Could Wii Fit Be Benefitical for Dancers?

Happy 2025! In this episode, we talk about Wii Fit, a game that was released for the Wii in the late 2000s, that was meant to create a fun way for people to get exercise and stay healthy. I played the game as a kid frequently, and I loved it. But now I am starting to think about how the structure of the game could have played a role in potential body image issues down the line. 

Please keep in mind that all opinions are my own, I am not a health professional in ANY way, so please take what I say with a grain of salt. Any claims made about the game are alleged. 

Thank you all for listening! Follow me on Instagram at @dissectingdance for current updates on postings and more!

Transcript

0:18

Hello everybody, welcome to Dissecting Dance, Kicking It With Ren podcast. This is Ren and we're back. Happy 2025 to all of you out there who may be listening, but also who are not listening. I like to be inclusive. So yeah, happy 2025. This is my first episode that I'm recording this year, although not the first published episode of this year. This is the first episode I'm actively recording in 2025. So it's very exciting, very great. I know that I had a December hiatus, I apologize for that. Hopefully, hopefully will we stay consistent and by we, I mean me, and we're able to actually, you know, record and upload consistently. Once again, I upload every other Thursday, new year, new me. So I'm using a new, I guess in all news, I'm using a new platform to record. So hopefully that will make things a little bit easier going forward. And I'm back to my high quality mic. So that's really nice. Everything just felt a little more sporadic back in 2024. So 2025, we're going to try and be a little more organized. Hopefully that helps. Yeah. So today's topic, today's a fun topic. So if you don't know, if you didn't read the title of the episode, we're going to be talking about We Fit. We Fit was a game I played as a child. I absolutely love that game, has a ton of fun games and such. And I kind of wanted to see, you know, recently this podcast has became, you know, not only a dance podcast, but it's also like for movers, like it's also become a podcast for movers as I've started to realize that, you know, in society, like a lot of the things that I've wanted to talk about are not, they don't only apply to the dance world. They can apply to a plethora of other things. So that's basically, yeah, and I believe fitness plays a huge role. Like the standards are very similar. Now I'm being disorganized. But before I actually go into We Fit entirely, I just want to let you all know some other episodes that are going to be coming out within the next few weeks. The first episode is, obviously this one, this is the first one you'll see. How will We Fit like kind of work for dancers and how you can kind of work with that a little bit. And then the next episode that will come out two weeks after this episode, Dancing with the Stars Live 2025 tour review or show review, performance review. Ever since starting this podcast, I knew from the get-go that I wanted to use this platform as an opportunity to, you know, talk about shows that I've attended, talking about just, you know, things outside of my little, things outside of my little circle, doing some media reviews. Me and my friend, Kayla, we reviewed the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader making the team. No, that was America's Sweethearts. That was the one we focused on. But we did something like that. This is different though. This is a performance review. So I was lucky enough that I was able to attend one of the live shows in one of the cities. So that's been really fun. And then I've also been especially grateful to be able to attend another one. So I'm going to wait. I almost did the Dancing with the Stars episode first, but I want to go to the second show to see if anything has changed because the second show will have other guests. I'll get to kind of look at something different, a little different, that is. But anyways, and then the next episode coming up, we will be with a trauma therapist or a therapist who specializes in trauma. And we're going to be kind of taking a nice little deep dive into, it's not nice, but you know, we'll be kind of exploring how dance can cause trauma, but also ways of recovering from trauma and, you know, how that can apply to dance. So those are the episodes that you have to look forward to. I'm going to try really hard to be more active on Instagram. So follow me at Dissecting Dance on Instagram. That's the only social media I have, at least for now, until I can get my life together. Hopefully this new platform will help with my social media venture. Okay, so now we're going to get to the actual topic. WeFit. So I have my little script out in front of me. So for those of you who don't know what WeFit is or haven't grown up with WeFit, WeFit is a video game developed for the Nintendo Wii console. The point of the system or the point of the game is to promote physical activity and wellness through playing games and having fun and having a good time. The game was released in 2007 in Japan and 2008 everywhere else. The big mechanic that WeFit and its other game uses is the Wii Balance Board, which is a pressure-sensitive platform to track the player's movement and balance. It also acts as a scale, but we'll get to that in a second. If you're not familiar with the Wii Balance Board, you can Google it. You'll be able to find it there. It will show you pictures and such. So WeFit has three games in its franchise. It has WeFit, WeFit Plus, and WeFit U, so I will kind of try and get into each of those. So we'll start with WeFit. So they divide their exercises into four categories, yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance games. And it kind of sounds exactly how you would describe it. With yoga poses and strength training, you will actually be working with a WeFit trainer. You can pick male or female. There's no in-between, unfortunately, but that just didn't exist in 2008 or whenever. So you can either pick a man or a woman for which WeFit trainer you want. In my opinion, the female trainer is