Just got my Wii Fit (with balance board) and tried it out this evening. The board makes odd little noises as you step on it, but turning down the volume will help keep the 'oo!' comments ignorable.
First thing that happens is you set up your profile: height, age, the balance board weighs you… It does the BMI thing, but of course that plays with averages, and doesn't account for things like bone mass and so forth, which a doctor could probably do better. Still, it offers a starting point for setting goals.
Next, you do a body test. You get to look at your center of balance. You try to stand on the little board and shift your weight to keep a red line within some sort of blue mark range. You can be gently encouraged or rather brutally insulted. And, of course, you set a goal. Max weight-loss goal seems to be 22 pounds. Max time frame to do it: one year. (I went as far as I could to see what one could do.) Apparently one can change the goal every couple of weeks. You can protect your profile with a password, so others can't access it. You will be provided with a 'fitness age' when you check your profile. Mine suggests I'm a bit older than I really am.
Then comes the training modes: Yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance games. I did a bit of each, and have to admit that aerobics and the balance games were by far the most enjoyable. The yoga wasn't bad; the strength training suggested a certain laxity in my fitness program to date.
For strength and yoga you may choose either a male trainer with a poncy little pony tail but a not unpleasant voice or a female whose voice put me in mind of all those old science fiction movies where a tannoy communicates with Our Hero. She looks better, he's less vocally obnoxious.
Anyway, the trainer (in strength or yoga) will first demonstrate the new move, then you will do it. As you go along, you get fitness credits which will open up new exercises or balance games for you. In most cases you will be given a little graphic that shows where your balance is while you do the exercise. I found a couple of the things a bit odd; the push-ups on the balance board were just peculiar. Since this was my first time, I was all over the place on the balance; it just feels a bit odd on the balance board. I don't feel like I can take a wide enough stance for some of the exercises where I'm supposed to have both feet on the board.
I started with yoga; there were 4 open exercises. One was breathing (yes, seriously). Then we did the tree, the half-moon, and something that was so exciting, I have totally forgotten what it was. I did one go-round of each of those. After each one, I was given an opportunity to look at crayon scribbles that showed how my weight shifted during the exercise.
Second, I went to strength (ha!) training. Having been bored out of my skull by the female trainer, I shifted to the male. We started with torso twists. Then we did push-ups and some sort of weird side thingy (don't even ask what it was called; I wasn't coordinated enough to shift as fast as they wanted, and I have no strength in my arms anyway). Having been informed I'm a couch potato (yes, that was my rank), I was encouraged to do strength training every day. I did not feel compelled to try the other two exercises. One looked suspiciously like squat-thrusts, and a girl has her limits.
Instead, I clicked over to aerobics. First thing? Hula hoops. Yep, you stand on the board and swivel your hips and try to keep the hoops going. Every once in a while, one of the two Miis on the side would chuck another hoop at my Mii. One is supposed to lean in the direction of the hoop and hold still very briefly to get the new hoop. After a few tries, I got the general idea, and could do that. Not so bad. Then came stepping. Follow the pattern and try to keep up with all the Miis that are doing it on a stage. They give the little pattern to you, and you step on and off the balance board in time. The audience (yes, you get an audience) oohs and aahs at you. Again, not horrible, but by then I was wishing I'd thought to braid or pin up my hair. I ran in place (you either have to stick the Wii remote in your pocket or hold it in your hand for this one), not on the balance board. The movement of the remote 'tells' the Wii how fast you're running, or if you keep an even pace or whatever. You follow someone else's Mii around a little island, so the scenery changes. As in the other Wii games, you often see other peoples' Miis also running.
Finally I went to balance games. I'd been playing a fair bit by now, and didn't think I should overdo, so I just chose three of the five open games. The first thing I tried was slolaming down a hill. Stand on board, shift weight to change direction, lean forward to go faster and back a bit to slow down. It was surprisingly fun; I did this one 4 times. I sucked mightily, but enjoyed myself. The next game was table-tilting. Here you shift your weight on the balance board to tilt a table and move little marbles that have your Mii image (and some random Miis) on them through holes. If you screw up and the balls fall off the edge, the same level catches them until you drop them down the hole.
The very last game was tightrope walking. Seriously. The Mii 'walks' based on how you walk in place on the balance board. You might start to fall, so you can catch your balance by leaning left or right. There's a vicious little jawed thingy in the middle that you have to 'jump' over. They don't suggest jumping on the balance board, but if you bend and straighten both knees at once, the Mii jumps.
I didn't try soccer, or a different skiing thing, or whatever the other balance game was: need to leave something new for tomorrow, after all.
My overall impression is this was probably a good investment. The different training styles and the ability to track my progress automatically are good. The aerobics and balance games are fun enough to be a reward after I've done the yoga and strength training. I know I'm too fat and grossly out of shape; it was the main reason I got the Wii in the first place. Hopefully these will help with that problem, but some of it seems pretty fun, too.
ing contest.