Surprising no one, Wii Fit looks to be in short supply this launch week. Get a good one.

The exercise “game,” which was released yesterday at the Nintendo World Store in New York amid much Internet confusion—but we thought that was the nationwide release date?—is now scheduled to come out tomorrow for the rest of the country. But good luck finding a copy, as online retailer Amazon stopped taking pre-order two weeks ago, and GameStop (and EB Games) (yes, I know it’s the same store) is out of stock.

Oh, and there’s a gray market already on eBay.

Or you could exercise like a normal person…

A girl in the UK who weighs around 85 pounds was told by Wii Fit that she was fat, despite being “a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year old who swims [and] dances…She is solidly built but not fat. She was devastated to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her she isn’t,” according to the girl’s stepfather, in an interview with the Daily Mail.

Part of the issue stems from the fact that Wii Fit uses the body mass index (BMI) to calculate a person’s level of fitness. It’s been argued that the BMI isn’t an accurate measure, especially for children.

Wikipedia says,

“[I]t is useful as a population measure only, and is not appropriate for diagnosing individuals…BMI has become controversial because many people, including physicians, have come to rely on its apparent numerical authority for medical diagnosis, but that was never the BMI’s purpose. It is meant to be used as a simple means of classifying sedentary (physically inactive) individuals with an average body composition.”

That last part, the “average body composition” part, is where the BMI calculation starts to far apart. Indeed, my BMI says that I’m “obese” when I’m actually a big, tall, thick Midwesterner. If this is what being obese feels like, it’s honestly not that bad.

Joel Johnson, blogger extraordinaire, has created on omnibus of videogame exercise gear, starting with a Wii-Fit-like JoyBoard to the Wii-Fit-like Wii Fit. Along the way he looks at exercise bikes that hooked up to your PC with software from Autodesk (!!) and the Atari “Puffer,” which sounds like something I saw on RedTube.

Best of all, Joel is funny so his little trip down memory lane will give you a good workout as you chuckle at his snide yet overtly nostalgic prose.

Hey, fat people? Can’t afford Wii Fit? Pick up Atari’s Family Trainer which appears to be a DDR pad attached to the Wii that allows you to run through haunted mansions and dangerous jungles while being chased by the nagging suspicion that trying to lose weight using a video game is like trying to put out a fire with hairspray.

From his earlier experiment.

Are you a little bit fat? Want to lose a bit and then gain it back and then try to lose again? Then hop on a Wii Fit and burn off those pounds. This guy lost 9 pounds playing Wii Sports, gained 19, and now wants to lose them all again on Wii Fit. Not quite sure what he’s gaining in this wacky yo-yo experiment and from the pasty look of his non-belly you’d think he might want to get outside once in a while, but exercise is exercise, right?

(via AOL)

Dear gamers,

Your body may hurt, may “cry,” if you will, after playing Wii Fit.

Read More

Nintendo’s upcoming white plank of plastic has been priced at a mere $90. Yes, that’s right, the Wii Fit will launch stateside May 19 and those of you living in NYC who pre-order from the Nintendo World store from April 18-20 will get a special bonus. The first 1,000 lazy sacks to put down $5 will get a limited edition Wii Fit t-shirt with an image of Shigeru Miyamoto and his signature.

You and I already (?) know about Wii Fit, Nintendo’s upcoming Wii game that the company characterizes as a good health-promoting alternative to the usual FPS or dungeon crawl. Now, though, the mainstream, non-tech press is catching on, with Murdoch’s New York Post publishing a piece two days ago explaining the game’s potential appeal. A monocle-wearing analyst expects Nintendo to sell 3 to 4 million copies of the game, which would put it in between the like of Call of Duty 4 (3 million copies sold) and Halo 3 (4.8 million copies sold).

As part of Nintendo’s effort to make the game available to as wide a launch as possible, it may start sending more Wiis to non-games stores like Target, possibly angering the likes of GameStop.

Bottom line is, Wii Fit will sell a hell of a lot of copies and may, just may help promote a more healthy lifestyle.

Man, this Wii Fit thing’s sure taking it’s time getting here. The Wall Street Journal is reporting a release date of May 19 here in the US, which should be just about the time that people start going outside to exercise.

It was released in Japan on December 1 of last year and went on to sell more than 250,000 copies in the first week at roughly $75 a pop.

The game, you’ll recall, includes the Wii Balance Board and guides you through various aerobic, stretching, and strength training exercises.

Wii Fit, Other Innovations Unveiled [Wall Street Journal]

For those of you who’ve been wondering about the release and price of the Wii Fit then wonder no more. According to the blokes at Game Stop the pre-release for the Wii Fit is January 1, 2008 and that’s not all. They’ve priced it out at $69.99, which isn’t too bad considering the limitless hours of joy it will bring you and the family. The pre-release doesn’t tell us anything, but at least we know how much it will cost. Bummer that it won’t be coming out for the holidays, but it would undoubtedly be sold out anyways. The parody video pretty much sums up my feelings on the Wii Fit. Great console, though.

Wii Fit Pre-release [GameStop]

This video needs no introduction. Just watch and laugh, cry, or throw your Wii out the window.