significantly better than the male. She's just amazing, and I think she's iconic. Also great character in Smash Bros, but that's not the point. Aerobics and balance games, you're actually able to use a me. These are all games allowing you to use your imagination. So aerobics category has nine games as well as balance games. I believe off the top of my head, aerobics has some running games, some hula hooping games, some stepping games where you just step on and off the balance board to a specific rhythm, and trying to remember what else they have, and some other games. They definitely have a lot of games, and the point of those games is to get your heart rate up and get your body moving. As my script puts it, enhance cardiovascular fitness with fun, high energy exercises. I believe I don't need to explain yoga and strength training. I think that's pretty standard. The balance game, the point of balance games is to improve your coordination, your hand, eye, body, whatever coordination. So that game has stuff like the ski jump. It also has games like snowboarding, many games to help you stay coordinated, and if you've played those games or you've seen someone online play those games, you know that it takes a lot of balance and coordination, especially for ski jumping. I'm just getting into what the game is, and then I'll talk about my unprofessional opinions on the game, but essentially with all of these games, the game wants you to do something called a body test every single day. So that's basically where you can set fitness goals, weight goals, it's supposed to track your weight based on, and then it calculates your, it uses BMI to determine where your weight stands. And then there are also some multiplayer options too. I don't use multi, I haven't used multiplayer very often. I don't think there's like a need to. It just, I don't, yeah, and now, and that's basically what Wii Fit is. You know, you have the body test and then how do you apply that body test to meet your fitness goals? I think that was like their point to that. And then afterwards they came out with Wii Fit Plus, which arguably I think is the best game. It was released in 2009 and added things such as like new activities, creating routines and being able to track calories. I did not know that the calorie part was new. Maybe I just only played with Wii Fit Plus because arguably it's a good game and I enjoy the games on there. So Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, they had, they have games such as juggling where you would basically be balancing on a ball, not literally, but metaphorically, your knee would be balancing on a ball and you would have a remote and a nunchuck in your hand and you would kind of imitate a juggling without a juggling show without falling over. They also had like snowball fights, obstacle course, they really had a lot of games too. Those weren't divided out into categories or anything. They were just all together in one fun little area by themselves. My favorite game was like the marching band game. Loved that game. I can't play it very often because if I march too loud, everyone will hear me. And I forgot to add that one of the aerobics games, I can't believe I forgot it, it's like the most iconic game is the stepping game where you step to a certain beat and it's really fun. That one's a good game. They have two versions of that. So after the Wii Fit Plus came out, arguably that one was like super popular, when the Wii U came out, they also made a game called Wii Fit Plus U, although I don't think it's actually called that. This one they changed their entire UI, they added some new games that incorporated the game pad. Once again, if you don't know what that is, look it up. And that game, they added a dance component. Now I haven't been able to play the dance component, but I'll tell you all about it. They have very fun little styles that you can do. I think they had like hip hop salsa, I think they had jazz too. I think they had like a pop lock one. I honestly, I should know this, like I should have looked this up beforehand. But that game was also like that was like the big standout is that they added like a dance component. And I'll kind of give my stance on that in a minute. Wii Fit U has over 70 activities. They pulled some from older titles such as Wii Fit Plus specifically, and they also added some new activities. And then some of the new exercises, as I mentioned, were dance routines, mini games, and activities like climbing that used the Wii U game pad and or the balance board. So the Wii U game pad pretty much acted as like a second screen. But also part of what made the body test different on the Wii Fit Plus was that the game pad has like a camera. And basically whenever you would like get your weight checked, if you opted into that, you would, it would take a picture of your face and then it would store it. And I just remember covering the camera for that because when you're like 10 years old, I don't know why you would need that. But that's not the point. And then another special component was the Wii Fit meter, which is a small pedometer that syncs with the game to track steps, elevation changes, and calories burned throughout the day. And then data from that meter will be uploaded to the Wii U console. And that that can allow your actual activity to be tracked more easily instead of basing it on a game. So now you're not entirely dependent on playing Wii Fit to get your exercise in. You also have a pedometer that's tracking your steps and stuff and predicted calorie loss or something. And Wii Fit U kept a lot of the components such as workout routines and once again used metrics like BMI, posture balance, and calorie tracking. I haven't, once again, I haven't tried the multiplayer and family features because I'm the only person in my family that actually played the game. But the point of Wii Fit originally and through the franchise was to blend fitness and entertainment together, making exercising fun for people of all ages. Now on that note, I added a little controversy, controversy slash problem section. Now I want to add that all of these are alleged and also my opinion. Like I said, I am not any kind of health