Is the Wii a contender?

WHAT'S THE STORY WITH GETTING FIT  THE Wii WAY?GYMS HAVE A NUMBER of things working against them in the eyes of most reasonable people. They're expensive, boring and, crucially, not in your house.

With its Wii games console, Japanese games maker Nintendo claims to have made great strides in resolving some if not all of these issues and the company has been heavily promoting its new Wii Fit game as a cheaper and more entertaining alternative to joining a gym.

Fans of Wii Fit, which was launched in Ireland at the end of last month with a price tag of around €90 - the game console costs a further €250 - claim it might be part of the solution to rising rates of obesity among Irish people.

Whatever about that, the Wii is most definitely the answer to Nintendo's prayers as its success has allowed it reclaim its gaming crown from the Playstation and the Xbox 360, and since its launch at the end of 2006 it has outsold both.

Wii Sports, which came out alongside the console 18 months ago, is one of the few computer games that can't be played sitting down and is probably the only one that has been adopted with the same enthusiasm by eight-year-old boys and golf-loving women in their 60s. It allows users play tennis, baseball, boxing, golf and bowling without leaving their livingroom, and with its motion-sensing capabilities, mimics the movements performed in real-life sports, such as swinging a tennis racket.

The game has also proved popular in some older people's residential homes in Britain. In Bristol, Wii Sports charity competitions organised by Age Concern have been played since October of last year. "If you tell someone 'do this, it's good for you' they won't," said Jim Baker, director of Age Action in Brighton. "However older people need exercise, and if it's fun and reminds them of 10-pin bowling, they will get involved."

The Wii Fit home-fitness programme takes the computer game as fitness machine a step further. The Wii Fit includes 40 separate "activities" including yoga, skiing, aerobics and a ridiculous hula hoop game. It acts as a virtual personal trainer and at the beginning of each session weighs you and calculates your Body Mass Index (BMI). It also compares your fitness levels with that of your friends and family and mocks you if you fail to perform.

Players use a pressure-sensitive board to improve fitness, strength and balance. The "personal trainer" guides users through activities including slalom skiing, spinning hula hoops and replicating yoga positions demonstrated onscreen.

Such was the buzz about the game that many stores sold out their allocation days ahead of the launch.

"The more people feel they might miss out the more they want it," one HMV spokesman said. "Wii Fit is not going to get you totally fit but it is very good for muscle stretching and getting people a bit more active. It doesn't just appeal to the bedroom gamer. It has a broad family appeal which is driving demand."

This broad appeal is one of the more interesting things about the game. It sold a million copies in the first five weeks after its launch in Japan before Christmas and 50 per cent of the people buying it had never bought a games console before.

The game has piqued the interest of Giles Warrington, a sport and exercise physiologist and lecturer in the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University. He is also the Olympic Council of Ireland's sports physiologist and was a member of the medical team at the Athens Olympics. "I wouldn't view the Wii console as a replacement for other physical activities but I would certainly see it as a supplement," he says.

Over the last 30 years there has been a huge proliferation of "labour saving devices" from the car to the remote control which have led to more people living entirely sedentary lifestyles with the consequent rise in levels of obesity and diabetes.

According to the latest study on the health and lifestyle of the Irish population which was published last week, a remarkable 80 per cent of men, and 71 per cent of women over the age of 45 were found to be overweight or obese, while nearly half of men aged between 18 and 44 were overweight. Some 22 per cent of the 10,000 adults surveyed admitted they were physically inactive, with the most common reason given that they had no time to exercise.

Games consoles such as the Wii might go some way to resolving that particular problem. "The bottom line is that it really doesn't matter what activity you do as long as your heart rate is elevated and you're burning calories and in principal this sounds fantastic, but I would like to see some proper scientific research done into the beneficial affects of this game console," Warrington says.

While it does not meet the exacting standards of scientific proof, last year one US blogger began what he dubbed the Wii Sports Experiment. For six weeks he continued all normal activity and eating habits but added 30 minutes of Wii Sports to his day. He says he stuck to these guidelines "very strictly" and at the end of the six weeks claims to have lost 4kg and seen his Body Mass Index fall from 25.2 (marginally overweight) to 24.

The game could, however, be a mere fad and the consoles could end up joining the rowing machines and other junk under the stairs in people's houses?

"It is quite possible," concedes Warrington. "I think the challenge for the makers will be to constantly update the games to keep it fresh. It actually may lead some people back to a more active lifestyle by creating an interest in sports that otherwise might not have been there. What it does is make sport fun and for many people sport simply is not considered fun at all."

His assessment is backed up by the parents of a number of Wii children. "Mine have been playing Wii Sport since Christmas, with the tennis game being the most popular," says one parent Pricewatch spoke to. "And the strange thing is now they want to play tennis outside."