell you how long the total ‘workout’ will take, as you make your selections) and then you hit ‘start’; and it cycles thru them, one-after-the-other, checking off each one, as you go; and, saving the ‘routine’ for the future. If you don’t need to have that much customization, or if you need more guidance, you can choose from 5 options for a pre-made routine (Lifestyle, Health, Youth, Form, & Combine), or you can click the cute balance board graphic and it creates one for you! The tracking capability is nice, complete with graphs, and a visual calendar which I ‘stamp’ every day I use the WiiFit. You can even add your daily step count AND activities you do outside of the WiiFit! This appeals to my analytical and visual side! Another option it gives you is that you can choose a food (from a selection of 20 or so), and then make a daily goal to burn as many calories as that food has – I didn’t realize sticky rice had so many calories!

SHOW ME THE NUMBERS:

It calculates your BMI from your user-entered height and a balance board-measured weight. The weight measurement seemed a little off, as it made both me and my BF about 5-10 lbs lighter than we’ve been told, from other scales. But, that’s A-OK with me! It seems like it’s mostly set up to help you lose weight and burn calories (while improving your balance & posture), however my BF and I have different goals – I’m trying to lose 20 lbs, and he’s trying to gain 20 lbs. The Wii did rightfully call him underweight and told him to do strength-training to build muscle. It just laughed at me and told me to ‘strap in’! haha – jk!

WISHES & BENEFITS:

While it might not be 100% perfect (wish there was no ‘dying’ in the Balance Bubble or Tightrope game; and in the snowball fight, it’d be nice to have the option to physically move my arm to throw, instead of just pushing ‘A’ to throw; skateboarding goes thru a long ‘training run’ every time you play; it would be cool if Super Hula Hoop was more than just Left AND Right circles (like add arms or something); and oh, to be able to enter total calories eaten for the day; etc.), it sure is a LOT of fun and DEFINITELY motivates u to MOVE! The corny but pleasant music, scenery, and challenges are already helping me look forward to getting going in the morning and coming home at night. You earn fit credits, with activities, which then allow you to unlock more advanced activities, giving you a good bit of motivation to keep going – imagine if they gave you ‘legal trade’ currency coins for working out! Plus, it always fits into my schedule: I can do as little as a *minute* of activity or as much as I want! It’s closer than a gym, there’s no monthly dues, you can wear whatever you want, it’s open at 3am, the smoothies are always organic, and (depending on where u play) there isn’t that icky/smelly/sticky/germy/loud atmosphere of a typical gym! Team up with a friend, for a little extra motivation and competition!

SUMMARY:

For those who aren’t familiar with video games, (or who see them as a ‘waste’ of time) this is a great one to ‘start’ with. The Wii is my first real game system (other than an old Intellivision, we’ve had Super Nintendo, Game Cube, & Playstations in the house, but with all those cryptic buttons and ‘codes’, and my busy schedule, I never bothered with them). However, the Wii was up and running in no time and the ‘controls’ are very intuitive. I’ve even had a lot of ‘older’ people playing and having fun, in short order! The Balance Board was easy to set up, easy to figure out, and is SUPER fun to play with, oh, and I burned a boatload of calories – woo-hoo! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Wii Balance Board AND the WiiFit Plus!

UPDATE:

Did another 30 mins this afternoon: tried the Penguin Game and the Flame and the Tightrope – all were lots of fun (keeping the flame still was a little stressful with noisy neighbors!)

UPDATE 2:

My parents just came over and I had them try it out, using the “Trial” mode, so they didn’t have to go through the in-depth setup process – my mom really liked the HulaHoop activity and my dad really liked the Bull’s Eye activity (where you flap your wings to fly and land on targets!) We had such a great time – it was hilarious to watch each other!! The trial mode is a great feature – it lets you share your WiiFit Plus experience with guests who are not looking to set up a whole profile and get weighed and do balance tests, etc. Of course, there are those ‘measurement’ options in the Trial mode, if a guest user so chooses, they just won’t be able to save their profile.

I rely on reviews here at Amazon, to help me make informed buying choices. I hope this review has helped you in the same manner. If you voted this as helpful, I Thank You!

Rating

I purchased the Wii specifically for this set (Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board) after reading about a few differently-abled users.

I am wheelchair bound 70% of the time, on a cane 30% of the time after 3 spinal surgeries (I have multiple congenital spinal disorders) and was VERY surprised at how many games I can play! Many of the walking based games can be played just standing there and moving your arms. I’ve even sat on the board to play the some of the balance based games. When I stand, 60-80% of my weight is supported by my left leg (I basically drag my right one) and the balance games have helped me to regain some of the muscle in my right leg on days when I can stand. I can do 5 of the yoga poses, play about 1/2 of the balance games, and maybe 1/3 of the aerobics games. Strength training is out for me. But the bonus games are a blast…btw, the bubble game can be played sitting down!