professional. I'm not qualified to state like, like I'm take basically take everything I say with a grain of salt. That's all I'm going to say about it. Like don't, don't overthink essentially. Like don't, don't take what I say for, for, for certain. This is just based on my own research. But yeah, so one of, so one of the things that I've seen like around forums is that the balance board allegedly, allegedly rigging the player's weight to make it seem like they are gaining or losing weight based on their goals in order to keep people playing the game. Now, when I talk about this, this is specifically for people who do the body test every day. Um, so, and you could argue that, you know, based on statistics that your weight fluctuates by a pound or two based on the amount of like water you drink or something like that, or what you ate 10 minutes ago, um, or didn't, um, 10 minutes ago. So like you could, you could also argue that, that the weight does fluctuate, um, from time to time. Um, but I heard people talking about it, so I figured I'd bring it up, um, that, that idea is out there that people do think that way. I can't confirm or deny it. Um, the other thing, um, and I kind of emphasize this a little earlier is another controversy controversy is the use of BMI and why it's problematic. Um, for those of you who don't know, um, BMI is, BMI is a number that is created strictly based on your height and weight. And there are certain criteria on like what a BMI is. So like, I don't know that criteria, but essentially what BMI does is says, he's your height, here's your weight, and here's a number to tell you whether you are healthy or not. Now, once again, this is completely based on like unprofessional, like, I don't know anything. Like I don't, I don't know enough to properly talk about how problematic it is. But, um, it also completely disregards body types and it runs the risk of causing eating disorders. Um, we won't get into that right now. But essentially, essentially, let me word it this way, that I think when people make the assumption that someone is overweight or obese, which is like one of the pillars that WeFit separates you in, that it makes you assume, oh, like, this is unhealthy. Like, this is like this, like they consider it as, oh, I have a lot of fat on my body and that's not good. However, um, something to note is that muscle weighs more than fat and WeFit doesn't consider that, but it also doesn't consider genetically how your body grows, um, where weight is like distributed throughout. So I, I, I couldn't, I couldn't explain it well enough to save my life, but you know, look up Alona Mar, like she's a perfectly healthy person who has been considered overweight, even though she's just super fit and that's something that tends to happen a lot, um, in this world. Um, so yeah, needless to say, I have issues with the fact that they use BMI to determine whether you're healthy or not, but also I don't know what else they would even use. That's not the point though. Um, and kind of going off of that, they emphasize that being overweight and obese was inherently a bad thing. Um, by having the me clap when it was at a healthy weight and playing happy music when the me was overweight or obese, it would play confused me with music and the me would hold its stomach and actually gain the weight. Now when you're nine years old, when you're nine, 10 years old and you're playing that game, I don't know how many of you played the game when you were kids. Don't play the, don't, don't do the body test as a kid. Um, unfortunately you do have to go through it when you first create your me, but that didn't numbers. Don't don't. It's not, it's not good. Um, but also my, I mean, okay, we're not going to talk about feelings right now. Um, but that's, those are like the controversies that like, those are like the main controversy controversies that I've noticed within the game. Um, like the biggest problems that I've seen online, but also could or could not be applicable to myself. So that being said, um, my review, um, does we fit, could it work for dancers? I don't think I made that very clear. Um, but for the sake of this review, I will be using we fit plus I have played we fit you in the past, so I will base my stance on that. I am also not any kind of health professional. This episode is purely satire and should be taken with a grain of salt. As I mentioned earlier, I did this for fun, not to spread any kind of proper awareness. So that's very important to keep in mind. Um, the reason why I'm doing this episode, um, and I know that when I talk sometimes it doesn't sound like it, but I am doing the would we fit work for dancers for fun. Like that's the only reason I'm not, I'm not, even though I will talk about like the controversies and my personal issues with it, I'm not going to go into like too much detail or at least I won't try to, um, so anyway, so let's get, let's get into what happened, what happened while I was playing this game. I will tell you, uh, what happened? Where did I start? So let me just give you a funny story and I know I kind of talked about this a little bit. Um, so just a funny story. When I went to play it, I discovered that my data wasn't there for some reason. I think because my original data got transferred to another console, it just like, I had to basically start from scratch again. And part of doing, and I knew from the, I knew that I was going to opt out the body test. Like I knew that there's no way that would be relevant for dancers. It could be if that's what you like to do. But for me, like, I just, it's too much. Like I don't want to put myself through that, but, um, but anyways, my original plan was to not do the standard body, body tests they want you to do every day. But I had to because of the not having data thing, um, but yeah, I'll get into like my feelings about all that in a second or later on, but, um, but yeah, um, once I had access to the main menu, I was finally like, I could finally like, you know, have fun and have a good time after I made it through that strenuous test. Ugh. So so obviously like I didn't go in order, um, I put, I, I did, I didn't play all the games. I played them