Game Review: Wii Fit Plus

Mclatchy -Tribune News Service

Clear the living room floor, put on your short shorts, dust off the headband, and get ready to feel the burn. The Wii Fit is back, set to help you burn calories and show you just how little rhythm you have -- all while achieving inner peace.

Nintendo's new Wii Fit Plus is a full body and mind workout loaded into a $19.99 disc ($99 if you need the Wii Balance Board bundle), released Sunday.

This time around, you will be mastering kung-fu, leading a marching band, surviving an obstacle course and learning yoga.

Added games

The Wii Fit Plus is not entirely new. It combines the old workouts and activities with 15 new games and six new strength-training and yoga exercises. Like the original Wii Fit, the Plus lets you and your friends create a profile and enjoy a series of exercises in multiple categories.

Original Wii Fit owners can use their saved profiles and seamlessly keep their workout history.

This time around, the Wii Fit Plus features a personal trainer that helps you reach your goals. The trainer recommends exercises based on your time constraints and what you feel is an area of personal improvement. Players also can customize a recommended routine choosing up to 30 different exercises taken from the strength-training and yoga categories.

Yoga poses

There are three new yoga poses (gate, extension, grounded v) and strength exercises (side lunge, single-leg reach, balance bridge).

With the completion of each exercise and activity, a new calorie counter pops up on-screen with numbers showing the calories burned in that exercise.

While the Wii Fit Plus excels in all the feel-good traditional exercises, the heart of the bundle is what most friends and family will be playing together, the Training Plus games. The new activities will challenge players' balance, rhythm, strength, aerobics and mental agility -- sometimes all five at once.

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Copyright 2012 by Mclatchy -Tribune News Service