Nintendo have been known for their unusual but innovative creations when it comes to gaming. More recently we’ve seen the Brain Training series, Nintendogs and of course the Wii itself, so it’s hardly surprising to see a product like Wii Fit released.

What you’ll notice right off the bat is that this isn’t your average game. Packaged with the disc is what Nintendo call a “balance board” that is placed on the floor and stood on. Not only can the piece of equipment measure your weight, but more importantly it measures your centre of balance through sensors inside. Lean more on your left foot and the game can tell you what percentage of your body weight has been applied to that side. It’s a great piece of hardware and one that holds a ton of potential for future developers.

The great thing about Wii Fit is that it does actually work under certain circumstances. You can’t expect to play this title and watch the pounds drop (or gain depending on your goal) instantly. You need a good diet and to make sure the routine you focus on applies to your aim. Improve your flexibility? Yoga. Want to work on building muscles, then head to the muscle workouts. While many want to see Wii Fit as a substitute to good eating or exercise and sports sadly that isn’t true. It is however a good compliment to the two that tries to make workouts a little more fun.

To kick things off you select your created Mii, enter your height, DOB and weigh yourself on the balance board and you’ll be given your results telling you if you’re the right BMI, underweight or overweight. Select a goal to try and achieve and you’re all set up. Every time you the load the game you must select your Mii on the main page from any registered and begin. You can either test yourself for weight and Body Mass Index and Fitness Age to see if there’s improvement or train in the games and workouts. That’s pretty much Wii Fit.

The game is split into four categories; yoga, muscle, balance games and aerobics which each contain around nine to fifteen workouts or games. The yoga poses try to stretch your muscles whilst also improving balance. They range from relatively easy like standing still maintaining a good centre of balance to something more tough like the tree pose where you raise your arms above your head and stand on one foot all of which your graded on based on how wobble free you are. Muscle workouts include probably the most strenuous of all challenges with jack knifes, lunges and push-ups being just a few of the activities to try and conquer. Then aerobics more often than not relies on your stamina involving activities like jogging and hula hoop spinning. Finally the balance games which are a great introduction and showcase to the potential of the balance board, offer a fun alternative to the constant workout of activities. In a Monkey Ball style fashion you’ll use the board to tilt a floor on screen and hopefully direct balls into holes. Or tilt a giant iceberg so a Mii dressed in a penguin suit can grab fish. Or my personal favourite leaning left and right to header footballs that are being kicked at you. If you owned a DS on launch and played the mini games on Super Mario 64 DS you’ll understand what I mean to say it’s so refreshing to play a game with a new method. Then it was a touch screen and now it’s with your feet.

I do like the way the actual game is set out. Continually attempt a specific workout and you’ll then unlock a tougher version (from ten reps up to fifteen or holding a pose for one minute rather than thirty seconds.) So for those of you who find the opening setting too easy, later ones will definitely make you sweat. It’s a great way to step by step build your strength and endurance. However there are some faults. For one you must unlock a large majority of the activities so from loading up the disc you may not have the workouts you were looking for. Next, there are no options to set a daily/weekly routine. A product like this really needs that so you can at least stick to a list workouts rather than pick odd ones. Finally the fitness age measurement seems a little hit and miss. With usually only two or three tests one tiny slip can mean the addition of a few years. Unlike the tests of Big Brain Academy where you are given a range of quizzes the reliance on only a couple of tests most seems inaccurate.

The game bares resemblance to Wii Sports when it comes to visuals and has a clean and crisp look to it. Nothing will stand out but it does its job and offers visual representation of workouts and games. The music again is okay. Nothing amazing but the use of actual voice to explain workouts is good.

Those who are looking for a great gamers’ game, look away. What you’ll find here is a decent workout product and some great ideas that be used for games in the future. The steep price is only worth it if you are going to use Wii Fit on a regular basis. If not wait for a game that focuses on the fun rather than keeping healthy before investing in the board.