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Our Blogs The BeerFiles Nintendo changing the game again with exercise?
Our Blogs The BeerFiles Nintendo changing the game again with exercise? | Nintendo changing the game again with exercise? |
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| Written by Stan Beer | |
| Thursday, 12 July 2007 | |
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One would not normally associate fitness with video gaming but then again most of us laughed when Nintendo Revolution transmogrified (is that a word?) into Wii. Full marks to Nintendo because as far as its think tank is concerned the fat and lazy gamer with overdeveloped thumb muscles has had his day. And I say "his" because the stats tell us there haven't been too many femme fatale Call of Duty, Halo or GTA gamers of late. This is of course quite understandable. Without trying to sound like a total mysoginist, the majority of women I know aren't into shooting, slashing and disembowelling their enemies. Give them a game that will help them lose unwanted flab and firm up their abs, however, and that's a different story. Enter WiiFit. What it may lack in raw gaming processing power, Nintendo more than makes up for with innovation and marketing. Wiifit is all about gaming without guilt. Brilliant! In fact, that's what Wii Sports is about - getting off the armchair and onto your feet. WiiFit actually goes a step further than Wii Sports, it actually tries to approach the level of an exercise program, complete with the vital statistics tracking that you would normally consign to a personal trainer. Now that's innovation! As a result of all this Wii "gaming fitness", Nintendo is claiming an entire new demographic of gamer, including a lot more women who would not normally stop to look twice at a video games console. But what of the traditional gamers - the 100 million or so souls who bought PS2 and were proud to call themselves lounge lizards? Did some of them defect to Xbox 360 while awaiting the arrival of PS3? Maybe. Did others decide to turn over a new leaf and lose unwanted pounds with the Wii? Perhaps. Or have most of them waited until PS3 came down to a reasonable price and more games came onto the market? I won't say what I think - I'll just get into trouble with the "fanpersons".
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