5 Reasons to Stick Wii Fit Plus Under the Tree

Scrambling to find a perfect last-minute game for the family to play over the holiday break? Anything Wii and multiplayer is usually a safe bet, especially if you’re expecting company. But when the holidays are over, you’ll want a game that continues to go the distance — preferably while burning off the two weeks’ worth of gorging you’ve just finished. Here are five reasons Wii Fit Plus is up to that challenge — not the least of which is that it’ll hold you to whatever challenge you program into it. Your New Year’s resolution begins… now!

1. You can work off those holiday calories. So you’ve just downed a plateful of ham, half a bottle of pinot noir and enough potatoes to sustain Idaho’s economy through 2011. What better way to reverse the caloric damage than through an exercise routine that feels like a video game? A bigger, better version of the original, 2008 Wii Fit video game, Wii Fit Plus lets you customize your own workout routines (or, if you prefer, select from pre-set ones) and track your progress, all without having to set foot outside of your home… in sweatpants.

2. You don’t have to unlock anything. The original Wii Fit made you work to unlock new exercise regimens – with Wii Fit Plus, all exercises are unlocked from the start, so you can focus more on the calorie-burning and less on the game strategy. The fact that you can string together exercises to build your own routines is just gravy — low-cal, of course!

3. You can stick to your resolutions. Set your BMI and weight target goals, and Wii Fit Plus will work to ensure you stay on course long after those resolutions have been committed to paper (or blog entry, as the case may be). As noted above, you can also track how many calories you’ve burned — or, depending on how big your feast, bum out when you see how long it’ll take you to burn off everything. Just remember: baby steps!

4. You can involve the whole family. Snowed in? Wondering how to entertain the relatives until Maw-Maw and Pap-Pap fly back home? With up to nine games available in multiplayer mode, Wii Fit Pluslets you take turns while working off those holiday calories. And, with games like Snowball Fight on the list of multiplayer options, you can enjoy the outdoors without, you know, actually having to go outside.

5. It Doesn’t Feel Like Exercise. Sure, yoga, soccer and strrength training are on the menu; and, yeah, you can choose a male or female trainer to guide you through your fitness plan. But there’s something, I dunno, different about working out in front of your TV, with your Mii, than there is about committing to a gym membership for 2010. Not least of all, the investment you need to get started.

Wii Fit Plusis available with the Wii Balance Board for $89.99 (regularly $100) from Amazon. Already have the Balance Board? Cool — you can use it for a lot of other games, too, while you save on this one: $19.96 at Amazon.