YMMV / Wii Fit

• Annoying Video Game Helper: When the Yoga/Strength trainers repeat themselves over and over; hearing them once or twice might be acceptable, but not over and over again. Try to work toward exhaling through your nose. Let's do some deep breathing together. Inhale as the blue circle shrinks.
• Awesome Music: The entire soundtrack of this game is way better than it had any right to be. A few highlights include:
  • The beautiful Wii Fit Plaza theme.
  • The insanely catchy Rhythm Boxing theme. It even made it into Super Smash Bros.!
  • The Rhythm Parade music, in which your Mii is a baton-twirler. The better you perform, the more other Miis join yours, playing more instruments.
  • The Hula Hoop music.
  • And one of the most triumphant Victory Themes in all of gaming.
• Awesome Video Game Levels:
  • Rhythm Kung Fu has the player mimicking various movements of the other Miis to a beat, including shouting to a pattern which can cause the entire room to shake if pulled off perfectly.
  • Rhythm Boxing is a fun and challenging rhythm exercise where the player matches the movements of their instructor to a catchy tune. For as hard as getting a high score can be, taking on the robotic punching bag is both entertaining and cathartic, especially at the end where you get to wallop it however you feel.
  • For those who do not find it to be That One Level, Lotus Focus can be a soothing and calm exercise. The player even begins floating if pulled off successfully for long enough!
• Base-Breaking Character: Among the game's fans, there are people who dislike the trainers, both for their Annoying Video Game Helper moments and for the creepy effect they exude. Others don't really mind much considering their rather flattering physiques, or outright see them as Memetic Badasses thanks to Super Smash Bros..
• Crack Pairing: Ever since the reveal of the fourth Super Smash Bros. title, there's been a lot of shipping between the Wii Fit Trainer and Slender Man, due to both of them being near-featureless bleach-white humanoids. There's also those who pair her with the Villager as both of them are unexpected characters in Smash revealed at the same time who have Badass Normal tendencies.
• Even Better Sequel: Wii Fit Plus is generally agreed to be a better game than the original, since it improves on some previous Scrappy Mechanics and adds a better range of exercises.
• Follow the Leader: EA Sports Active, The Biggest Loser game, and even We Cheer has an exercise mode.
  • May have followed Sony's Eyetoy Kinectic, if this is anything to go by.
• Funny Moments:
  • If you miss the last punch in Rhythm Kung Fu completely, a random flower pot drops on your Mii's head.
  • Fail to jump over the logs in Obstacle Course in time, and the log will roll over your Mii, flattening him/her in cartoon fashion. The Mii then blinks a couple times.
  • The Snowball Fight game, which features you in a snowball fight against opponents that can basically dress up as snowmen. If you hit anyone, or get hit, there is a shot of the Mii landing flat on their backside.
• Hype Backlash: At the height of its popularity, the game was hated among obsessive hardcore gamers for allegedly signifying an Audience Shift for gaming to general, casual audiences (with "soccer moms" and "senior citizens" being common buzzwords). In fact, it and other "casual" games (such as its sister game Wii Sports) were also responsible for making some of those people hate the Wii console itself.
• Memetic Badass: Thanks to Super Smash Bros., the female Wii Fit Trainer quickly got propelled to this status after she was revealed to be in the game.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "I blame Wii Fit."
  • The Wii Fit Girl ^explanation  In 2008, a YouTube video titled "Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit" depicted advertising account executive Lauren Bernat performing the Hula Hoop game in her underwear and t-shirt. For obvious reasons, the video became an Instant Web Hit, amassing nearly 12 million views within four years, and sparking copycat and parody videos of both men and women playing Wii Fit in their unmentionables. Bernat, while initially furious (rumor has it she found out about the video by seeing her boss watching it), would come to embrace her status, which landed her appearances on The Tyra Banks Show, the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and Tosh.0. At the height of Bernat's 15 Minutes of Fame, both her and Nintendo themselves had to deny any allegations of intentional Viral Marketing.
  • The quote at the header, which three years later mutated into "My body wasn't ready." Acknowledged at E3 2012 by Reggie himself upon the unveiling of Wii Fit U. Yes, Reggie's body was ready.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The music that plays after you complete an exercise with a good rating. And, if you choose to do jogging and get more than 100% rating, you hear lots of very adorable cats mewing at you.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Lotus Focus. "KATSU!" 喝
    • The entire mini-game involves the player meditating in a dark room with only a candle for light. The purpose is to focus and keep still until the candle burns out. If the player moves too much, the light blows out. Simple enough, until the game outright tries to distract or even frighten the player, with noises such as creaking, footsteps, etc. start playing in the background. While Wii Fit offers plenty of body exercises, this one's an exercise in the mind.
    • Made worse in the Latin American Spanish translation, as the instructions that show up as the game starts include the very ambiguous phrase "a restless soul will cause the flame to flicker". While this text in most other languages make it very clear that the 'soul' in question is in fact your own, players who take the translated message at face value might assume the opposite, meaning that a ghost or some scary apparition will eventually turn up to try and throw them off balance (a possibility which is hardly discounted by the game's atmosphere consisting of staring at a candle in an otherwise pitch black room), thus making the challenge of the game that much more tense.
  • If you have a fear of heights, then Tightrope Walk can be very frightening, especially with the wind and chomper enemies interfering with an already tense situation.
• Periphery Demographic: The game has been embraced by physiotherapists because the balance games were shown to help patients improve their balance and fine motor skills. It also saw a little bit of a second life during the Coronavirus pandemic as gyms, parks, and other fitness options were closed, forcing people wanting exercise into getting creative with home options.
• Scrappy Mechanic: BMI is already a scrappy unit of measurement in fitness due to not accounting for build or other factors. This is worsened by the Guilt-Based Gaming involved if your ideal weight happens to be in the red.
• That One Level:
  • Tightrope Walk has the player walk across a tightrope between two skyscrapers, with wind blowing to make the player’s Mii losing balance more likely. Mistiming a jump or jumping while unbalanced will lead to an immediate fail, making clearing the exercise insanely difficult.
  • Lotus Focus requires the player to remain perfectly still for a good three minutes to clear. While not sounding difficult on paper, the game throws several distractions the player’s way, including creaking footsteps, buzzing, moths occasionally flying onscreen, etc. Expect to see the Katsu symbol appear several times while playing this exercise.
• Values Dissonance: The Guilt-Based Gaming that the series employs regarding weight is much more acceptable from a Japanese perspective than a Western one. Part of this stems from the fact Japan has one of the lowest rates of obesity in the world^note 4.3%, ranked 185 out of 191 countries surveyed, so being overweight or obese is seen as much more abnormal there than in Western countries, where obesity rates are several times higher^note 25-40% depending on the country. In addition, Japan has a shame-based culture where social norms are more actively enforced by the community, so calling out an issue like obesity is seen as much more acceptable there. The West, on the other hand, is more guilt-based, so such issues are regarded as the responsibility of individuals to deal with for themselves, and it’s considered rude for another person to comment on them.

---