We have a great list of Wii Fitness games for you to check out.
The rise of the Wii back since 2006 spawned a huge new surge in fitness games. With accurate motion sensing technology and some ingenious peripherals, the Wii fitness market called out to a whole new section of gamers across the globe.
There’s a huge amount of Wii fitness games out there, and everyone is bound to find something they’ll enjoy, but if you’re struggling, here’s a helpful list of the Wii titles guaranteed to put a smile on your face while you shed those pounds.
EA Sports Active Series
Almost like your own personal gym, 2008’s EA Sports Active offered personal trainers, 30 day challenges, and a large number of workout regimens. Players can choose their own calorie-burning or timed goals, and can work towards them with personalised routines based on your own preferences and difficulty settings.
Much as a personal trainer might, EA Sports Active also tries to balance the workout, letting you know if you’ve spent too long working on a certain body part. The Wii Balance Board is compatible but not essential, and instead the game relies on a pouch that straps onto the leg and holds the Nunchuk, allowing the game to pick up lower body movements as well.
An expansion pack, EA Sports Active: More Workouts was released in November 2009, and a sequel, EA Sports Active 2 was released in November 2010, adding new regimens and more customisation options.
EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp
EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp stemmed from the EA Sports Active series but focusses much more on the male audience, using American Football to diversify the exercises. The game is fully licensed by the NFL and has even more sensitivity than the other EA Sports Active games, using a heart rate monitor to keep track of your heart rate as you progress through the exercises.
The game modes are entirely different to the rest of the series, including routines such as the 40-yard dash and a 60 day challenge of various football drills.
Get Fit with Mel B
Melanie Brown might be more famous for being Scary Spice in the Spice Girls, but she’s branched out a lot more since then.
Get Fit with Mel B offers over 100 different exercises focussing on everything from cardio to toning, and dance fit to kickboxing. The game also offers real-time suggestions to improve your posture, motions and positioning, and even comes with a personal nutrition plan and recipes.
Released in 2010, the game is also available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, though there is little difference between the versions. The Playstation Move Camera and Xbox Kinect can offer more real-time observation of more body parts, but the exercises are much the same.
Gold’s Gym: Cardio Workout
Gold’s Gym: Cardio Workout was released in the UK and Europe as My Fitness Coach: Cardio Workout in 2009. This game uses the ‘shape boxing’ regimen of the Kyoei Boxing Gym, including shadowboxing alongside more traditional muscle and cardio exercises.
The Wii Balance Board is useable but not essential, and the game also comes with nutritional guidance to offer a rounded fitness regime.
Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum
Jillian Michaels is best known as trainer on The Biggest Loser, and it’s unsurprising that she’s made the jump to exercise video games. Both a 2009 and 2010 edition was released, using the Wii Balance Board and Remote to complete four types of workouts: Weight Loss, Strength Training, Intervals and Hill Climb.
Players can choose the exercise, duration and intensity to match the regimen to their needs, and in the competitive spirit of The Biggest Loser, players can play against one another in real-time to see who can burn the most calories
UFC Personal Trainer
Mixed Martial Arts has grown in popularity at an astonishing rate over the past ten years, and a Wii fitness game linked to the sport was almost inevitable.
Again geared towards male players, the game’s exercises use motions and targets similar to those used in the sport. For example, punching combos and takedowns are common routines in the game.
Wii Fit Series
Without a doubt the most well-known Wii fitness game out there, the Wii Fit series is the first option for many players. The first game to introduce the Wii Balance Board back in 2008, Wii Fit offers a diverse combination of aerobic, balance, yoga and strength exercises.
The Balance Board not only increases the number of game types available but also allows the game to record your posture and weight, enabling a more thorough record of progress to be kept.
Leaderboards and competitions between different users of the game make the Wii Fit suitable not only as an exercise game, but a party game as well. Combining fun and fitness is perhaps why the Wii Fit series has stayed so popular.
A sequel, Wii Fit Plus, was released in 2009 with new activities and exercises, and the opportunity to create your own fitness regime so that you can simply click a button and play all of your favourite activities one after the other.
Yoga Wii
More therapeutic and relaxing than many other fitness games, Yoga Wii focusses entirely on using the Wii Balance Board to instruct and guide players through more than 30 yoga exercises and positions.
Your Shape
Despite being released on the Wii, Your Shape chose not to use the Wii Remote tracking system, and instead shipped with its own camera to track exercises and motions.
Jenny McCarthy, model and entertainer, fronted this game, which allowed players to tailor exercises to particular parts of the body depending on their preferences.
Zumba Fitness Series
The hottest fitness craze of the momentZumba was destined to land on the Wii. To enable the Wii to properly detect movements a belt was included which slotted the Wii Remote onto the player’s hip: the most used body part in Zumba.
The game supported multiple players, making it a party experience, not just a fitness one, and the wild success of the first game led to multiple sequels.
Zumba Fitness 2 introduced different dance styles, including Hip Hop, Merengue and Reggaeton, as well as music by some of the world’s biggest recording artists such as Pitbull and Nicole Scherzinger.
Zumba Fitness Core in 2012 offered more specific focus on the abdomen and even more new dance styles.
Zumba Fitness: World Party is one of the most recent offerings, with more songs and multiplayer options than previous games.
Zumba Kids was the last game ever released for the Wii in Europe before the console was discontinued, and, as the name suggests, focussed on kids and therefore easier routines.
Did we miss any? Want to weigh in on your personal favourite fitness games? Let us know in the comments below!