in each category. Um, so the first one that I did, I believe I went into, I'm already forgetting. I believe I did one of, I did a couple of strength exercises first. So basically I think one of the games I did, it wasn't even a game, it was with a trainer. So it wasn't classified as a game, but I did the tricep exercise where you hold your arm over your head and you basically just bend your elbow. So your arm goes behind your shoulder blade and that is set up to where the goal of that is to not move your elbow. And of course you can't really get scored on it. I do think it's funny that they do have scores though. Um, so that was a good one. I did that one. And then I also did, uh, I also did like a leg arm thing where I basically would lift my right arm and left leg off the ground at the same time. My arm was like on, on my side, of course it wasn't on the ground. Um, I was standing and then basically they scored you based on how you were able to bounce. That was like the biggest thing that they scored you on. I think I got like three stars on that. I thought I would have done better because I stayed within my mark, but I guess I didn't, which fun, joy, um, so looking at the strength exercises, um, as a dancer, and I do want to say that, you know, we all have different strengths and weaknesses. I'm not going to dog on anyone for not being able to do the exercises because everyone's body has, is different. Every body has different conditions and injuries, et cetera. So, you know, I, I'm just giving you my personal judgment, but what I will say is that for both of, both of those exercises, I used, I used hand weights. Um, they were each, um, one and a half pounds each yet that grammatically made sense, but each of them were about, yeah, they were one and a half pounds each. And I would have used ankle weights, but I don't have any of those. Maybe, maybe later I will use that, but I, so the two exercises I did were very light. Um, they were, they were very light and obviously like they had three games that were blocked, like they were, they had three exercises that were blocked because of the data thing. Uh, oopsies, my bad, I guess. Um, so those were the two games that I played looking at the, looking at if it would be good for a dancer. I think the, I did have to make it a little hard. I had to make both games a little more challenging because of the extra weights, but you know, it did its job. Um, afterwards my triceps felt very tricep. Um, I felt like I got a good workout in, um, my one piece of feedback that I have, and just, I was just not paying attention was that they weren't properly emphasizing. So as, as dancers, you kind of have, you kind of, when it comes to moving your body, you're kind of used to figuring out body placements all on your own. Like you naturally know the safe place for your body unless you were trained horribly, but that's not something that I can properly speak on. But one of the, I think for the average person, and like I said, this is just my review. They don't specify, you know, Hey, put your knees over your toes, allegedly. They don't tell you that unless I could, unless I just didn't do enough of the exercises. They didn't specify, Hey, you know, don't put, don't bend your knees to where they're not over your feet or Hey, like don't lean too far. Like when, when you're on your, when you're bouncing on one foot, Hey, you know, make sure that you can feel all five toes on the ground and you're not pronating or anything, which you don't know what pronating is. It's basically where, if you have your foot and your foot kind of like, if you're balancing on your foot and like, you kind of start to wobble a little bit, like wobble on your foot. But basically if your foot leans too far in, it can be really bad for your ankles and the rest of your body. Don't do that. So overall for the strength, for the strength exercises that I did do, I did have to kind of self accommodate because for me, they, for, for me in my body, they were a little too easy, but also I think as dancers, we like to have more strenuous workouts. We're kind of used to the being sore the next day trope after a workout. Now if you're a dancer, I'm assuming that I just make the assumption that all dances have done yoga at some point in their lives. And in this one, they had the standard, they had the true pose. They had downward dog. You can see the spinal twist, shoulder stance, like they, they had, they had a lot of stuff. Now that one, I mean, they don't, it's not a yoga class and you know, I also don't really like yoga, but that's just me. Yeah. I'm not the biggest fan of yoga, but you know, it can help with stretches. Like if you are like, like it can help, like we definitely do these things as a part of like being in a dance class, like there's downward dog tree warrior is kind of applicable that thing where you like candlestick, we do candlesticks, flatbacks, the coccyx balance. I mean, all of these are in we fit. I'm literally looking at the list right now, but like I said, like it's for dancers and like the poses that are available and we fit plus specifically, they are very much like, um, I frankly, in my opinion, I couldn't imagine dancers getting much more out of it versus just some sort of, unless they like yoga or something, or if they need more guidance on like a workout routine, you could use the workout routine and we fit plus. So that's basically how I feel about yoga. I really didn't need to try the games to know that that's just how I feel. That's like my little silly, goofy review, the aerobics, the aerobics are my favorite. So in we fit plus, there are nine games and they kind of are in different categories. So there are two games that are hula hoop games. Those are my favorite games. I know that that's kind of like whatever, but the hula hoop game, both of them, there's like a regular hula hoop game where you can spin the hula hoop whichever way you want. You stand on the balance board and you'd literally just imagine that you're using a hula hoop. And then there's the super hula hoop where you're told to spin to the right and then you also spin to the left. So there's two separate rounds for the super hula hoop. Like