Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The same reasons you don't use that gym membership are going to haunt you if you buy the Wii Fit - you're too fat. You're too old. You're too awkward. I'm 48, fat, and trying hard to get in shape. I exercise a LOT, and was pleased to get the Wii Fit; I thought I'd found a new exercise to keep my enthusiasm up. Instead, every single time I stand on the thing, it announces in a cutesy, childish voice, "That's OBESE." The first time it did it, I was okay; I'm not an idiot. I know how overweight I am and figured it was recording my stats in its memory, where it would brood them until it had some useful information to offer. But the second day, it pointed it out to me again. Did it think perhaps I was suddenly going to loose the fifty pounds? Or maybe the twenty-five that was going to put me at the (oh how joyous) "That's OVERWEIGHT" stage? Did it think I needed a reminder? On the third day ("That's OBESE!"), I weighed more - and it actually forced me to select why I thought I'd gained weight from a list of eight items, none of which was "Just drank a massive pot of tea so quit your whining." Then I was treated to a lecture on eating. There's not much you can tell a fat person about eating; I KNOW I should balance my meals and avoid snacking. Thanks for the hot tip. The Wii Fit offers you your "Wii Age," based on your weight, height, real age, and ability to balance. On the first day, it told me I was 62. I got a little lecture. By the second day, I'd sussed out the balance tests and made it to 38; at that point the Wii told me "you're still in pretty good shape." That "still" is so condescending, isn't it? Methinks we've got a slight bias towards youth and slimness... just like in the average gym. When I first did the balance tests, the machine actually mocked me. "I see balance isn't your thing. Do you find you trip when you walk?" This is offered as a smile; but it's the smile of a taut twenty-something who has no idea that one day, age will be visiting him or her, too. Time will catch up to the heartless, ageist programmers... in the meantime, I'm going to take my Wii Fit out to the driveway and crush it beneath the wheels of my obese van. It has insulted and demoralized me for the last time. And the exercises didn't even challenge me - so while it was insulting me, I wasn't even breaking a sweat. If you're a kid or someone who's within the bounds of what insurance companies think you should weigh, go ahead - buy it. It probably won't insult you. But if you aren't the type to preen in every mirror you come to, think twice. It's a pretty expensive way to be humiliated and discouraged.