Video Game / Wii Fit

3 Following

Remember how your parents told you playing video games would make you gain a bunch of weight, lead to bad posture, etc, etc? Well, guess what? They're wrong!

Wii Fit, part of the Nintendo Wii Series (which includes Wii Sports and Wii Play), is an interactive series of exercises, mainly using the Wii Balance Board. These exercises include yoga, strength exercises, aerobics, and fun little balance games. The game also keeps track of players' body mass index and weight.

It's a huge seller, and the Balance Board it comes with is also compatible with some other Wii and Wii U games.

As with any gym or exercise regime, you'll get out what you put in. Many of the toughest exercises are also the ones most easy to do even without the game (running, press-ups, or jackknifes), and the rest could easily be provided by some yoga and aerobic exercise videos. What Wii Fit provides that videos and willpower don't is a regular schedule and encouragement to keep going along with the ability to match your progress against earlier efforts.

Of course, there is some debate as to how effective it actually is as a weight loss tool (and some research shows that Wii Sports is more effective in that respect).

There is a sequel, Wii Fit Plus, which makes the original game pretty much obsolete as it contains everything the original does and more. A second sequel, Wii Fit U, is accompanied by the Fit Meter, a pedometer that tracks your physical activity and calories burned outside of using the game^note The pedometer is based on the same hardware as the Pokéwalker in ''Pokémon HeartGold'' and ''SoulSilver'', though players cannot convert either type into the other type. The data can then be synced to your profile in the game. The female and male trainers also appear in the Super Smash Bros. series as playable characters.

Though the "Wii" branding was abandoned with the introduction of the Nintendo Switch, the Wii Fit series received a Creator-Driven Successor in the form of Ring Fit Adventure.

The Trainer from Wii Fit has appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a playable fighter.

Is your body ready?

My tropes are ready:

