Wii Fit (universe)

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The Wii Fit universe refers to the Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from the Wii Fit series by Nintendo. Originating in 2007, the Wii Fit franchise has had a total of three installments, one of which is upcoming. The series was very popular when it first came out, and was very hard to find in stores. The games came packaged with a Wii Balance Board, a device that functions somewhat similarly to a scale.

Franchise description

For the release of the Wii console near the end of 2006, Nintendo placed the system's focus on reaching out to demographics that had not played video games before, and the pack-in title Wii Sports was designed with this aim in mind by being simple and accessible enough that both first-time and long-time video game players could interact relatively equally. Wii Sports managed the Herculean feat of displacing the original Super Mario Bros. as the single best-selling video game in the history of the industry, and Nintendo was of course compelled to release a variety of other titles in the Wii line of system-exclusive titles that carried on the same general philosophy. One of these titles was Wii Fit, the result of Shigeru Miyamoto's inspiration from his and his family's increasing frequency of having health-conscious discussions with each other; Miyamoto found there was appeal in attaching gameplay to the concepts of exercising and then weighing oneself, and therefore began an ambitious development project centered on an electronic balance board, a comparatively large and high-tech peripheral for the Wii.

Wii Fit was released at the end of 2007 in Japan, and in North America six months later, and was an incredible sales success, especially for a game that was not bundled with a console and was dependent on an additional external piece of hardware - as of 2012, the package sold over 22 million units. Media outlets praised the product as an effective blend of straightforward entertainment and a low-intensity fitness training outlet that provided an adequate introduction to a daily exercise regiment, while removing some of the daunting atmosphere commonly associated with working out. The Wii Balance Board itself is similar in shape and design to a typical bathroom weight scale, but is stated by the developers to be more accurate, and has become a proven and endorsed tool for assessing a user's center of balance. The title was also adopted by various health clubs and nursing homes as a means of applying gentle physical therapy, though it was criticized for having some limitations that prevented it from assembling a full, unbroken workout, including an inconvenient interface.

Miyamoto, inspired by the commercial success of the game to produce a follow-up that utilized the same balance board peripheral, aimed to address consumer complaints over its inconvenience of use, and released an enhanced edition of the software in October 2009 titled Wii Fit Plus. The interface was carefully recreated and adjusted, and a large number of new mini-games and activities were added, some of which are operated by simultaneous usage of the Wii Balance Board and Wii Remote and feature additional elements of mental coordination. The low-priced remake of the software was released to positive critical feedback that praised it as an improvement of the genre, and sold almost as many millions of copies as the original game. A Wii U followup to the series incorporating the Wii U GamePad is slated for December 2013, and has been confirmed to once again utilize the existing Balance Board, as well as a new, bundled pedometer that may be used while away from the game and balance board itself.

In any edition of Wii Fit, the player registers and plays through a user profile assigned with their birth, height, and Mii, and their weight, body mass index, and center of balance may be assessed by the game software while standing on the Wii Balance Board. There are four primary categories of available activities that may be performed on the board: Yoga, which scores the player based on how well they keep their balance while holding a specific pose for a set duration, and Strength Training, where the player performs a set number of repetitions of an exercise motion, both involve an on-screen representation of a personal trainer (whose appearance and gender may be customized) that displays the exact poses and motions the player must imitate as precisely as possible. The other two categories feature minigame-like activities that display the player's Mii onscreen; Aerobics games use the Wii Balance Pad like a traditional console "controller", where the player must make the right bodily motions on the pad to win, and Balance Games test not just the user's capacity to maintain their center of balance, but to manipulate it in specific ways. As the Wii Fit property is technically one of the most successful and world-famous video game IPs in Nintendo's history as a video game developer, one of the female personal trainer models has comedically been included as a playable fighter alongside established Nintendo characters in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. 4.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Characters

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  Wii Fit Trainer: The mannequin-like female trainer model from the games was the first character from the series to be confirmed for a playable role in Smash Bros., with a moveset inspired by various fitness exercises. While her male equivalent from the Wii Fit games has also been shown to appear in some capacity in this game, it is as of yet unconfirmed whether he is an alternate costume.

Stages

• Unnamed Wii Fit stage: A stage that appears to be the room that Wii Fit Trainer does practices in the game Wii Fit.

Games with elements from or in the Super Smash Bros. series

Wii Fit

Wii Fit Trainer and the Wii Fit stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U both appeared first in Wii Fit. Additionally, Wii Fit was the first game to involve the Wuhu Island location, which appears in the background of the Wii U's Pilotwings stage.

Wii Fit Plus

Wii Fit Trainer's appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4 is based on her design in Wii Fit Plus, though her top is changed from green to blue, and reveals less of her midriff.