Wii Fit Store

If you are one of the millions of people that love Wii Fit then you’ll be delighted to hear that Namco Bandai has announced that it is to release Active life : Outdoor Challenge, for the Nintendo Wii, this fall.

Outdoor challenge is the first in a series of Active Life games from Namco, that use body movement to interact with the game, like Wii Fit

Hot on the heels of Active Life is We Cheer, Namco Bandai’s new cheerleading game.

Character customization is key to the game. Players design a virtual cheerleader and costume her in a variety of tops, skirts, shorts and shoes. You can even choose the color and shimmer of her pom-poms and spell out your name or slogan in a variety of fonts across her shirt.

Players compete solo, in pairs or in a squad with a maximum of four members, mimicking the dances of the onscreen cheerleaders in a quest to become squad captain. Routines are performed to a selection of tunes that ranges from Hillary Duff to KC and the Sunshine Band. When moves are timed correctly to the music, players score points and are rewarded with - what else? - new outfits. Players also can unlock new stages on which to perform, from stadiums to park bandshells, complete with neon signs and sparklers.

Stephanie Abrams over at CBS 3 has posted a great article about Wii Fit and the craze that is currently sweeping America.

Stephanie checks in with people who’ve had a chance to use the new exercise game, and let’s us know if it delivers on its promise to help you lose weight and get fit!

Mickey DeLorenzo has been running, wiggling and sweating. A routine he created keeping him on his game … his Wii Fit game that is. The sensors in his Wii Board and Remote monitor his activity level, challenging him to get fit.

At Excell Physical Therapy in Glen Mills, they’re using it to help people recover from injuries.

Physical Therapist Cam McCormick is helping Tori McGrath recover from a soccer injury to her knee. He says the Wii’s interactivity keeps her engaged.

“It’s definitely the best part of my therapy,” said Tori. “The feedback is the most important part of it because I do see how I’m improving.”

Cam says it’s more effective than the usual workout methods. Tori’s balance improved in two weeks.

He explains, “When you have visual input for learning, basically the body recovers faster.”

Wii Fit has rocketed back up to the top of the UK games charts as Nintendo replenish stocks of their insanely popular health and fitness game for the Wii. With sales reportedly up 60% Wii Fit managed to knock Smash Bros Brawl off the number 1 slot as it surged up from 7th in the chart.

A quick check this morning did reveal that many of the top UK retailers don’t have any stock of Wii Fit left, so it looks like last week’s replenishment by Nintendo has all been snapped up. Luckily, there are still plentyfull stocks on eBay if you are wanting to buy Wii Fit. Use the buttons above this post to help you find a Wii Fit on eBay.

In an new article over at Nursing Spectrum, Vikki Newton writes that patients undergoing rehabilitation at St. Francis Hospital are using Wii Fit as part of their rehabilitation program.

Few patients think of the hospital as a place to improve their golf swing, play tennis, or rack up a perfect bowling score, but with the use of the Nintendo Wii video game system, patients undergoing physical or occupational therapy at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y, are getting “Wii fit.”

“The Wii doesn’t replace conventional physical therapy,” says Susan Hecht, RN, Nursing Rehabilitation liaison, at St. Francis Hospital. “We use it in conjunction with traditional therapy.” Rehab patients at St. Francis and at other hospitals around the country enjoy Wii-simulated bowling, tennis, driving, and golf, and, in the process, reorient muscles, tendons, and ligaments to the activities of daily living.

Although Nintendo doesn’t promote Wii for rehabilitation, a review of the literature shows that it is fast becoming a mainstay in physical therapy units. Even the U.S. armed services hospitals here and abroad are using Wii in physical therapy for injured servicemen and women. St. Francis has been using Wii for about eight months, according to Hecht, who acquired the Wii gaming console for the hospital and says she would like to get a second one. Hecht, a 14-year veteran of nursing who has been at St. Francis for nine years, says she finds patients’ physical improvement from playing Wii games and their enthusiasm for the technology very rewarding.

Read More Here

Kotaku have just posted a review of Wii Skate It, a new skateboarding game that uses the Wii Fit Balance Board.

We hope you’re ready for a world in which all games are controlled with your feet, because following the success of Wii Fit and the welcoming of the game’s Balance Board peripheral by third-party developers, it’s only going to ramp up from here. Fortunately, in the case of the Skate It at least, playing games with your feet may not be such a bad thing. It has the potential to be about as awkward as any attempt to ride a skateboard, if it’s your first time, but you might be surprised at how easily one can pull off nose manuals and nollie kickflips within minutes. More…

Paul Govan over at Play.tm has just written a great review of Famly Ski for the Nintendo Wii, giving it a whopping 85% score. I love Wii Fit but I have to confess that I never really fancied the skiing game, but after reading the review I’m going to have to go out and get it for sure.