• Amusing Injuries: Your poor Mii gets abused a lot.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Wii Fit U includes unlockable alternate outfits for your Mii. Most are Fun T Shirts for completing the pedometer courses (for instance, when you accumulate a climbing height equivalent to the Statue of Liberty, you get a shirt with the Statue on it).
• Animate Inanimate Object: An anthropomorphic version of the Wii Balance Board is the main guide in the games' menus.
• Anti Poop-Socking: As in Wii Sports, the game often encourages players to take a break from playing, with imagery of an opened window.
• Ass Kicks You: In Perfect 10, the player's Mii hits the bottom and sideways bumpers by flinging their butt into them.
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: The female trainer only wears a sports bra on her upper body, leaving her stomach bare.
• The Boxing Episode: Rhythm Boxing and Free Boxing in Plus and U has the player and a coach in a boxing gym, punching pattern-based sandbags.
• The Bully: The in-game Wii Balance Board easily comes across as this to players with BMI 30.00 or higher, constantly reminding the player to weigh themselves every day, asking the player loaded questions if they've gained more than half a kilo of weight, treats the player with advices of the You Are Fat type, and refuses to let the player not set weight goals^note The Simple Tests in Plus and U can work around this to some extent. If the weighing shows a marked slope to the side, the Board will treat the player as having a very bad everyday pose, even if the player has uneven foot heights^note Can be worked around by placing one leg further to the side of the Wii Balance Board than the other during weighing.
• Country Switch: The English versions have their listed weight units depend on the system's country setting. For the North American release, it's pounds if set to United States and kilograms if set to elsewhere. For the European release, it's stones if set to United Kingdom and kilograms if set to elsewhere.
• Cultural Translation: The European English versions (Especially so in Plus) made several changes. The trainers now speak in London dialect, "Soccer Heading" is renamed to simply "Heading", the weight option for pounds is replaced with stones, and meals in the calorie guide in Plus list several British meals.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If the player wishes to play Jogging but can't find any leg clothing to wear with pockets on them, the game tells the player that they can also hold the Wii Remote in their hand as they shake their hand while jogging.
  • If the system clock is set to an earlier time than it was the last time Wii Fit was played, the Wii Balance Board notices this during the on-launch advices, recommending the player to go to the system settings to correct the date and time.
• Embedded Precursor: Wii Fit Plus does everything Wii Fit did, and adds a bunch more content besides. If you have Plus but not the original, don't bother hunting down a copy of the latter unless you're a collector. Same goes for U, which includes most things that Plus does.
• Exergaming: Perhaps not the first, perhaps not even the Trope Codifier, but it was the first to prove that these games can be Cash Cow Franchises.
• Fanservice: The male Trainer's very buff, the female trainer has shapely curves. The female trainer has been a very popular Ms. Fanservice thanks to the appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Fantastic Fireworks: Each time you roll a ball in the right tube in Tilt City, you're granted with a firework. Each time you roll a big ball with a Mii face on it in the right tube, you're granted with a grand firework perfectly representing the Mii.
• Fell Asleep Standing Up: The Miis in Wii Fit Plaza in U are very prone to this, letting out loud yawns, slumping their heads, and snoozing within less than 15 seconds of the player not loading a profile.
• Four-Seasons Level: Wuhu Island changes terrain and tree colors based on the system's real-time clock: Summer in June-August, fall in September-November, winter in December-February, and spring in March-May. For various logistical reasons (for instance score keeping and difficulty), the winter snow does not affect gameplay during for instance Cycling.
• Forced Transformation: Falling down into a large light tube, various Miis have been transformed by a mystical ray from above into round balls with faces by the start in Table Tilt, and the player must complete the minigame to transform them back into regular Miis.
• Foreign-Looking Font: In Rhythm Kung Fu, what may look at first sight like calligraphic horizontal Mongolian/Tibetan script is in fact just the word "Kungfu" mirrored in Latin letters.
• Gameplay Grading: The better you do, the better your star ranking (1-4) will be. 1 is usually treated as a loss. Some minigames also allow a 0-star ranking, for instance in Soccer Heading by scoring 0 points.
• Graffiti Town: A mild example: Jogging Plus in Plus aims to have the player spot and remember Super Mario Bros. 1 8-bit sprites along the path, with many of the sprites being on buildings, and with the player being quizzed about them after the finish line.
• Guide Dang It!: If you don't know which muscles are your "core muscles", don't expect the game to stop and explain it to you.
• Gusty Glade: The winds in certain areas of the Tightrope Walk's Expert difficulty force you to adapt your balance.
• Hub City: Though not as heavily so as in Wii Sports Resort, a fair few minigames take place on Wuhu Island, including Jogging, Cycling, Bird's-eye Bull's-eye (Plus and U), Rhythm Parade (Plus), Segway Circuit (Plus), Trampoline Target (U), Hose Down (U), Free Climbing (U), Orienteering (U), and Rowing Regatta (U).
