What's Hot: Balance board is great; fun mini games; most of the exercises are enjoyable; might actually raise your heart rate above "couch potato"

What's Not: Poor interface; aerobic workout is weak; it's a poor judge of overall health

It’s a game! No, it’s an exercise tool! No, it’s a glorified scale! No, it’s yet another way for Nintendo to rake in a hojillion dollars! Whatever the case may be, Wii Fit is finally here and you no longer have your controller to blame for keeping your ever expanding tuchus on the couch. Whether you consider it to be an exercise platform masquerading as a game or a game comprised mostly of low level exercise routines, there’s plenty here to like, however those serious about weight loss will need more than what the plucky balance board offers.

The core of Wii Fit is the balance board, a hefty, white, balance sensing peripheral that brings to mind an oversized bathroom scale. The balance board is incredibly sturdy, which it would have to be given that it’s asking people who can barely balance themselves on two feet to stay upright on one foot, and is incredibly sensitive as well. Every minute change in your balance and position is tracked so that you can see just how out of shape you are, even when standing there just to have your BMI determined. Most of the exercises and mini-games in the game use the balance board and as a controller, it’s very well done.

The hub of the game is the Wii Fit Plaza where you can select your profile, represented by whatever Mii you used when creating your profile, see your progress graph, enter in time spent doing other exercises, start a body test or kick off training. First time users will need to undergo the body test to determine their BMI as well as their Wii Fit Age. As many fitness enthusiasts will tell you, BMI isn’t the best indicator of health in regards to weight as muscle weighs more than fat, leading a very muscular person to appear to be out of shape as far as Wii Fit is concerned. However most of the people using it haven’t done any exercise since that curling class they took as an elective in college, so the BMI measurement ends up being appropriate.

Once you’ve picked a Mii to represent you, the game will ask you your age, your height and how much your clothes weigh. After that you jump on the scale and are treated to a very odd Tron-esque graphic of a wireframe Mii in the throes of what appears to be scanning ecstasy. After the initial measurement your BMI is presented to you along with the plumping up of your Mii if appropriate. It isn’t the most sensitive of disclosures, but maybe a little shock and awe is what you need to lose those extra fifteen pounds.

As a nice touch, you can choose to password protect your BMI for those on the shy side. After that you’ll be treated to several tests where you shift your center of balance to match what the Body Test is asking of you, your success at which determines your Wii Fit Age. Like the Brain Age of the DS’s mega-successful Brain Age games, this is a dubious number and any high age has more to do with unfamiliarity with the board and less to do with actual fitness. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have a Wii Fit Age of 32—four years younger than my real age and I can’t do more than five push-ups without fear of a stroke.)

Once you have your profile set up it’s off to the exercises. Exercises are broken up into four categories: yoga, strength, aerobics and balance games. You have the option of choosing a male or female trainer, both of which are an odd gray and aqua color as if they came from another planet and are trying to approximate the appearance of a real human for their plans of world domination via lunges.