those two games, I do think that dancers would benefit the most from those games. There's a few other ones. I think that I think I could imagine dances really benefiting from the aerobics game specifically just because there's and I think because they are games too, that really helps because there's also that, you know, that perfectionism inside of us that says, hey, let's get a let's, you know, keep getting our score up. So kind of matches our perception of you can always improve and you can always get better. And the hula hoop games and all of these games, the hula hoop game in particular really does that. I don't know if you can cap out on how many total spins you can get, but I know that it's possible. And then there's also the component in both games where there are two me standing on either side and you actually have to reach for the hoops and catch it. So that's just a fun little gameplay feature that that game has. And so for dancers, like when I did the hula hoop game, I definitely felt it. I definitely felt myself breaking a sweat, which is good. Another game that they have is the boxing game. Now the boxing game, I can't believe I didn't mention it when I was introducing it. That game is my personal favorite. I love that game with a burning passion. Amazing game. I think it's really good. I definitely get something out of it. And so that's fun. Not when you do to a rhythm. The hula hoop game, you do not do to a rhythm. You kind of create your own rhythm in the boxing, in the boxing game. And once, once again, like I don't have a channel, a YouTube channel where I can just, I, this podcast is on YouTube, but I'm unable to show that. So you'd have to look it up for yourself. I apologize. But that game is also based on rhythm where you have to hit the punching bag at a certain time in order to get it right or something. And then, yeah, but that game is a fun game. You really, I would say that it's not applicable, but it's fun. Now I'm trying to review it as if I'm not a dancer, but that one is a rhythm game. And I frankly think that, like I said, like the hula hoop game is really good at allowing you to get those like, you can't max out the score in hula hoop, but for the boxing one, you can because it's based on timing and it's based on if you can hit each bag, like at the perfect time every time. Now in this category, three of the games are, three of the games are based on stepping. So there's like a standard stepping game and then there's a super stepping game and then there's a free step game. I don't think you need all three games. I think you could have gone away with like two or something. But that one is also a rhythm game. The first two are rhythm games. You basically have to step on the, you have to step on the wee balance board exactly the right time in order to get more points. It definitely gets your body moving, but it's not strenuous in the same way as hula hooping. So it's a super fun game for, you know, having fun. But if you're actually wanting to play Wii Fit for fitness, this game is not a game that, these two games are not for that. But it does, it does get your brain going. I will say that the free step game, it literally will just tell you to step on and off for like, and you can set the time limit. You basically just do that over and over again. That could be strenuous. I tried this one and then I got bored and exited out. I think that one could be good in a way if you like are wanting to, you know, get those points up and really focus. I don't think you're going to break a sweat from stepping up and down the balance board, especially because the distance isn't that high. I would say like, I think that the height of the balance board would need to be higher, but something I want to preface is that you also can't jump on the balance board. If you do jump on the balance board, the game will stop you and that's not good. So yeah. And then the last three games are all running games. I don't even think I need to like talk about that. I don't even think that's applicable. I mean, it definitely is. You know, if you're not in a safe area, we fit, it gives you an environment on Wuhu Island to be able to run. And I am just so bad, like for me, like I actually have, like this is, this is a very subjective review, but I just can't jog in place for that long. It gets, it does the job, right? Because if you're bad at cardio, then it gets the job done. But for me, like, I think that it's too tempting to just sit down and shake the Wii remote because basically you're not using the balance board. You're holding the Wii remote in your hand and you have to run in place and you have to make sure that you're running at a consistent pace or else you lose points. I've always gotten one start from playing that game. And then they have two player run where you can get another player to play with you and basically run in place with you. And then there's like the free run. I did in this session, I didn't do those games because we all know like it's running, like you're basically just jogging. So those are my reviews on like the aerobics games. Now let's look at the balance games. So the balance games, there are also nine of them. It could benefit, I could say. Definitely teaches you about coordination and kind of, it makes you aware of how and where you're shifting your weight. So most of these games all serve the same purpose and there's a soccer game where you basically have to like headbutt soccer balls and you lose points if you hit shoes and panda bear heads. There's a snowboarding game, which I'm always bad at. Those two games are very much focused on where and how you shift your weight. I can't say that those will necessarily help with your balance, but it might make you aware on where your body is in space and specifically talking about the too much, too little kind of thing. There's also ski jump. Ski jump is, I would say my favorite game. You actually are kind of expected to balance in a certain way. So you go down the ski hill and then you basically have to hold a pose in a certain position in order to get more points and kind of similar to the hula hoop game. Like I said, I think that game could really be