Wii Fit Yoga: Games, News, Reviews | Wii Yoga | Wii Sports | Wii Fit

New U Fitness First Mind Body Yoga and Pilates workout (for the Wii) has been recently announced.  It is being developed by Lightning Fish Games, a UK based developer, it is the second game in their series, but the first one focusing exclusively on Yoga and Pilates.

It is centred on Yoga and Pilates exercises, and is going to be exclusively available for the Nintendo Wii.  It is expected to be released in late March.  There will be full compatibility with Nintendo peripherals, such as Wii Balance Board and Wii Motion Plus.

Why Yoga and Pilates? This is due to their both being more and more popular over the last several years, within the USA for example, around ten million people practice yoga.

The New U Fitness First Mind Body Yoga and Pilates for the Wii has been developed together with Fitness First, which is one of the world’s largest gym / health facilities.

At this stage here is a cover shot, courtesy of Lightning FIsh Games, the developer:

As more info comes to light, you will be kept posted about Yoga & Pilates on the Wii

Yoga Wii, has had some mixed reviews, in an earlier post were some more negative reviews, however, there have been various people who have used it and have actually proven to be fairly positive about Yoga for the Wii

Here is one such review from Amazon, by Moxy…

“

I’ve taken part in yoga at school and really enjoyed it. I looked into taking classes at a yoga studio and it was quite expensive. Yoga classes are more expensive than my entire gym membership, if not for that I would be a yoga pro by now!

So I found this game and gave it a shot and it was great. It’s like having your own personal yoga instructor anytime you want. It was so easy and relaxing. The music was soothing, the voice of the yoga guide was calming and I went at my own pace. Having the Wii Balance Board made it even more fun because I actually had to be precise in my movement. Love this game?

”

Another review of Yoga on the Wii is from Nellie…

“

I must admit I was skeptical about this game at first. I thought there wouldn’t be much to it but was I ever wrong.
I really thought it was just going to be a boring game featuring some odd posing. But as soon as you start the game you have three options, either you choose Story Mode, Training Mode or Routine Mode.

Story Mode walks you through a museum like building with a guide (almost like a tour guide). Your guide discusses several types of yoga, the health benefits of yoga and even foods you should and should not eat. It’s pretty cool and I learned a lot.

Training Mode gives you the freedom to choose from all 30 of the different poses so you can practice and get better. Routine Mode specializes in specific routines that fit your individual needs. There is a routine for someone with the common cold, arthritis sufferers, back pain and so on. There is even a routine specific for times when you have a headache. How cool is that! If you had a long day at work or school and you have a headache, just pop on the Wii.

I highly recommend this game for anyone interested in yoga or fitness

”

So we are now getting more balance in the reviews coming out with regards to Yoga for the Wii, feel free to let us know with regards to your experiences…

Yoga for the Wii (Dreamcatcher -  Jowoods) was released on December 7th and since I have yet to personally experience “Yoga for the Wii” myself, I thought it would be interesting to see what customers are saying. I will try to only highlight constructive criticism as “this game sucks” does not help anyone better understand how Yoga the game is played.

First from Amazon.com:

1 out of 5 stars
So much potential….. wasted

December 8, 2009

We purchased this game hoping for the ability to have a yoga disc that provided us with a new yoga session each day. What we got was not worthy of a single workout, let alone a daily routine.

I popped in the disc and it had me create a profile, ok, that’s easy enough. I was presented with 3 game modes, story, training, or routine. I figured I would start with story mode and see how the game plays. We select our instructor, then we get a video from Anja Rubik saying why she loves yoga, then the game loads again. Finally we get into the yoga temple. For the first 5 minutes you follow your instructor around the building stopping to look at every statue and painting along the way, we finally get to a room that has a painting with a pose inside of it. I finally get to the room and it teaches me that pose. Basically, the story mode is going from room to room learning each pose one at a time with a couple minutes of break in between. Argh.