• Human Snowball: Miss the jump in the ski jump minigame and your hapless Mii will roll down the slope as a big snowball.
• Hula and Luaus: Hula Dance in U has the dance gym set up with 5 dancers in hula outfits (and the player), and cardboard/wall decor of coconut palm trees and beach sunset.
• Idle Animation: In Wii Fit Plaza, if you don't load up your profile for several days^note Around half a minute on the main menu in U, your Mii will yawn and fall asleep.
• Intentionally Unwinnable: If the player weighs more than 150kg^note Just above 330lbs / 22st 8 lbs, the game refuses to let the player play the minigames (except Jogging and certain Muscle minigames as they only require the Wii Remote; and in U Orienteering that only requires the GamePad). If the player weighs that much during the game's initial mandatory tutorial, then the player cannot progress past the tutorial and cannot play the rest of the game.
• Jungle Japes: Balance Bubble has the player maneuver through a twisty jungle river.
• Jump Scare: The "you lose" sound for Lotus Focus is a shout of "CUT!" followed by the candle going out and a quieter whisper of "And that's the end" or "this ends our session".
• Kiai: The Miis in Rhythm Kung Fu shout loudly when performing a move.
• Loophole Abuse: The Lotus Position minigame in Wii Fit and Plus can be aced if the player puts a very heavy stable object (e.g. octagonal dumbbells) on the board to make the game recognize it as being something a human could weigh. As the objects would be unlikely to move around on the board during the minigame, it's an almost guaranteed 4-star victory outcome.
• Losing Horns: A sad tune is heard when you lose some minigames.
• Lotus Position: One of the training games in Wii Fit and Plus. If you sit still enough long enough during this game, your character starts levitating.
• Marathon Level: Many of the Walking Challenges in U will take months in real time, if not years, to finish unless the player intends to destroy their feet and legs beyond recognition by walking extremely long each day. The "Appalachian Trail" challenge is the longest of them at an outstanding 3,476km^note 2,160mi that is tracked by the player walking around with the Fit Meter in real life.
• Minigame Game: The 3 games consist primarily of this, with some dozen regular minigames, some other minigames intended for the Daily Test, and in the case of Plus two other hidden minigames.
• Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: Since the game only allows connecting one Wii Balance Board at a time^note The one board takes up controller spot 4, as if it was a Wii Remote. In the case of U only one Wii U GamePad can be connected either, all multiplayer modes are high-score turn-based (with U making only 14 minigames available for it) or (in the case of Jogging) Wii Remote-only.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Wii Fit Plus has all of the training games on Wii Fit, adding some Training Plus exclusives and allows you to keep track of your pets' weights. At least it carries over your save data. Wii Fit U has further additions over Plus, though it seems some exercises got dropped in exchange^note Among them Penguin Slide, Tightrope Walking, and a hidden Plus minigame about guessing the weight of real-life household items placed on the board.
• Morton's Fork: Among the possible weight goal options in Body Test is "±0.0kg". Players who hope it will make the Board not demand constant goals are in for a surprise, as the Board instead claims the player must stay on that exact weight on every Body Test throughout the scheduled time period, leading to a loss if the player gains or loses any weight at all.
• No Fair Cheating: A mild example. Trying to run up the piggy bank total playtime by choosing the 10/20/30 minute Free Jogging and Free Cycling will only count the amount of minutes where input was detected, and not inherently the full timespan if the player was idle.
• Non-Standard Game Over: The game strongly discourages the player from jumping on the Board in order to prevent damaging it; jumping motions in e.g. Ski Jumping and Obstacle Course must instead be done with squats. Trying to jump on it anyway during minigames will have the anthropomorphic board declare the current minigame^note The current jump in the case of Ski Jumping null and void, and forces the player to restart the minigame.
• No Waterproofing in the Future: After giving the player advice on taking baths, the anthro Board then shivers with fear when pointing out that it (Board) wouldn't like baths.
• Old Save Bonus: Plus allows players to import their Mii data from Wii Fit savefiles, and U allows importing Mii data from Wii Fit and Plus savefiles.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: While most minigames are generous with respawning players unless the time limit runs out, in Balance Bubble the player only gets one chance to make it through the course. Hitting a wall or other obstacle just once will burst the bubble and count as a loss.
• Opening the Sandbox: In the Island Cycling game, higher difficulties remove some roadblocks around the island, and after clearing the Expert mode you get a free-ride mode with a 30-minute session but no objective unless you want to pop all the beach balls hidden around the island.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Most minigames are pre-empted with a note recommending players to ensure there's enough space around them to play the minigame without hitting nearby house objects.
