Wii might be hooked

I have dabbled in the various video game consoles that have come out over the years (even dating back to the dinosaur age of video games - Atari), but have never been one to get really hooked on a particular brand or craze, as I am really just not that good at the games and don't have the patience to spend the hours in front of the TV to figure it out - I would rather do something outdoors.

I spent a bit of time this weekend playing on a Wii by Nintendo and am almost embarrassed to admit that I am seriously considering a purchase in the Newton household soon. The concept itself is not that new to me and I have dabbled with it a few times, but this time...it was different. I played the Wii Fit and Rock Band for almost 3 hours, and time just flew by!

Wii Fit is in my opinion a brilliant move to shake the negative connotations that video games have for kids (and adults!) and their physical fitness. You register your fitness level using a personalized 'Mii', which records your age and weight, then calculates your Body Mass Index and Wii age. From there, you set up fitness goals for yourself and then choose from a multitude of different activities to start achieving them. It keeps track of where you are, when was the last time you worked out and it even reminds you to hydrate every now and again. Pretty cool stuff in my book!

And then there is Rock Band. There is not really any redeeming quality or health benefit that I can cite for this game, it is just fun. Singing tends to be the easiest of the options (we were playing with a guitar and drums), so I only got one crack at that. My drumming was abysmal and playing the guitar was borderline disaster, as it it backwards for me and switching it to left seemed to confuse things even more, as the prompts are all set up on the screen for a right-hander.

Undaunted, I kept strumming away (the truthful version here is simply I am far too competitive to fail out of something, so I just kept at the guitar until I could at least make it through a few songs without getting cut). Jonathan rocked the drums and Kristen wailed out the lyrics, so we have decided that perhaps we should practice a bit more and then prepare for a good old fashioned battle of the bands. Of course, to practice means that I am going to have to make an investment. Maybe the Newton family could benefit from a Wii Fit and if the Rock Band game just happens to fall into our laps, we would play it.

Sound convincing yet?