Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 16, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
According to pressetext, Nintendo’s Wii games console is causing a sensation in the USA not only because of record-breaking sales figures. The video-game system is also becoming increasingly important as fitness equipment. Particularly in rehabilitation, the device is now often used as an alternative to spare patients the frequently very unpleasant and painful physiotherapy. The movements players perform with the Wii’s motion-sensitive controller are very similar in their sequence to the usual stretching, extension and lifting exercises. Another advantage of the novel therapy method: the exercises performed with the games console are fun for patients and thus allow them to forget their pain — at least for a short time.
‘The fact that games can now be controlled through entirely natural movement instead of buttons or joysticks reduces the technical inhibition threshold for video games to a minimum and makes them intuitively understandable,’ explains Pascal Schmidt, Head of Consumer Marketing and PR at Nintendo, in response to an enquiry from pressetext. In this way, it is also possible to appeal to people who had never previously thought of picking up a controller.
‘On the other hand, motion control makes it possible to realise entirely new genres, game ideas and concepts that offer players additional benefits beyond pure entertainment,’ Schmidt believes. One possibility in this connection is also to do something for one’s own fitness. ‘But once real movements have been recognised as the simplest method of control, the idea of a new generation of sporting software suggests itself,’ Schmidt adds. In particular, ‘Wii Fit’, due to appear this spring, represents a kind of personal trainer for the home, with whose help users can perform aerobics and yoga exercises, muscle training and balance games. ‘On top of that, Wii Fit allows users to check their weight and body mass index,’ Schmidt explains.
For example, the Wii console has already been in use as a therapy device for four months at Dodd Hall Rehabilitation Hospital in the US state of Ohio. Patients are supposed to spend a total of three half-hours per week using the Wii. This is supervised by therapist Robbie Winget, who discovered the games console’s medical potential after a private session. The video-game system is suited to patients particularly for performing balance, coordination and strength exercises. Although the Wii cannot replace previous therapy methods, it helps to motivate patients.
But the Nintendo console appears suitable not only as an alternative rehabilitation method. The Wii is also used as preventive fitness equipment in the fight against obesity. The video-game platform is currently serving as a break-time activity for pupils at six British test schools. The games console is intended to encourage children to move more during breaks and thus improve their physical fitness. In this way, the project initiators hope to reduce the number of obese children, which has tripled in England over the past 20 years.
Further information:
- Wii console
