Nintendo Announces Wii Fit Plus

Fly, Chicken Man!  Fly!

It appears as though the battle for supremacy in the exergame field continues!  Not content to sit back and let EA SPORTS Active steal all the thunder when it comes to fitness gaming, Nintendo recently announced an expansion to the popular Wii Fit title during the E3 conference in Los Angeles, California.

The appropriately named Wii Fit Plus is scheduled to be released this Fall in time for the Holiday shopping season.  Available as a complete package with the Wii Balance Board or as a stand-alone expansion for those who already own Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus includes all the exercises of the original game along with 15 new balance games and six new yoga and strength training activities.

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ShrinkGeek vs. The EA SPORTS 30 Day Challenge : Week 2

EA Sports ActiveI’ve made it past the first big milestone in the my experiment with the EA SPORTS Active 30 Day Challenge by completing 10 workouts.  As a reward I got a new trophy and an “attaboy” video from Bob Green in which he explained that they were going to be increasing the difficulty of my workouts from this point on.  I’m much more comfortable with how the program works and I’m learning the proper way to move to maximize the benefit I’m getting from my workouts.

I don’t want to give the impression that I’ve become a total EA SPORTS Active fanboy I thought I’d take some time this week to share my thoughts on ways I think the game could be improved.

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Tropical Themed Expansion Announced For EA SPORTS Active

EA Sports ActiveWe here at ShrinkGeek are clearly not the only folks excited about the latest fitness game for the Nintendo Wii, EA SPORTS Active. Nintendo announced on Monday that the game sold more than 600,000 units in the first two weeks of being on the market.

With numbers like that it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to learn that Nintendo is already planning to roll out the first expansion for the game in time for the holiday shopping season.

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ShrinkGeek vs. The EA SPORTS Active 30 Day Challenge : Week 1

EA Sports ActiveIn addition to the game itself, EA SPORTS Active comes with two additional accessories – A leg strap and a resistance band.  My first half an hour or so with the game was spent reading the instructions on how to use these two contraptions.  The resistance band has two canvas hand grips that will need to be attached to it but the process is fairly straightforward.  The leg strap, however, was a bit more convoluted.  I don’t feel it was difficult to figure out at all, but finding the right placement on your leg so that it’s comfortable AND doesn’t slide is a bit tricky (at least it was for me).

Once I proved I was more intelligent than some rubber and velcro I fired up the game itself.  EA SPORTS Active does not use the default Mii avatars that are standard in the Nintendo Wii so when you’re setting up your profile you’ll need to create a new one.  I don’t consdier this a bad thing, personally.  One of the features I do not like about the Nintendo Wii in general is the overly cartoonish facet of the Mii’s and how they dominate many of the games from Nintendo itself.   Call it a psychological hang up if you will, but the Mii’s make me feel like I’m playing a game designed for children and it just doesn’t work for me in Wii Fit.

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