Wii Fit Plus – hands on

What’s on offer here? Nine new minigames, so off we go for a light preview jog. Perfect Ten asks you to butt-thrust pinball-like bumpers to illuminate numbers adding up to ten. Calling for a thorough whack, it’s easy to let ass momentum pull you from the balance board. There’s no risk of falling off in Segway Circuit, however, as you simply lean forwards and backwards to make like a Google exec on the smuggest vehicle on the planet. Segways are the chariots of the lazy, so it makes sense the game is labour-free.

Upping the physical stakes are Bird’s Eye Bulls-Eye and Obstacle Course. Flapping your arms in the former sees you take flight (steering with body leans) in your chicken costume. It looks a bit like Monkey Target, but we were too rubbish to milk much fun from it. Hanging in midair and patrolled by rolling timber, Obstacle Course wouldn’t be out of place in Mario Galaxy. Impose the ‘jog to move’ scheme on Mario’s solar sojourn and Nintendo would have hell to pay.

The killer was Island Cycling, where constant jogging replicates pedaling, while remote tilts handle the handlebars. In effect, this is the original Wii Fit’s jogging, only freed from the rails. While it’s not particularly challenging, we like having the freedom to explore – something Wii Sports Resort’s cycling sorely missed. With a cascade of sweat to rival Wuhu Island’s own waterfall, we forgot about the flag-grabbing task at hand and walked (well, slumped) away with a pitiful two-star rating.

Plug in the Nunchuk and Rhythm Kung Fu and Rhythm Parade fizz into life. Kung Fu is Plus’ take on boxercise. As the Miis behind you do the Mr. Miyagi thing you have to strike the right pose in time with the music. Parade is similar – march and waggle your remote to a tune. Finishing with some tilting, we angled platforms to lead balls to holes in Tilt City and leaned around a barrier to snipe people in Snowball Fight.

Jul 20, 2009