NEW YORK — Sumo wrestlers were the main inspiration behind Wii Fit, Nintendo’s latest attempt at getting video-game players off the couch.
Because they are so huge, sumo wrestlers need two scales to weigh themselves. Wii Fit’s balance board works kind of like two scales fused together, which, as its designers found, makes it instantly more fun than just one. The game has sold more than 2 million copies in Japan, and it’s been a hit in Europe. Nintendo hopes to recreate that success when Wii Fit goes on sale in the U.S. today.
In the U.S., pre-launch buzz around the game — whose activities range from yoga to snowboarding — is reminiscent of the Wii’s debut.
The console, initially elusive in stores and online, is still often in short supply a year and a half after its release.
Wii Fit, which costs $89.99, is currently sold out in pre-launch sales on and the websites of retailers GameStop Corp. and Wal-Mart, while Best Buy’s website lists it as “coming soon.”
“Our main premise in creating Wii Fit was (to) create a game that allows you to check your weight,” Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary game designer behind Mario and Zelda, told The Associated Press through a translator during a recent visit to the U.S.
With the scale as a launching pad, Miyamoto and Wii Fit’s other developers added balance-based fitness activities and games. In one, you play a penguin trying to catch fish in the air while balancing on a block of ice. Like the Wii’s motion-sensitive wireless controller, Wii Fit’s balance board is intuitive and takes no video game skills to master.
During play, the balance board becomes a snowboard, skis or a tightrope. The game’s fitness regimen includes yoga, aerobics and strength training, as well as tracking of your weight and body-mass index.
You can even jog without the board, holding the Wii’s wireless controller in your hand.
The exercises start in one- or two-minute spurts, so you don’t overextend yourself, and you progress to new levels as you get more proficient.
The goal of Wii Fit, Miyamoto said, is simply to get people to think more consciously about their health.
Instead of going after core-gamers — the “Grand Theft Auto” audience of boys and young men — Nintendo has been roping in the whole family, including mothers and grandmothers, and getting them playing as well as buying the Wii.
