SKIING NEWS ITEM

Go Skiing Indoors with Wii Fit

MONDAY, 21 APRIL 2008
Submitted By: Maricar Cinco

With Nintendo’s latest video program, people will be ski jumping, snowboarding, and even tightrope walking under their own roofs.

Wii Fit is Nintendo's newest product that promises to keep users at home. It is an extension of the Wii Sport, which was first released in 2005 that allowed users to "play" simulated Nintendo sports while watching a computer-generated character of themselves competing. Wii Fit, by contrast, uses a wireless motion-sensitive "balance board" that measures the Body Mass Index and center of gravity. It includes 40 exercises or balance games such as ski jump and tightrope walk, yoga poses, muscle workouts, and aerobic exercises including boxing. The on-screen instructor ensures that the user is performing the exercise correctly.

Shannon Ferney from the University of Queensland's School of Human Movement explains that people of the present generation are technologically savvy. She says people nowadays like doing stuff in front of computers since this is what they have grown up with.

Wii Fit costs $149.95. In Japan, Nintendo has already sold nearly two million copies and plans to release it in Europe this week, in Australia on May 8, and in the US on May 19.

For more details on this news, please visit www.theage.com.au.

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