Since the board is so low, I’ve found I can step on and off of it (a big wow for me since I can’t even walk un-aided) so that also adds to the games I can play.

Best of all…it is genuinely fun! I find myself playing every day…sometimes twice a day. And I SWEAT! ME! I am sooooo happy to have something I can do that is safe, I can do at home, I can use with a walker if I need, or sit on my bad days and STILL get a good workout.

Even better is that my incredibly in-shape husband can take the SAME GAME, put it on advanced, and be sweating himself in no time!

My favorite is the sitting Zen balance game. You sit on the board, back straight, keeping balanced as a candle slowly burns down with nice background sounds and a truly relaxing atmosphere. It’s 2 minutes of peace and balance that I always look forward to at the end of my workout.

I recommend this to ANYONE with disabilities. My 85 yr old home-bound grandmother could find 10 games she could play. And the basic Wii Sports games that come with the Wii are all wheelchair friendly. No board needed and I’ve played ALL five (boxing, bowling, golf, tennis and baseball) from my chair. I never thought I’d bowl again…what a blast!

In short…if you’re disabled, don’t write this one off. If you can stand with a walker and move your legs at ALL, you can play lots of games; if you can sit unaided (or maybe rig a backrest) then you can play even more; if you are completely wheelchair bound, I’d stick with the Wii Sports it comes with as all games can be played from your chair.

Have fun…I am!!

Rating

I bought my nephews a Wii a long time ago and they fell in love with it and I had to play it every time I visited. I bought a Wii recently and my wife and I fell in love with it.

We have wanted Wii Fit for a long time and finally got it yesterday. Wii fit plus is probably one of the best games I’ve ever played for the Wii. It is very sensative and all the games are quite fun.

This game has training schedules fit to your needs. Very entertaining to watch someone play…hahahaha..Tons of fun. If you dont have this yet and you love the Wii you will not be dissapointed. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

Rating

Ok, so I’m in my mid 40′s, I’ve broken everything from my neck in 2 places to my ankle in 3 places, my knees were rammed into an engine block at 65mph when I was 25 and haven’t been right since, ad in 2 concussions in this lifetime so I don’t have the best balance to boot. Then toss in a nice little dose of being peri-menopausal and HATING doing anything outside in the FL Summer, which lasts for 7 months of 90 degree plus weather, and sprinkle that with a tad of depression from NOT being outside which doesn’t exactly have you running about the house singling merrily while pushing a vacuum and you have 15 extra lbs that you haven’t a CLUE where those little suckers came from , and you are flopping and sagging in places you never knew you had to begin with to ad insult to the poundage! Now according to the wii I’m just above normal putting me in the barely overweigh category, but I FEEL overweight and I know I’ve gotten weaker/un toned and I FEEL it.

I know I needed to and WANTED to get and feel more fit but I HATE gyms, gym rats, the stereo typical gym ANYTHING. I don’t want some sleek 20 year old in my face saying “AGAIN, do it AGAIN” I,.e. (you want to look like me, you never ever will..but try, try HARDER) No thanks!

I don’t want some guy telling me ‘a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips!’ either. And tho I think I’ve seen every late nite infomercial for every get fit contraption there is, and nope, I have not parted ways with my $19.95 yet, nor is their a bow flex in the corner of every room, yet I see many of them for sale in the flyer for $50 bucks HMMMMMMM!

So, for about a year now I’ve been eyeing the nintendo wii with the wii fit. Here, there, everywhere. Then they drop the price. Hmmmm And then they come out with a wii fit PLUS…HMMMMMM. Ok, so me and my $300 dollars took a chance and parted ways. (for the console plus the balance board and wii fit plus)

I LOVE THIS THING! Not only does it calculate your BMI and weight and all that. (Even has a place for you to put Fido or Fluffy on the “scale” but I’ve been too selfish to share yet and see what that’s all about. IT’S FUN! And don’t let the little weeble looking characters fool you, you WILL get a work out. But what’s great, is you’re actually smiling because it is cute and engaging and you don’t feel the pain till after the fact. And you find yourself wanting to…go do some more, too! I’ve given it a dedicated TV and room so I can just wander in there and do 1 or 2 exercises, or spend an hour. It also tells you how many calories you’ve burned for each activity and keeps a running tab-it will tell you how long each day you worked out (cumulative) as well as calories burned, (so I can have that moment on the lips without the lifetime on the hips) for each actively as well as for the day. And IT’S CUTE and it’s FUN, I cant say that enough. And it may look easy, but ITS NOT.

