Wii Fit and Balance Board Review

This year for Christmas we got a Wii Fit "for the kids" (and a Wii system, we didn't have one before this year). This was going to be our main gift for everyone, since it has been a little bit of a tough year financially. We were lucky and stumbled onto the Steve and Barry closeout sale, so there were also hoodies galore for everyone, otherwise the older kids would probably not have much of their own in the way of gifts from Santa this year. Since this has been a bad health year for me (I really won't mention this in EVERY post), I was pretty excited when I was able to get a Wii Fit. I started calling all the usual stores, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Best Buy, etc. long before Thanksgiving. No luck. Some stores had them for Black Friday, but that's a game I don't ever want to play. My version of Hell is getting up that early, in that cold of weather, to line up outside a store and wait, and ESPECIALLY be surrounded by that many people and have to stand in line for as long as I would need to to pay for whatever I was looking for. And that is IF, and only if, I was able to actually get what I had come for (which, from what I've heard from other people probably wouldn't happen anyway). No way, no how.

So, again, all the first two weeks of December I called faithfully, every store, every day. Then someone tipped me off that Smith's Marketplace might have them. I called and they said they had had them but were out. I added them to my list of daily calls. One day, the second to the last day I could go shopping before my ill-fated bladder surgery, I sat in the parking lot of ShopKo, starting my usual round of calls. No luck. Then, as an afterthought, I remembered Smith's Marketplace. I called and when the electronics guy said they actually had one I yelled in his ear, "YOU DO?" "Um, yes, we do." "Well, ok then, I'll be right there!" So, that is the very long story of how we got the balance board. I had already made my mom pick up the actual Wii a couple of weeks earlier at WalMart. It came bundled with Wii Play, for no savings at all, that's just the only way they sold it. On Christmas morning we found out that the Wii Play remote didn't work at all. I have not yet felt like braving the crowds to return it and pick up a new one so we haven't been able to play each other yet, much to Hal's chagrin. I'm pretty sure he thinks he can whip any one of us at any game. (It should probably be noted too that the year we were going to go "light on the presents" has actually cost us much more than we would have normally spent. The Wii and Wii play cost $299 and the balance board was $89. (Plus tax, which was another $19 on the Wii bundle alone.) But, it has been fun. And, it has been fun for the whole family. Together. So, I think it is well worth it, except for one or two little things that I feel like I should mention:

The Wii fit isn't nice. As in, it says mean things to you. It has told most of us that our balance is terrible, and even goes so far as to ask if we have trouble walking. (Which I assure you, we have not. At least not lately.) When it initially gets your specifications, it even gives you your "real" age. Not flattering, my friend. As we have all watched each other, I think we have secretly felt like we could do much better. I know I did. The girls each had ages higher than their real age, so when it was my turn I was pretty confident. Nope. They all got a laugh when my "real" age was 5 years older than my calendar age. I could see the gleam in Hal's eye as he stepped on the board. Then he went through all the various tests. And then, drumroll please, his real age......52! The rest of us had a good laugh over that one. The last thing that is pretty upsetting, especially to Morgan. When you don't do well, which we haven't because we are just starting out, your little Mii guy looks so sad! Sometimes they even collapse to the ground and beat it with their fists. They probably could have done without that feature for those of us who are particularly sensitive.