Nintendo’s exercise game Wii Fit has returned to the top of the videogames sales chart, 14 weeks after it was first released. The game, which saw a 17 per cent jump in sales over the last two weeks has occupied the top spot in the sales chart on four occasions since its launch.
Wii Fit uses a motion-sensitive board to encourage players to develop their balance, strength and fitness levels.
The start of the Olympics in Beijing certainly had an affect on new sales of the fitness game wii fit as well as boosting exposure of other wii titles, including another Nintendo Wii game, Big Beach Sports, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, in which the spiky blue hedgehog and portly Italian plumber go head to head in a series of athletic events.
In related Nintendo news, another Nintendo game, Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training, enjoys its 82nd week in the games charts, propping up the table at number 12. The game, which was released in 2006, is played on Nintendo’s handheld DS games console, and has been credited with bringing a whole new generation of “casual” players to the world of videogaming, especially women and young children.
Following in the trailblazing footsteps of titles like Nintendogs and Brain Age, Wii Fit is another brainchild of Shigeru Miyamoto. The game was inspired by the practice of weighing oneself daily and, according to its creator, is more about self-awareness than it is about weight loss. The game that comes packed with a Balance Board peripheral doesn’t worry about plot or graphics or even new concepts in play, instead it focuses intently on motivating gamers to get on that board.
Wii Fit is in many ways the next step in Wii Sports, a title that boils gaming down to it’s most rudimentary elements of interaction and fun. But can even Miyamoto make tracking your BMI and doing Yoga interesting?
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Ubisoft announced the development of Shaun White Snowboarding today, a title they say is “destined to break all former action sports video game notions and redefine the action sports genre.”
That’s quite a promise!
Scheduled for release this winter, Shaun White Snowboarding will rock the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and the Nintendo Wii.
Powered by the award-winning Assassin’s Creed engine for Xbox 360 and the PS3 system, Shaun White Snowboarding is being developed from the ground up for the Wii system, taking full advantage of the Wii Balance Board accessory and featuring its own unique storyline and adventure with Shaun White.
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The videogame version of the Score internationals Baja 1000 desert race promises to give gamers a chance to participate in blistering, sun-drenched endurance races without ever leaving their climate-controlled living rooms.
According to Activision, the game features:
Over 90 vehicles across multiple classes… including trophy trucks, class I, motorcycles, ATVs and more – the game challenges players to not only be first across the finish line, but also keep their machine intact! Hyper-realistic dirt and damage modeling in the game means players need to be crazy enough to take chances, but not so reckless that their vehicle is destroyed before the race is over.
Developed by Left Field Productions, the game will be available this fall for the PlayStation 2, Playstation 3 , Xbox 360, Wii and PC. There’s a single, lonely screenshot over on G4tv.
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