I found this improbably positive article about Wii Fit while skulking around on the CNN website today. "It's time for American gamers to start stretching and warming up", declare the writers (it took two of them) before launching into a preview of such doe-eyed sycophancy I had to check to ensure I hadn't accidentally opened a pop-up ad for the forthcoming exercise-'em-up. Here's the science part:
Unlike other popular video games that emphasize role-playing, stealth, warfare, or the supernatural, Wii Fit stresses aerobics, strength training, and muscle-toning exercises.
Hmm, yes, I see, that's where I've been going wrong. These other videogames promised so much, but yet always failed to keep me trim. Role-playing, stealth, warfare or the supernatural: 40 years of evolution and innovation summed up and trashed in four genres, and all to sell us the benefits of a wobbly plank and a workout video.
There's hundreds more words of this, until the emotional sucker-punch of the closing two paragraphs:
At a recent event in San Francisco, California, Nintendo producers demonstrated the title. The game's lead U.S. producer discussed how Wii Fit helped him address a topic he's chronically avoided, managing his weight, as well as dealing with personal goals of staying in shape and healthy at home and on the road.
That openness, the executive said, is emblematic of Nintendo's core goals with the game: to make health and fitness something individuals and families talk about more often, and with greater candor.
God bless Nintendo!
GTA IV is coming out in a few weeks and that's supposed to be quite good. Do you think Rockstar's game will be greeted with the same frothy-mouthed puff? Or will we once again be forced to endure another round of hand-wringing worry pieces, knocked together by writers whose technical acumen barely extends to opening the front door at their local Game store let alone, God forbid, actually playing the game for ten minutes. Hopeless, mindless 'me too' scavengers, picking about on the internet for the latest titbits of 'scientific' research which show that children, exposed to violent imagery, feel a bit cross for a few minutes afterwards.
Oh please, please, when will the Wii honeymoon end?
