Wii Fit U has a 31 day free trial going on right now. Sounded good to me. The problem with working for a video game website is that you spend most of your day sitting down writing about games and then most of the evening playing the games you'll be writing about the next day. I'm pretty slim, but battling against 'a bit of a tummy' since I was... how can I put this... involved in a discount scheme for Pizza Hut a few years ago. Yes, the cheesy bites were delicious. My motivation? My dad pointing out said tummy and laughing. That's all the motivation I needed.
So I'm doing something about it. I've been eating better. I don't drink any fizzy drinks, am currently completely off snacks and desserts (except a banana if I'm still hungry) and have eliminated sugar from most of my diet. I feel way better for it. And, as a result, said tummy is disappearing, without any major effort. No, it's not fun, but these are the joys of being 31, kids. Look forward to that.
I loaded up the Wii U. The first 'Body Test' subtracted a few pounds for the heavy jeans and sweatshirt I was wearing at the time, and my BMI was at the top of the ideal BMI range, but just inside it. A great start. My Mii looked pleased. Go Mii. But the next day, I accidentally selected 'add 0 pounds for clothes'. And so my Mii tipped into the 'overweight' range. Just by a couple of pounds. And this is what my Mii turned into:
What. The. F***.
The moment my avatar was deemed overweight, it bloated massively. And it really disturbed me. I almost turned off the entire console in disgust, but instead I took some pictures of the Gamepad so I could show you. Yes, it's funny, but also, is it not dangerous? I knew I needed to lose a few pounds to avoid things getting out of hand, but this... this is awful! How is this going to make other people feel about their weight? What if a child stands on the scales, goes a pound over the optimum BMI and sees this as their on-screen self image? It's not so funny now, is it? It could be very harmful.
Especially if I feel personally insulted, which I do. I like to think of myself as:
So what do you think? Is it motivational? Insulting? A dangerous thing to show someone who is obviously conscious of their weight anyway (or they wouldn't be playing the game)? Or did you just laugh at my fat Mii?
Stupid game.
