I live in a small apartment with little room for exercise equipment, but would much rather work out at home rather than drive to a gym. So I had high hopes for the Wii Fit right out of the box — and for the most part, it hasn’t disappointed.

Pros:

1. Watching others play is almost as entertaining as playing yourself, especially if they have poor coordination.

2. The game’s balance board is intelligently designed, and sensitive to precise movement. It integrates well with the gameplay, resulting in a smooth fitness-gaming experience. While I did hear some complaints from the big footed persons in my life, regarding the size of the board, it was fine for my size six (female) feet.

3. Wii fit can really make you fit - The exercise instructions are clear, and easy to follow. If you put the effort in, your heart will be pumping and you’ll get a pretty good work out.

4. I’m having a good time while getting a bit of a better bod. Wii Fit is definitely more fun than the treadmill. Honestly, we need more games like this for America’s gigantic youth. Enjoyable gameplay (personal favorites include slalom-skiing, and tightrope-walking) make you forget that you’re engaged in physical fitness.

Cons:

1. Uses BMI to determine your physical health. BMI is a flawed system, but I suppose is a decent enough health indicator for these purposes. However, someone with a lot of weight from muscle will be considered fat by the Wii Fit, which is humorous to me, but probably not to those individuals.

2. Locked content. It’s not terribly hard to unlock, and the purpose for it is clear - as you progress with your fitness, you unlock more levels. But the levels are unlocked based on time spent playing, and with some of the exercises and mini games being quite short (as in only a few minutes,) it can leave you repeating the same thing over and over again before unlocking new levels. And that’s not cool.

3. It’s a little on the expensive side. At $125+ US Wii Fit isn’t cheap.

4. Too much time fiddling with the remote gets annoying. There’s no way to program the system to play multipe fitness routines in a row, resluting in many pauses to navigate the game menus.

Overall, I recommend the Wii Fit for anyone who wants to get a little fitness out of their gaming experience. While not perfect, it has managed to mesh together excercise and fun, leaving the Wii Fit with a thumbs up from this reviewer.