NEW YORK — There was a time when Nintendo produced single-player games for fans to get lost in all by their lonesome. That time is not this spring.
Taking a break from making the deep "Super Mario" and "Zelda" adventures, Nintendo is using the new season in America to release more social, easygoing games. In late April, the company will release a new "Mario Kart," and in May comes the exercise program/ game "Wii Fit." The company let me try both last week in a hotel suite in midtown Manhattan.
Each game comes bundled with a plastic add-on: "Mario Kart" with a steering wheel that the Wii remote plugs into; "Wii Fit" comes with the Wii Balance Board, a device that detects the player's weight and balance. I told a member of the Nintendo PR team that staffed my demo that Wii owners might soon feel burdened by all the excess plastic associated with Wii games. Just this past November, Nintendo was selling players the Wii Zapper for "Link's Cross Bow Training." But Nintendo's bet is that the quality of these games will override any concerns about clutter.
I first tried "Wii Fit," which has already been released in Japan. The program requires users to stand on the shoulder-width Balance Board as they are put through the paces of more than 40 yoga, strength-training and balance games. Turn the board sideways, and it can be used for a snowboarding game. Used the main way, it can function as a goalie's spot in front of a soccer net or as a pair of skis under your feet, sensing your leans forward, back and to the sides, to speed you up, slow you down or let you weave through slalom gates.
The main part of "Wii Fit" is exercise: yoga, marching in place or even hands-on-the-board push-ups. Video games are not just for improving hand/eye coordination anymore, it seems. Melvin Forrest, a member of Nintendo's testing department, had me try some yoga postures while standing on the Balance Board. The program indicated that one position I was trying would "improve posture and digestive health." Forrest had me standing in a "half-moon pose," my arms extended above my head, palms of hands touching. From there I had to arch my body to one side. The goal was to keep my center of gravity, indicated by a red dot on the TV, inside a yellow circle. Try this pose yourself (not while reading this article, of course), and imagine adjusting your weight back from your toes or forward from your heels to keep your weight dead center.
To the disappointment of at least one of the other Nintendo reps at my demo, I skipped a strength challenge. The one they had planned would have had me holding myself aloft in a one-handed push-up-like position, with one hand on the Balance Board while my free arm pointed to the ceiling. That's something for the future.
The idea of "Wii Fit" is that it acts as a daily personal trainer. After testing me, the program reported that I had good balance. Subsequent tests classified me as normal in weight but a little weak. Forrest said the program is for people who don't work out, and, one would assume, are overweight because of that. "Wii Fit" won't know if the excess weight a person is carrying is because of muscle, but bodybuilders aren't really supposed to be using this thing. And if anyone using "Wii Fit" is sensitive about their stats, their personal info can be password-protected.
"Mario Kart Wii" would seem to be made for an altogether different audience than a Wii exercise game targeted at yoga-loving moms. But the fact that "Kart" comes packaged with a steering-wheel-shaped casing for the Wii remote indicates that Nintendo wants this game to reach beyond the hard-core gaming audience as well. We posted video of my exploits with the official Wii Wheel last week. The idea, which seemed to hold up, is that a Wii remote plugged into a device shaped like a steering wheel can make a racing game feel just a bit less daunting to play. It's like driving a car — minus pedals and with a small wheel. Also making this "Mario Kart" a friendlier "Mario Kart" is the option to make the series-staple power-slides occur automatically on turns. Friendlier still is a 12-player WiFi mode that enables two friends to play split-screen on one TV against 10 others worldwide.
For hard-core gamers, Nintendo reps say the hook for the new "Mario Kart" is the online mode and the franchise addition of motorbikes. But the Wheel is the most obvious new touch. It's optional to use. The game supports Wii nunchuck controls, a GameCube controller and the Wii's Classic Controller. But because the Wheel comes with the game, it's clearly the company's recommended method of driving.
Game demonstration events run by Microsoft and Sony still consistently feature much more macho Xbox 360 and PS3 entertainment than the kind of stuff at Nintendo's showing last week. The centerpieces of their lineups are usually first-person shooters or action-combat games. Instead, a visit with new Wii games has me asking questions like: "What's this penguin mode here?" (It was a "Wii Fit" balance game that dresses a Wii owner's Mii avatar as a penguin; requiring the player to tilt the penguin's ice floe so he or she can catch fish.) Only at a Nintendo event am I wondering if the female characters parking cars in the middle of the track in the "Mario Kart Wii" Coconut Mall race course can also be based on Miis of friends and relatives. This is console gaming at its sunniest.
Nintendo isn't shy about this kinder, gentler lineup of games. This is the style of Wii game showcased at last year's E3. It's the style of Wii game set for the spring, games designed more to make you laugh or improve your digestive health than to grit your teeth.
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