Now I think any GQ gym rat out there who can do 500 chin ups and runs 5 miles every morning might laugh at it. But if you are just an average person who doesn’t want to get out of shape or out of shape person, which are about 90% of us, then its great. Their are a couple more serious sections, Yoga and Weight Training I think, that have more adult looking trainers to guide you, but the rest of the activities are colorful and you are a “weeble”. And it lets you know when you are doing great or not so great, and it is not belittling at all, if anything it makes you want to try to do better next time.

My ONLY complaint is I hate have to push “A” 3 times to get to a game I already played and know how to play-now if you push A fast you can skip past the tutorials pretty quickly, but it still annoys me, because I want to PLAY IT AGAIN. But on a good note, you can walk away from it or get off of it without messing everything up.

And as a person who has been beaten up pretty bad (auto wreck, high speed horse wreck/fall) and who has spent WAAAAAYY tooo much of her life in PT (which can be even MORE depressing than a gym), let me say this, THIS is a GREAT rehab tool. If they would have had one of these in the hospital I would have gotten so much better so much faster. I hope PT rehabs/hospitals and even nursing homes will get and use these! My leg isn’t right, nor are my knees or my balance for that matter, but, wow, I can see improvement already! And I go to bed happily sore, but look forward to DOING IT AGAIN! So even if you have some disability you can still use this! I even cheat when my leg has had enough and can sit on the board and use my tush for some of the games just as well, and I’m still active and moving my upper half! Oh and another helpful hint…don’t do it barefoot like on the box, at the very least wear socks and after hurting the bottom of my sensitive footsie, I now wear rubber soled lightweight slippers to give some cushy to the bottom of my boney feet. Works GREAT.

The only thing I find a little disturbing is the board says something like “ouch” or “oh” when you step on it. If my scale did that I never would have put on 15lbs LOL!

So what are you waiting for…GO BUY THIS, (and I suggest a bottle of Motrin,and maybe a heating pad, because you’ll be having too much fun to notice the pain and soreness till after the fact!)

Rating

Okay, by now, everyone and her mother owns this game. It is great for getting in shape. I love how it keeps track of my weight the how it graphs my progress. I like the little test it gives us before each session, though results on those tests seem to vary widely from day to day. (My Wii Fit age can be anywhere from 30 to 40.)

There are four areas we can work on: yoga, strength training, cardio and balance games. Though the cardio is included, I feel the focus of this product is in strengthening the core muscles. For someone like me, who is neither athletic nor in shape, these exercises are not easy. My neighbor’s co-worker actually injured herself so badly doing the Wii Fit, that she ended up in the hospital! So, a message for the unfit: go slow.

The difficulty levels in Wii Fit increase gradually. The more Wii exercises I do, the more exercises are unlocked and I then have the choice of doing longer sessions.

YOGA

Holding those poses is not easy. Keeping the dot in the perfect spot is even harder. One of the problems with holding the dot still is that I am not always be able to see the dot from whatever position I have myself twisted into.

STRENGTH TRAINING

I found my heart beating hard after doing some of these, harder than it beat after cardio, so it can be an intense workout. Be prepared to be sore!

CARDIO

Jogging can get a little boring. I can’t run faster than my little guide.

I’d get a littte frustrated with step sometimes, because I’d step, but the step wouldn’t register. It’s more about stepping with the beat in that game. They do let us step while watching tv, which I like; but it’s not a hard workout.

The hula hooping is fun, at first. As I hula hoop, the friends throw hula hoops at me to catch, but after awhile, they stop throwing hula hoops at me for me to catch and I just have to hula hoop. I get bored just hula hooping without anything else to do.

Boxing can be fun, but I found out quickly that the jabbing motion doesn’t register well. I have to “hit like a girl” for it to work. It would be fun if it was a true boxing game rather than the choreographed boxing game, but maybe that would turn off some women.

BALANCE GAMES

I have never been athletic, so balance is not easy for me. I have a very hard time with balance games, but balance games are the most enjoyable part of Wii Fit.

SUMMARY

Wii Fit is a great way to motivate the couch potatoes like me. My core muscles need work and this is a great help. I recommend Wii Fit for anyone like me.

For those who need cardio, I’d recommend looking elsewhere. It’s not very good at focusing on that, the workout is not great (I’m not breathing very hard, and that’s a bad sign because I’m very out of shape) and you might easily get bored.