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Beyonce expresses interest in fitness game, men everywhere pre-order

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 9th 2009 at 6:00AM }

In a rather lengthy interview with Billboard, music megastar Beyoncé intimated that she'd like to create her own fitness game. She told the magazine that she "really" loves Wii Fit -- and her DS, of course -- but added that she'd like to see the game include dancing. Her own workouts are apparently much more enjoyable when they include dancing, rather than simply "running on a boring treadmill."

Noting that "a lot of women would enjoy" a fitness game bearing her likeness, she didn't mention how much men would also enjoy a game in which Beyoncé dances. Is there a better motivation for us to get rid of these beer guts?

EA Sports Active is EA's best-selling Wii game ever

by JC Fletcher { Aug 4th 2009 at 5:15PM }

Throwing stuff at stuff is okay, but what Wii owners really like is stretching. That's the takeaway we've gleaned from EA's quarterly financial results, which reveal that EA Sports Active, selling "over 1.8 million copies in the quarter," is not just a genuine hit -- it's the publisher's best-selling Wii title to date.

If EA hadn't already announced that expansions and versions for other consoles were coming out, now is right about when we would say "there are totally going to be sequels to this." Although, we suppose, technically, the second EA Sports released a game was the second we knew there'd be another one in a year.

New dieting app uses DSi camera for time-lapse humiliation

by JC Fletcher { Aug 4th 2009 at 1:30PM }

Namco Bandai's DSiWare fitness app, Diet Memo, has been officially revealed, after the title showed up in the original Namco Bandai DSiWare announcement back in February. Non-game diet stuff might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but this one at least seems to be implemented smartly.

Diet Memo uses the DSi camera extensively, for before-and-after photos of your stomach and other areas in which you hope to lose weight. You can also snap pictures of food you've eaten and annotate them with calorie data. According to Andriasang, the game can store up to ten meals a day for 90 days, though if you're eating ten meals a day, you may not need such a sophisticated weight loss product (here's your new plan: don't do that).

It also lets players record their weight twice a day, providing a graph of the long-term changes in weight and body fat. This can be exported to CSV and transferred to a computer via SD card, so players can obsessively chart their own stats -- which is both really creepy and very helpful for dieting. Diet Memo will be out tomorrow in Japan.

[Via Gpara, Andriasang]

Daisy Fuentes Pilates stretches onto Wii August 4

by Justin McElroy { Jul 20th 2009 at 3:32PM }

Health and fitness is the fastest growing segment of the games market and Daisy Fuentes is the fastest growing segment of "Former America's Funniest Home Videos Hosts We Don't Care About," if you don't count John Fugelsang. So it's great to see that these two powerhouses are working together, teaming for Daisy Fuentes Pilates, which Sega announced will arrive on August 4.

We can't wait to see if Daisy can dethrone EA Sports Active the same way she dethroned Saget.

Health games big business, experts push for exergaming in schools

by David Hinkle { Jun 26th 2009 at 3:00AM }

Thanks to the success of games such as Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009, the medical community is starting to take games seriously as a means to ~~pump you up~~ keep us healthy. Reuters reports that at this year's fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston, a bolstered attendance brought health experts together to talk about these games, and you'd be surprised how much money these titles generated last year.

"Healthcare is 18 percent of the GDP of the United States and so games for health is probably the largest sector of activity in the serious games field long-term," said Ben Sawyer, a co-founder of The Games for Health Project. He added, "If you add up the 18 month sales of Wii Fit and the sales of EA Sports Active, Konami's Dance Dance Revolution and other healthy games, the worldwide retail numbers are over $2 billion." That's not a bad slice of the $22 billion pie that gaming lovingly prepared last year, if we may say so.

Some experts think the government should look into offering these types of games in schools to help kids learn the importance of exercise, while others think that a public service campaign should be started and backed by the president, Congress, and other federal agencies. We'd comment, but we really only play Wii Fit for the hulahoop game.

EA Sports Active gets active in extracting money from wallets

by David Hinkle { Jun 1st 2009 at 11:45PM }

EA Sports was very happy to announce today that it's Wii fitness bundle EA Sports Active had a tremendously successful start, selling over 600,000 copies since its May 19 release. In case you were wondering why EA was so quick to put out an expansion, yeah, that's why. It's not like the company desperately wants you to lose those love handles, you know.

Majesco whipping up two more Jillian Michaels fitness games

by Griffin McElroy { May 12th 2009 at 1:30PM }

Apparently, Mrs. Michaels' last Ultimatum wasn't ultimate enough -- a recent Majesco press release dropped an announcement that the Biggest Loser star would be featured in two new games this year: Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2010 and Jillian Michaels' Pocket Trainer 2010. Man, we don't want to be rude or anything, but this couldn't have come at a better time. Our pockets have seriously let themselves go.

Both games are set to drop this fall, and will likely each be purchased 500,000 times.

Joystiq hands-on: EA Sports Active

by Kevin Kelly { May 8th 2009 at 2:00PM }

While Wii Fit never really felt like it could replace the gym experience entirely, EA Sports Active actually does feel like it offers an approximation -- and they did it simply by including a piece of rubber. Amazing, right? We took the new personal trainer for a spin yesterday, and while we don't know if this will give us a Charles Atlas body right away, it definitely felt like a substantial workout.

Go on, "break" a sweat in our review ... behind the break. Sadly, bad puns do not burn any calories whatsoever.