beneficial for, I think that could work, but like I said, this game is for fun. I think that could, I'm despised. I love that game. It's such a good game. Now some of the other ones, like obviously as dancers, like we all need that coordination, that sort of fun balance kind of thing. This one's one of them. This one, you're basically turned into like a ball and this next game you're turned into a ball and you basically have to, and then you get more of these like ping pong pool ball type things. You get more of them and then you basically have, you're basically in control of a platform that kind of controls where they go. Like I said, like this game, like when you look at this and you say, oh, these are balanced games. I think these games entirely focus on balance. I think it's more about coordination and being aware of where your body is in space. There's also a tightrope game, which is terrifying. If you look that up, like I get scared when I play it. Um, there's also another one, there's a huge bubble theme in this, in this portion, but you're basically inside a bubble and you have to transport your me through a maze while they're in a bubble and you can't hit the wall or else the game is over. But you know, these balance games are very, like I said, aside from the ski jump, a lot of these are not really based on balance, but they're more based on being aware of your posture and where your body is in space. So the whole balance, and I know that they probably said that was the point of balance games was to kind of, was for like coordination and being aware of your body, but you know, they call it a balance games. They call it that, not me. Yeah. And then there's like another, there's a few other ones on there. The most notable one, I don't think is a, I don't know why it's there. You basically sit on the Wii balance board and you have to be as still as possible and close your eyes and it will like scream at you if you'll lose. Look it up. It's terrifying. Now there's some other ones. We're going to kind of get into the Wii Fit Plus games, like, you know, the additional games that come with Wii Fit Plus and this section, this category is called Training Plus. They have a bunch. Now, like I said, like some of these are based on like, some of these are more aerobic. Some of these are more based on coordination. Some of them are rhythm based games. So it really depends. The most notable ones is that there's another run with a quiz at the end. So not only do you have to like jog, but you also have to look at your surroundings and you know how I feel about the jogging games. They have a more emphasized bubble river game. My favorite game in this category would be the marching game, where you basically just march and then this is strictly a rhythm game, which is why I like it, but you basically just take steps on the bounce board and you have to keep a consistent beat, but you're also doing separate things with your hands from a dancer perspective. I think we could all benefit unless you're like on a drill team or like a college team where you have to like do these complicated arms where they're all like different and stuff. That was a fun game. And then, you know, there was an obstacle course one too, where you basically like just take steps on the balance board to try and get through an obstacle course. They also had a golf game, but yeah, that's basically it. They have routines that you can kind of look at and like, and it will say, what do you want to do with your body or like, what's your goal? Like, what are you looking for? And then what the game will do is that it will suggest it will it will give you like a list of games and you can play them all back to back. So instead of instead of having to memorize your list, you can basically make your own workout routine with all of these games, with all the stretches and yoga and strength training. And it will hand select games based on how you feel, like based on like what you want to do and what your goals are. Conceptually, I think that's good. And from what I remember, they were I can say that the games were in the correct retrospective categories, you know, which is a good thing. Like, we like that. We love it. We love it a lot. But I want to take the end to kind of get into like like now that I briefly. That's the funny joke. I explained the game. I want to get into like my I kind of gave my personal views, but this is my overall stance, is that obviously I have my own problems with the game. I think in Wii Fit, I think that they need to change. I think that if you have people who are younger than 16 playing the game, you cannot structure the game in the same way as if you are like 42 or even my age or whatever. I just don't feel that a game like that would in that structure would be appropriate for children. And I'm specifically talking about the body test because I don't think unless there's a pre-existing health condition, I don't think it's appropriate for children to be worrying about their weight. And I know that in dance that happens all the time because there isn't anybody I know that hasn't had body image issues in dance. But that's like my stance on it is that like, first off, if you're wanting, I don't even know who would get give this game to their kids or make this a family game. But if you have a Wii and you're like, oh, what's this Wii balanced board sitting at the thrift store? I think it's really fun. Like, I think the games are fun. As a kid, I loved the games. But I also think with that body test, I think that's going to be a pattern is that I just think the body test is really problematic. They kind of put that expectation on you to play every single day. They expect you to track your weight every single day. And I just think that that I just my psychology brain is telling me that that could lead to some sort of like OCD type. And you could run the risk of getting obsessed really quickly. And I don't I just don't think that's really good for your mental health. You know, if you are going to pursue weight loss in like a healthy way, it's supposed to be fun. I would want it to be fun. Like, I think it should be fun. I think you should enjoy the process. And I just