The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

Despite getting my hands on a Wii Fit when the shops opened at 9:00 am this morning, it was straight to the lab to set it up for GamesLab 2008. Whilst I glances enviously as the students in my class put it through its paces, it wasn’t till this evening that I finally stepped on…

I was barely into the balance tests, when an obvious weakness in my right ankle was picked up. I had sprained it whilst out running 5 days previously. To be honest, I was pretty tired from being on my feet all day and didn’t really do that well at all.

Today was a very exciting day. It was the Europe-wide launch of the Wii Fit balance board and associated games. A couple of months of careful planning came to fruition. I organised a Games Lab for my final year undergraduate students as part of a module on Physical Activity and Health Promotion. In order to enhance research-teaching linkages, I was able to devise a small study to assess the physical exertion in terms of heart rate of a variety of different ExerGames. The students moved round in a randomised order, different stations which included two Wii Fit games, two EyeToy games, a dance mat and control conditions of a walk on a treadmill and a coventional video game.

Although very much a preliminary study, was this a first? What about the first university course to study the Wii Fit?