I can’t wait to see my two young ‘uns trying it out as it sounds like the combination of Wiimote, nunchuck and Wii Fit board make the user controls sufficiently intuative and natural that even a three year old can master it with minimal intervention, which is handy as I happen to have a spare 3 year old to test the theory on.

In an intersting article over at GamesDog, Verity Burns reports that UK Men’s Health magazine have revealed that citizens of the fittest cities in Britain buy more copies of Wii Fit than other cities. It makes perfect sense that people more interested in keeping fit are more likely to buy Wii Fit as it is a great way of staying in shape, losing a few pounds and having some fun in the process.

The top 10 cities to buy Wii Fit according to Nigel Whiteoak, UK manager of Telebid are:

1. Bristol
2. Southampton
3. London
4. Manchester
5. Liverpool
6. Glasgow
7. Edinburgh
8. Birmingham
9. Cardiff
10. Leeds

Nintendo is hosting a series of events across the UK offering you the chance to try out Wii Fit and get a free health and fitness check.

It’s all part of the platform holder’s Feel Great Britain initiative, which comes complete with an extremely lifestyle website.

Visit the site for full listings of when and where Feel Great Britain events are taking place, get fitness tips from the likes of Rosemary Conley and win an exotic holiday to the Lake District.

Here’s something to make you laugh. Nate Lanxon over at Crave TV has posted rather tongue in cheek article and video about cheating at Wii Fit. I’m not sure that Nate should be cheating though, he looks like he could do with losing a few pounds.

It’s no secret that one of America’s biggest contributions to Western society has been fat people. And it’s spreading. Britain is becoming as bloated as our overseas friends and all it’s doing is giving Daily Mail readers more things to complain about.

Fortunately, Japan stepped in and gave us Wii Fit. It was the East’s way of saying, “Oh hai, you no can has cheezburger, you can has rice and exercise. It build small stomach, happy mind, rich experiences for all family!”

But some people just want to play cool games and not lose any weight. Here are four ways to abuse the fundamental principles of Wii Fit, without losing out on any of the balance board-fuelled fun. Go nuts (on nuts), podgesters! -Nate Lanxon

Top games industry news Gamasutra site posted their weekly games sales chart today and Wii Fit is still sitting at Number 2 in the Nintendo sales charts for the UK & USA despite the stock shortages in the store. Thankfully there are plenty of WiiFit available online, you can check for sellers in your country by clicking on one of the country panels above.

Here’s the full post from Gamasutra…

Gamasutra’s weekly column, “Saling The World”, covers the top five exclusively compiled real-time Amazon.com charts for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide.

This week’s charts, with data taken from June 26th, 2008, find Guitar Hero: On Tour topping Nintendo DS sales in its first week of North American release, while Nintendo’s own first party music game Daigasso! Band Brothers DX leads portable sales in Japan. Data for “Saling The World” comes courtesy of the public sales information on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.co.jp, with sales split out for each platform and territory, and pre-orders disregarded.

This results in a true sense of what games are selling worldwide on the real-time updated service, as follows:

Nintendo Wii
North America: 1. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 2. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 3. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo), 4. Rock Band Special Edition (EA Games), 5. Wii Play (Nintendo).

Japan: 1. Tales of Symphonia: Ratatosk no Kishi (Namco), 2. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 3. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 4. The World of Golden Eggs: Nori Nori Rhythm Kei (AQ Interactive), 5. Super Mario Stadium: Family Baseball (Nintendo).

UK: 1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo), 2. Wii Fit (Nintendo), 3. Big Beach Sports (THQ), 4. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo), 5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega).

Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit continue to be the biggest sellers for Nintendo’s console in North America this week, despite long-standing supply shortages that have yet to be resolved. Amazon-affiliated third-party sellers currently demand a minimum charge of $60 for Mario Kart Wii, while Wii Fit ranges in excess of $170.

Also in high demand is this week’s debuting Wii port of Rock Band, which takes a fourth place weekly sales finish and pushes chart favorite Guitar Hero III out of the regional top five. Japan finds a new sales leader in this week’s release of Tales of Symphonia: Ratatosk no Kishi, meanwhile, as the just-debuted European version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl tops multiplatform sales in the UK.