• Power Outage Plot: The Extra difficulty of Perfect 10 in U starts off with a power outage, frightening the present Miis. The bumpers are also partially, but not fully, out of power, so the numbers are only shown for split-seconds at the start of each calculation and when they are bumped into.
• Progressive Instrumentation: In Rhythm Parade, your Mii begins as a lone baton-twirler. If you step in time and wave the controls at the right time, more characters join you, playing different instruments, and the music reflects this. But if you make a mistake, these characters disappear.
• Real Time:
  • Statistics for weights and minigame minutes that have been played are measured on a per-day basis.
  • Subverted in Wuhu Island minigames, where the times of day that they take place in do not correspond to the real-time clock.
• Scenery Porn:
  • Wii Fit Plus is worth buying for the beautiful lighting effects and fireworks in Tilt City alone.
  • Wuhu Island, especially during the running, cycling, and chicken flapping exercises in Training Plus.
• Secret Level: Plus has 2 of these: One based on the Daily Test scale balance minigame but now with 5 rounds, and one where the game tasks the player to place household items on the board to get as close to a requested weight as possible.
• Shout-Out: The trainer in Rhythm Boxing is a middle-aged heavyset black man who's very likely meant to be Doc Louis.
• Shows Damage: The punching bag in Rhythm Boxing emits smoke after enough landed punches. More punches mean more smoke.
• "Simon Says" Mini-Game: In Rhythm Boxing, an instructor will give you a series of instructions, including punching a sandbag, blocking, and dodging to either the left or right, then you have to match the instructions by punching with the Wii Remote or Nunchuk, and leaning to the correct side.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World:
  • The Advanced difficulty of Obstacle Course is covered in ice, which makes it hard for your Mii to stop, and can send them careening off the edge of a platform or into something that will smack them silly.
  • Penguin Slide has the player on an iceberg in a penguin costume, sliding left and right and flinging into the air to catch fish that bounce onto or above the iceberg.
  • The Extra difficulty of Table Tilt in U has the balls slide on ice-based levels, sharply increasing the difficulty compared to earlier difficulties as the balls are difficult to steer on the slippery ice.
• Snowball Fight: One of the Workout games in Wii Fit Plus is a big snowball fight, fittingly named "Snowball Fight".
• Snowy Sleigh Bells: Used in the Penguin Slide theme, the Snowball Fight theme, and the Core Luge theme, since all these activities are heavily related to Winter and/or ice.
• Spear Counterpart: There is both a male and female trainer. Between the two, the female trainer is treated as the "main" one, seeing as she's the default trainer in Super Smash Bros, which makes the male this.
• Squashed Flat: This will happen to your Mii in the obstacle course if you fail to jump over the logs in time.
• Tightrope Walking: One of the balance games challenges you to walk across a tightrope stretched between two skyscrapers high above the city streets. You walk in place atop the Balance Board to walk forward, and lean left and right to maintain balance and avoid falling over. Higher difficulties add more obstacles, such as wind that pushes you to one side and forces you to lean in the opposite direction to avoid falling, and chomping bear traps that you have to jump over with the right timing while balancing straight.
• Time Trial: A lot of minigames boil down to this as those minigames' results are determined solely by how much time that remains on the timer.
• Tropical Island Adventure: Though the Four-Seasons Level aspect of Wuhu Island that only occurs in the Wii Fit games mitigate it somewhat, the island remains full of palm trees and a volcano during non-summer as well.
• Under the Sea: Being a scuba diving minigame and all, Scuba Search in U has the player dive for treasure, with the time limit being the Oxygen Meter that lasts 3 minutes on Beginner difficulty and 10 minutes on Advanced.
• Unlockable Difficulty Levels: Doing decently well in many minigames unlocks an Advanced difficulty of it, with further higher difficulties for a handful of minigames (e.g. Jogging). U ups the ante further by adding extra hard modes of for instance Table Tilt and Balance Bubble. A small handful of minigames have only one difficulty level, for instance Penguin Slide.
• Updated Re-release: Wii Fit Plus has new games, a slightly better weight system, and adds new functions such as the ability to track your pet's weights. Wii Fit U is treated more as a sequel, but it too has many of the same functions and exercises as before.
• Video Game 3D Leap: Ultimate Obstacle Course in U is intended to be this compared to Obstacle Course in Plus (and U). By rotating the player's stance on the Wii Balance Board, the player can move diagonally and near-sideways along courses that usually require doing so.
• Wutai: The dojo in Rhythm Kung Fu in Plus and U
• Windmill Scenery: A set of windmills are placed relatively close to a suburb north of Wuhu Town.
• The World Is Just Awesome: Wuhu Island is a truly fantastic work of art. The same island was later used for almost all sports in Wii Sports Resort, for 3 tracks in Mario Kart 7 with only minor changes (e.g. additional rock formations on the north road), in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a stage, and for 1 track in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
• You Are Fat: If the Daily Test gives a result of BMI 30.00 or higher, the Mii will react with total shock as their stomach gets very big, often much bigger than what would be the case for the corresponding real-life player.