Arguably the most exciting revelation at Nintendo’s E3 Media Briefing this year was the Wii Fit. A new peripheral that is able to sense where a person is stepping. Nintendo showed off the possibilities of doing exercises and fun mini-games by using this “stepping platform”.What Nintendo now presents is yet another merge between the arcade and the home console. Imagine using the Wii Fit, not as a excercise platform but as a skateboard, snowboard, or surfboard! Turn the Wii Fit sideways and you’ve got a two-in-one peripheral. Sure you probably won’t be able to do crazy tricks with the board, but for people who can’t find their balance in the real sports Wii Fit is going to be a fun alternative.
For all of the above sports, you’d steer with both feet on the platform. Since Wii Fit is tilt sensitive the peripheral can be as accurate as the real sports. Skateboarding would be a little more tricky, if you want to consider having one foot step down to have your avatar push the skateboard faster difficult.
The real brain teaser is why didn’t Nintendo market the Wii Fit at E3 with more of these amazing game possibilities? As Reggie talked about during the presentation Nintendo is going for the general gaming audience and then the hardcore users. It’s plausible that Nintendo realizes that this peripheral is probably not going to be used by the average male gamer at least as a fitness machine. Lets face it, this is what the game industry considers as a serious game. Have serious games sold well thus far? If you have no idea what a serious game is, that just proves my point. By marketing this peripheral as a fitness machine, it’s the female audience who will most likely be the first to purchase it. If specifically mothers were to buy this peripheral for their family Wii console, Nintendo gains access to the whole family. It’s at that point when Nintendo will unveil more casual games like they have already done with their Wii Sports and Wii Play series.
These short gameplay session games are becoming a key to Nintendo’s success and with the Wii Fit a whole new door of gameplay has been opened.
