Wii Fit Plus

So does Obstacle Course, which is essentially a platformer - you run and jump on the balance board, avoid giant balls on swinging chains, leap over gaps, negotiate moving bridges and so on. With its bright cartoon visuals and silly premise it's more reminiscent of Family Trainer than the previous Wii Fit, but that's no bad thing.

A few of the games seem to be more about making you look stupid than getting you fit. The best of these is Bird's-eye Bull's-eye, where your Mii appears dressed in a chicken suit. You must flap your arms to fly, landing on targets to score points along the way. Think Pilotwings meets It's a Knockout. Fun for kids, hilarious for adults and a surefire route to sore arms.

Not all the new games are worth more than a few plays. Cycling is really just Jogging except you step on the board instead of running on the floor, using the Wii remote as a set of handlebars. Segway Circuit is just Cycling except you don't even step. Rhythm Parade, where you are the leader of a marching band and have to step and wave your arms in time, doesn't work too well - there's a bit of lag and between your movements and the action on-screen.

But the majority of the new games are original, enjoyable and great for turn-based multiplayer silliness. Which begs the question, why aren't they all available in the new multiplayer mode? There are only nine games to choose from and less than half of those (Driving Range, Obstacle Course, Snowball Fight and Bird's-eye Bull's-eye) are new. You can't even choose some of the better games from the first Wii Fit, such as Penguin Slide.

The multiplayer mode is limited in other ways too. You can only register a maximum of eight players in the Wii Fit Plaza, so unless you're willing to delete data you can only ever play as one of those eight Miis or a Guest. Plus there's no option to design your own programme of mini-games, so there are menu screens to deal with at the end of each player's turn.

There are some neat touches. While you're navigating the Obstacle Course, for example, a ghost of the previous player is shown so you can tell whether you're beating them. There are leaderboards and the Mii who is doing best is depicted with a crown on their head, which is good for smuggery and jeering.

But whenever you quit out of multiplayer mode all the scores data is erased, so everyone starts from scratch next time around. It seems odd that there's no option to store this data for the sake of longer-term competition. The Wii is able to remember how much time has passed since you last played Wii Fit (has it really been 558 days?) and how much you weighed back then (what have I been eating in the last 558 days to put on two pounds?). So why can't it recall who won Bird's-eye Bull's-eye yesterday?

The multiplayer mode is so limited as to seem a bit redundant, especially now it's much easier to change Miis while playing in the regular mode. The new "switch player" button avoids the need to quit out and muck about with different menus, as you had to do with the previous title, and gives you access to the full range of mini-games.

To be fair, Nintendo has never promoted Wii Fit as a multiplayer game. In fact it's never referred to as a game at all, but a piece of software designed to promote good health and well-being. If you're more focused on fitness than fun, and looking for an enhanced solo experience, Wii Fit Plus has new features for you too.

For instance, it's no longer all about your BMI and Wii Fit age. Those are still assessed, but WFP also shows you how much energy you're using. This is worked out with a system involving Metabolic Equivalent Tasks, units used to measure the intensity of an activity. One MET equals the energy required to sit still. By performing a complicated calculation (METs x your weight x time spent exercising x 0.48), Wii Fit Plus can tell how many calories you're burning.