Video Game Review

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If we can trust Wikipedia, Wii Fit is the second best-selling game of all time, if we don't include sales of games bundled with a console like Super Mario Brothers or Wii Sports. Considering that if you subtract the cost of the bundled controller people were going to buy anyway, the number one best seller, Wii Play, is really only worth $10. This beat out Wii Fit, a game/accessory that outright costs $90, which to me is a lot more impressive. Nintendo's success gave rise to copycats like EA Sports Active and Bandai's Active Life Outdoor Challenge. Except, Active Life Outdoor Challenge isn't really a copycat, it's the original exercise game series: the Power Pad!

The Power Pad's history is easiest to explain if we stay with Nintendo of Japan's naming schemes. A Japanese toy company named Bandai released a series of "Family Trainer" games on the Nintendo Family Computer (aka the Famicom or NES) that used a special controller mat. This mat was basically a large, flat controller whose buttons you mainly step on to interact. It couldn't tell if you were properly balanced, it didn't have any precise pressure sensors, nor could it tell how much you weighed. It could only tell if you were standing on a button or you weren't.

When bringing it to North America, they gave it a limited release in Woolworth stores under the title "Family Fun Fitness". Nintendo of America quickly saw its potential, so they bought the rights from Bandai, redesigned it, and renamed it the Power Pad to bundle it with their game console. Twenty plus years later, a new "Family Trainer" is released in Japan for the Wii. Except in the US they decided to call it Active Life Outdoor Challenge, which sadly glosses over any history the game carried. However, that di...

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... precise and unforgiving input the games require.

I own most of the modern equivalents: Wii Fit, Active Life Outdoor Challenge, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and even Dance Dance Revolution. Compared to modern exercise games, I would say that you could get just as much out of it playing the classics if you really wanted to. But, the modern games have a lot more motivators built-in that don't punish you unfairly if you make arbitrary timing mistakes. The older games had no way of measuring your personal successes, or recording any progress made. I shouldn't be too harsh on these pioneers, they were ahead of their time. Only now are video game companies marketing these games better, making them more user-friendly to reach wider audiences. Whether you're playing Wii Fit or 8-bit fit, exercise games still motivate you to get up and get moving.

Works Cited
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