don't think doing the body test every single day, especially because there are so many inconsistencies, you know, like weight can fluctuate a few pounds, give or take, depending on like water weight and stuff like that. So I think that if if you want to make a fitness game for children to enjoy, I think Just Dance will do the job. Just Dance would do the job. And I think not even giving children the option for the body test is enough. Because once again, like when I was nine or 10 years old, I had this really clear memory of not updating my height in WeFit and it put me in SOBs. And let me tell you, it wasn't good. And so I think the body image, the body test, I don't even think they should have required it. I think you should have had the option to opt out. I don't know if there were any other children that played the game aside from me and my family, but that's just how I feel. I don't think the body, I don't think children should be obsessed with weight goals. I just don't think it's appropriate, but we'll move on from that now. Well, actually, no, I'm not. I'm not moved on from it. I don't even think that's appropriate for dancers, too. If you are looking to pursue some sort of like plan on either, like if you're pursuing some kind of plan, I think that you shouldn't use a video game to pursue that plan. I think you need to speak with a professional that's not me because I'm not a professional. I just like I said, like it creates I just I just feel like it's going to create some sort of like unhealthy obsession and it's just going to mess you up, especially if the room, especially if the rumors are true, that they're breaking your weight to make you keep playing the game, because that's pretty that's pretty dirty for people who suffer with body image issues and all dancers do. I can't think of one dancer who hadn't had a history of like body image issues. So that's my stance on the body test. I just don't think it's I just have dancers aside. I just think it's very problematic and I don't think you should be obligated to do it if you, you know, have those issues. I think the games are really fun. When I played the game, when I did look at the strength training games and like like specifically when I did the strength games, which I did most of them, I did have to accommodate a little bit, not accommodate. That's the wrong word. I did have to kind of modify it a little bit, but to make it hard, make it a little more challenging. I thought like, you know, I was feeling it like I was feeling it, but I don't think for a dancer that it's going to make you stronger. I think that it can help with maintaining whatever you have. But I also think that I think the strength, I think for dancers specifically, the strength exercises were the strength exercises were too easy. And I also felt like they didn't based on what I saw, I feel like they didn't do a good job with discussing exactly how to do each exercise in a way of keeping your body safe, because, you know, that's a big thing. We don't want injuries. And I'm sure they did because Nintendo is a big company, but I'm going to I'm going to fact check that I'm in a second. The other thing, well, that's basically my take on strength games. They were fun, like they were fine, like their strength games, like they were good. Yoga, they're obviously yoga poses. And I think, as I previously mentioned, like they were, I think for a dancer, I think because it's yoga and because, you know, that's not very dancers do yoga and we do a lot of the stretches once again, like, I just think I think something you're going to notice for me a lot is that I'm going to be stating that I think it's going to be a little too easy. I just don't think if you are a dancer, I don't think you're going to find it very hard and it's just it's going to be about maintaining what you have and potentially accommodating yourself to make it harder for yourself. I don't think Nintendo would encourage that, but that's not the point. That's like my take on it. Like I thought the game, I thought it was. Yeah. Strength and yoga, I thought they were too easy and you could definitely like, you and I'm definitely not the strongest dancer. I'm definitely pretty weak. So if you are a strong dancer, like you definitely, you don't, you definitely need to like self accommodate those games, but I will say that it keeps you focused. It keeps you engaged when you're doing the balance games and standing on one foot that I can help with your balance, but also you're looking at a little marker to make sure that you're staying within a certain area so that that can help there. So that, that can help there if you're a dancer struggling with balance, but you're also not being given instructions on how to hold your core during that. But I'm just assuming that you're all professional out there and you know what you're doing and you're good. Like I, like, and I, and for aerobics, for dancers, the hula hooping, I think is the best game aside from, you know, the running with the remote. Now I don't want to like get into like, actually I will, because if you are in a safe neighborhood, you could just go for a run, but also I understand that like, if you're a woman or if you're in a marginalized community, that you may just feel safer jogging in place at home. And I am not judging you for that at all, because I'm going to be honest here. I'd much rather run on a treadmill than run in place for three to five minutes straight. It's just awful, but that's like my stance. I think that the hula, you're going to get the most workout out of the hula hoops, especially if you're like me who struggles with, you know, using your hips, you're going to really benefit from the hula hoops. Like those are my, those are those games. If you're going to get anything out of any of those games, you're going to learn how to, I think the hula hooping you're going to get the most out of, especially the super hula hoop one, you're definitely going to feel it. Balance games, I already gave you my stance on the hula hoops, but if you're playing balance games, I already gave you my stance on it. Like it could help you maintain what you have. It could potentially, but it's also