Gallery: EA Sports Active

Continued →

Video: EA Sports Active Balance Board features in detail

by Xav de Matos { Apr 14th 2009 at 10:00AM }

You've already seen what comes in the box, now watch what the Balance Board adds to EA Sports Active. Using the fitness-focused peripheral, players can lunge to hit tennis balls, skate on one foot and dance the night away, all in the name of exergaming. Of course, use of the peripheral is optional but this trailer recommends adding it to your daily routine and the game's 30 Day Challenge (aka, the Career Mode) to "broaden" Active's variety.

To recap: EA Sports Active makes use of a leg strap, resistance band, the Wii-mote, nunchuck and (optional) Balance Board. We presume EA is looking to break some kind of Guinness World Record for most peripherals used by a player, at once. We can't wait for Active's next add-on to be revealed -- a spandex leotard that measures the player's heart rate and reduces their self-respect.

Gallery: EA Sports ACTIVE

NYC schools testing Wii Fit for Phys Ed.

by David Hinkle { Apr 7th 2009 at 3:00PM }

Some New York city schools are testing a new program for physical education, one that utilizes Nintendo's popular Wii Fit package. Trading in dodge balls for Balance Boards, several different schools received free bundles from Nintendo, but Lori Rose Benson, head of the Department of Education's Office of Fitness and Health Education, admits she wasn't on board at first. It didn't take her long to get with the program, however, as she realized that "students learn in lots of different ways and that we can engage students in physical activity through gaming and through interactive techniques," which is really what's important. Well, that and making sure you block all of those soccer balls.

Gallery: Peripherals that paved the way for the Balance Board

Here are the sports in EA Sports Active

by Justin McElroy { Mar 16th 2009 at 9:30AM }

If you're anything like us, you've been staring ruefully at your gut thinking, "Just you wait until EA Sports Active comes out Mr. Tumnus, then we'll see who's the boss!" Meanwhile, your belly's remembering similar conversations before the release of Wii Fit and My Fitness Coach and sporting as much of a smile as stomachs can manage, which is really more of a smirk.

Now, thanks to the game's official site, we've got a full list of actual sports contained within the game to help you give your tummy threats a little more impact, including "Squat Jump, Fast Dance and Punch Bag," which (assuming the rules haven't changed from our days at St. Victoria's School for Troubled Boys) has us hoping for an included Wii Cup. Check out the full list of activities after the break.

Continued →

Fitness 'expert' prepares class-action lawsuit against Nintendo

by JC Fletcher { Feb 11th 2009 at 9:30PM }

Michael Torchia, "fitness expert" and host of the upcoming AM talk radio show "Shape Up, America," has announced plans for a class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, claiming that people are injuring themselves playing Wii games. Torchia says that many players injure themselves on the Wii because Nintendo has not properly warned consumers that warming up is necessary before exercise.

Torchia's press release claims that the proliferation of Wii Fit has led to players sustaining "injuries in their knees, back and wrists because of overuse and improper warm- up."

In addition, Torchia claims that Nintendo is misrepresenting the Wii's effectiveness as an exercise tool. " ... Nintendo is contributing to the epidemic of obesity. Young and old are putting away their gym clothes and shying away from going outdoors to play sports, because the addictive appeal to the Wii game products." In Torchia's estimation, then, Wii games are both poor exercise and excessively strenuous exercise. Like eating a pizza tied to the back of a moving car!

[Via What They Play]

'Nintendo Active Health' trademark inspires idle speculation

by JC Fletcher { Jan 13th 2009 at 10:00AM }

Siliconera's Spencer noticed a trademark in the European trademark database, filed on January 8, for something called "Nintendo Active Health". He correctly eliminated Nintendo's DS walking game Personal Trainer: Walking, which is called Walk With Me: Do you know your walking routine? in Europe.

Unfortunately, that leaves us with the problem of what Nintendo Active Health is. It could be an upcoming fitness-based game, perhaps a sequel to Wii Fit; or maybe something with more of an emphasis on other health-related topics besides exercise, like eating habits. Or it could just be an abandoned name for Wii Fit (like "Health Pack") that Nintendo didn't want anyone else using. Less likely, it could be some kind of hardware warranty program, for the health of your console!

Gallery: Wii Fit

[Via Joystiq]

EA Sports Active: Call Now

by JC Fletcher { Jan 7th 2009 at 7:10PM }

If you're going to try to sell a fitness item to people, you might as well use the marketing methods employed by other fitness items. At least, that's the philosophy seemingly behind this new trailer for EA Sports Active, which would be right at home in the late-night Paid Programming television block.

Bob Greene, whom you might know from his work with Oprah, demonstrates the fitness title in much the same way as we could imagine, say, Chuck Norris and Christie Brinkley, or Fitness Celebrity John Basedow doing. Except, rather than the spaces between segments of HGTV shows, these trailers are going to end up being shown mostly on gaming websites like this one, to people who probably wouldn't be receptive of the advertising even if we did like the game (which we kind of do!)

Gallery: EA Sports ACTIVE

In the UK? Get Wii Fit for �50 this Friday

by Chris Greenhough { Dec 11th 2008 at 7:24PM }

You can file this one in the "almost too good to be true" pile -- in fact, while you read this post, we advise repeatedly pinching yourself. If you're a Brit searching for a copy of Wii Fit in time for Christmas, you'll already know that nowhere has it. As we see it, you have three options:

You can buy your loved ones something that isn't Wii Fit and ruin Christmas for everybody like a big jerk.
You can fork out obscene amounts of cash for a copy from some eBay scalper who bought the last 25 units at GameStation in November.
You can visit BuyItPlayIt this Friday and press F5 a lot. The site has a big old pile of Wii Fits that will be on sale from 1:00pm GMT, with the first fifty going for the unbelievable price of £50 (in probably less than fifty seconds). That's £20 lower than the standard price. We are quite certain that the site could charge twice that and clear its inventory in minutes, but there you go.