A unique way to play, helps to keep you fit, has lots of potential
Disadvantages:
Not supported by much yet
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Wii Balance Board
And the MisterB onslaught on games peripherals continues! This time I will be taking a look at one of the oddest looking and most interesting ones yet: the Wii Balance Board.
===Ah, are you sure its not just a set of bathroom scales?===
Quite sure yes! The Nintendo Wii Balance Board (henceforth rechristened as the Balance Board, to save my fingers) is currently unavailable in the US, but I managed to get my grubby mits on it by importing it from Japan using the website Playasia.com (which I may write a review on sometime too). But first things first, what is it, what does it do, and why should it interest you?
The Balance Board is a peripheral for use with the Nintendo Wii, and much like the technology employed by the console, the Balance Board is a pretty nifty little piece of kit. The purpose of the Balance Board was to build on the "physical gaming" idea that Wii Sports made popular when it first arrived with the Wii on 2006. It offers yet another new way to play games, and indeed, its reach extends to way beyond gaming, as it can be used as a means to keep fit. Nintendo have packaged the Balance Board with the game Wii Fit, which of course makes use of the Balance Board in numerous interesting ways, but more on these later. Suffice to say, the Balance Board is again opening up the world of gaming, to a large audience.
===How does it work?=== The Balance Board works through the use of a number of pressure sensors that are used to calculate the centre of pressure from the user, and the user's body mass index. You simply put your feet on the indicated pads, and it takes care of the rest. It measures minute changes in the user's weight distribution, which means that it obviously allows the user to control their character on screen by moving their body in different ways. Of course, you may also be required to stand on one leg or use the board for push-ups, as the game requires it. When first playing a new type of game that uses the Balance Board in different ways, you will be politely asked by the Balance Board to step off it, and step on it again while it figures out how you are positioned. This is all done seamlessly and quickly, so you can straight into the game after no time. The Balance Board is wireless and battery powered (4x AA, included, thank you!) so theres no problem with wires trailing all over the place.
The Balance Board when I purchased it was packaged with the "game" Wii Fit, and this will be the same case when the Balance Board hits store shelves here on May 19 (no price has been announced yet but expect it to be around $100, packaged with Wii Fit). Something I found rather interesting is that the Balance Board that will arrive here in the US will be a slightly larger version capable of supporting a weight of up to 330 pounds. The Japanese model I have is designed for people up to 300 pounds. The difference is due to some complaints and feedback after the December 1st Japanese launch. Perhaps this is why it is taking so long to arrive on US store shelves!
The potential of the Balance Board is obvious, with many people immediately thinking about how a snow boarding or skateboarding game would work with this, but nothing has been announced thus far, but its early days yet.
===My thoughts=== So, what do I think of it? I am really very impressed! I was slightly sceptical at first, and perhaps feeling a little bit guilty for paying so much importing it (the game is not region free by the way, but I have a Japanese Wii too), but after using it, I was glad that I did! It really is so much fun to use the Balance Board for fitness, and it means that maybe I will do more now! Good news for MrsB indeed! The Board feels very solid and of a high quality, and it looks nice too, with its curved surfaces and nice white finish. Its even easy to store! I would recommend using it on a hard surface if possible, or at least put something under it if you are using it on a carpet as you can accidentally turn it off easily, plus it just feels better on a hard surface rather than wobbling about on a thick carpet. :)
The Balance Board is scarily accurate too, when I played the games I expected a slight lag, but no, I moved and my character on screen moved in tandem with me. Something I was concerned about in the beginning was that it might be possible to play the games "lazily", thus negating the whole purpose of it. Like for the Wii, for example, you can make large swinging motions for playing tennis, or you can simply flick your wrist and it produces the same result. So with the Balance Board I had thought that you could "cheat" the games by tilting slightly, or by bending your toes, but no, like an angry drill instructor it will ask you for much more than these piddling efforts, you will really need to bend your knees or move your upper body to produce any real effect on screen. This means that you are really interacting with the game in a new way, so that you will emulate the actions required in a sport more closely than pushing a few buttons ever can! The only drawback of this is that prolonged playing will make you tired, and you will really have to make the effort to play a game, as opposed to sitting back and enjoying it, but this is the whole point really, there are enough games that you can reflex while playing and Nintendo should be applauded for doing something about this.
The games that utilize the Balance Board on Wii Fit are, as you'd expect, a good example of the technology. My favourites were the "Head the Soccer Ball" game, the "Ski Jump" game, and the "Tightrope Walking" game. In the soccer ball game, you must stand on the board and lean left or right to move your player towards the ball. It's a lot harder than it looks I can say! The Ski Jump game really makes you lean forward properly in order for the character to do the same, when you make the jump you must stand straight and press down on the Board. It works really well and is a lot of fun, and I can see myself trying to better my distance by perfecting my "technique". Lastly, the tightrope walking game has your character walking over a tightrope suspending over a city and you must lean left or right to keep your balance and is surprisingly addictive! There are lots of other modes too, and these are just the tip of the ice-berg! Other modes include Yoga, Aerobic Workout and Muscle Training and they all make use of the Balance Board (or in some cases the Wiimote only), to varying degrees.
The Balance Board can of course be used for much more than gaming. As said at the beginning of the review, it will work out your Body Mass Index (you must input your date of birth and height when first registering your "Mii" character on the Wii Fit game in order for it to work this out) , and you can keep track on whether or not all the fitness exercises you are doing are working. You can even set yourself a goal for how many pounds you want to lose and by when, and it will work out a regime accordingly Pretty handy I'd say!
Any bad points? To date I haven't really any bad points to report. One complaint could be that it takes a little while to get used to the nuances of the Balance Board, and how to correctly position yourself your different games, but in Wii Fit you are eased in gently and after a while you will be using it without any problems. I'm a little concerned that the Balance Board may not be used to its full potential for a while, as developers get to grips with what can be achieved by using this peripheral, and it always takes a while for games to make use of new technology, but perhaps the popularity of the Wii should encourage developers to take a chance. I really am salivating at the prospect of a decent snowboarding simulation using the Wii Balance Board, but there will no doubt be more fitness orientated applications for this device as owners of this device increase. Much like the Nintendo DS brought "Brain Training" and an awareness of exercising your brain to the masses, so will the Wii Balance Board and Wii Fit bring an awareness of keeping fit to the masses, which can't be a bad thing!
Conclusion
So then, I would really recommend this to you for when it arrives on store shelves here, it really is a great little piece of kit that brings potentially, yet again, a whole new dimension to gaming!
Add to list 
Recommend it 
Receive review alert 
Write a review 
Publish video review 
Make a comment 
Print it 