about working with the balance board. You know, if it is a good balance board and it decides to work for you, great. But I also know that sometimes it can get a little stingy at times. So that's kind of like how I feel. Um, those are like my overall feelings about the game, but I think the major caveat is that the concept of the game, it kind of emphasizes an idea of being at a healthy weight, being at a normal weight makes you healthy and putting yourself in an overweight, obese weight. And I say putting yourself, but that's really not true. Um, but being obese and overweight is inherently a bad thing and don't, and they're basically like, if you do that, that will cause health problems. But, you know, I wouldn't trust a game to like my, the real, the real cop, my real caveat in this game specifically is the body image test. And I think I'm going to keep emphasizing that over and over again, because I just don't feel that it's necessary. Like I literally have a bodybuilder teacher who could easily be notated as overweight, even though the dude is perfectly healthy and he's perfectly. Unless there's something I don't know, which is none of my business, but I just don't think that I, I, like, I just have strong feelings about BMI in general, and I know this game came out over 15 years ago, so I kind of like, you know, maybe it was, yeah, it was over 15 years ago. Um, so BMI was, people used it a lot more like in the medical field back then. But if we're looking at 2025, like I have a huge problem with exposing kids to that at such a young age and we get that enough in dance, like we don't need more of that, like we don't need more of that. We're good. We don't need more of that in our favorite video games. Um, but yeah, um, that's my, like, and that's just how I feel. Like I know that as we are, as I'm hoping to branch out and pursue more out there topics, as I pursue to look for guests who, you know, maybe are in that side of the industry and can share their perspective, you know, I definitely want to get a, like some dancers really care about that and that's going to be, that's their choice and their decision. But I just don't think for all intents of purposes, I just don't think that being a child and being exposed to that in a video game is appropriate. You all already know my stance about, you know, talking about weight in front of kids in general, I just don't think it's ever okay. I don't think it's necessary unless you're a trusted medical professional. Yeah. Um, that's basically all I have to say about it. Um, overall, you know, body image, the body test is terrible and I don't like it and, um, I don't know why I did that as a kid, but, um, the games themselves, I got something out of the strength of games with my own accommodations. Um, and everything else, you know, would I recommend this for dancers to like actually like work out? I think if you want to have fun, yes, but I also think you need to make the game harder for yourself because I just, I love the game. I really do. We fit plus, and like the Wii fit franchise played a huge role in my childhood and I really enjoyed playing the games. But I think for dancers, if you're looking to be strenuous, this is not the game for you, but that's just how that's like my stance, but you know, if you like to have fun, if you like to have a good time, you know, I'm not, I'm not here to tell you to not have fun because how dare me say that? Like that would be rude. If you're actually serious, unlike myself, I'm going to say no to you. Like I don't recommend Wii fit as an effective game to play. I think that, you know, being dancers, we naturally have the, we naturally come in with the expertise about our bodies and the workout routines and being familiar with what our body needs. Um, I don't, you know, Wii fit can help with the discipline side of it. Sure. But I don't think we need it. Um, I think that if you're able to have a buddy to do this with, you know, that could, or have a YouTube video play or do some sort of, if you're trying to get the loneliness out, essentially, I think that, you know, that could work really well. Um, so yeah, that's my opinion. If you don't like my opinion, I'm sorry. I love doing these really odd, strange analysis episodes. So thank you for staying with me through that. Um, that was fun, but yeah, you know, this is pretty much it. I already talk way too much. I can't believe that I've been talking for an hour. That's crazy for a solo podcast, a solo episode. But yeah, um, you know, like I said, like Wii fit, it plays a monumental part in my childhood. Um, you know, I still love the games. I just think if you're a dancer and I just don't think this is a game you should take very seriously. Like definitely take it with a grain of salt. Um, now that we're officially at the end of the episode, I just want to reiterate that I have some very exciting episodes coming up. I will be doing a performance review on the dancing with the stars tour. I have 20 dancing with the stars live 2025, uh, and kind of doing my own little take analysis on it, kind of telling you how it went, how both shows were because they're both going to be different. So that's going to be a fun one to talk about. And then my next show after that, if I get the, I don't know what the dates are, but the next show two weeks after the dancing with the stars live review comes out, I'll be having a professional mental health person, a therapist. She is getting certified in EMDR and then also she's trained in schema therapy. So having her on, um, so I'll be speaking with her, um, in the next episode after that. Um, so those are some two pretty cool episodes to look forward to. And I hope that you all stick with me through them. Um, so yeah, I will see you all in two weeks for the next episode. I appreciate those of you who made it this far, because I know that with podcasts, with podcasts independently, that can be really difficult to, it can be difficult to sit through and I completely, I understand. I, I, I understand it's all good. But yeah, um, you know, thank you all for listening and watching. I hope you all got something out of the episode and I hope you all have a good day. Bye everybody.