I went back to the main menu after a while and selected routine, it turns out we can select between 9 different routines with different target areas, heart, headache, etc. I choose one of them and the voice says ‘follow my movements’ and bends over. I bend over, at this point I can’t see the screen, and sit there for a minute. I decide to start looking up every 5 seconds and eventually he moves and starts doing another pose, at about the third pose the voice says ‘remember to hold your pose’ or something along those lines. It just spits out a random sound byte every once in a while. I guess if you did this a bunch of times and had it memorized it would be good, but if you have to keep turning your head to see what you are supposed to be doing at any time you kind of lose all concentration on what you are supposed to be doing. There’s no audio signals whatsoever during the routine…(read more)

1 out of 5 stars
Unbelievably Awful

December 9, 2009

I waited patiently for months for this software to be released. It finally arrived and now I just want to cry. Even if you faithfully tried to use the software, you wouldn’t be able to do the proper breathing because you’d be laughing so hard (or sobbing in my case). What a disaster.

I bought the original Wii Balance Board specifically to get the yoga software, and while many people correctly complained that the yoga routines where clunky, it actually worked well enough for me. I loved having the feedback from the balance board as I did a pose and discovered that I wasn’t balancing as well as I might as I watch the red dot move around, and that is a kind of feedback even a personal yoga instructor cannot give. I believe the Wii has fantastic potential for yoga and I was thrilled as I’d see my scores slowly improve along with my balance…

Update:
I gave up and returned this to Amazon. Even a partial refund is better than feeling so cheated and manipulated. (Which obviously is not the yoga serenity I was seeking. LOL) As others recommended, I have now purchased the Wii Fit Plus software upgrade for half the price of this ridiculous program. It is a big improvement over the original and solves most of the problems of the original by adding the ability to create custom routines that can be completed much more rapidly without touching the remote, allowing more time to do additional poses. They’ve even added a meditation game which is amusing. This will hold me until somebody somewhere develops a more robust yoga program…(read more)

1 out of 5 stars
not worth it

December 9, 2009

hi im an instructor with over 15 years experience, there are lots of dvd that are way better than this wii one! i still do dvds on my own so its not like im all teachy preachy i do the work too! for one thing this super models voice will drive you batty! she can do yoga by default,she so anorexic i have eaten burgers bigger than her! anyhow it is unrealistic and really not worth the effort as others here have reviewed!

So the early reviews are coming in “NOT GOOD”. I will update this later with any positive reviews I can find. Please post any of your personal experiences with “Yoga for Wii” in the comments section.

The experts have their say on the Wii Fit Yoga as The Desert Sun, of Palm Springs, put local yogis to the test.  Seasoned teachers Kristin Olson and Chuck Burks from Urban Yoga in Palm Springs were given the Wii Fit and were asked what they thought of Wii Yoga.

The Pros

This is a great way to introduce people to the world of yoga.

The game isn’t intimidating.

In most of the poses, there is a yellow circle on the screen. Players distribute their weight and maintain proper balance by keeping a red dot inside this circle. This is a nice way to focus on the core muscles.

It will help people feel comfortable doing yoga in their own homes.

The interactive nature of the Wii Fit makes it more interesting than a yoga DVD or video.

Even though yoga is not a competitive sport and is not about racking up points, the Wii scoring system can motivate players to keep practicing and continue working on their poses.

Even people who have no interest in yoga will benefit from slowing down and stretching.

Complete Article Here

The experts noted a few cons: that the practise lacked the heart of yoga in exploring the connection between mind, body, and spirit.  The meditative quality of yoga practise is lost as there are stops between postures, clicking through to the next, without consideration to sequencing, and holding the wiimote is annoying. The teachers also noted that some postures could be advanced for newcomers, and risk of injury is present if the pose is held incorrectly.

I agree with them and these are all points I have made of this blog before and the obvious conclusion is the wii fit is not a replacement for a regular yoga pratice, and thus should not be compared to yoga as a whole. The Wii fit is only a very very small sample of yoga but the percentage of people crossing over from the Wii yoga to a local yoga class to daily pratice should be noted as positive movement for the yoga community.

CVG is reporting a Wii Yoga game (?!) being developed by JoWood currently planned for released in the second quarter of 2009.

The publisher says young at heart gamers will be able to experience the “favoured doctrine for mind, body and soul” with Wii Yoga, and promises a truly “unique” gaming experience unlike anything else. Apart from Wii Fit.

The JoWood website has no official information at their website so for now you might want to consider this information a rumor but one must have to assume that the gaming development sector is racing to come out with a Wii Yoga type of game on the heals of the Wii Fit success. If a gaming company out there could release a halfway decent exclusively yoga program for the Wii Fit by this 2008 Holiday season, the masses would buy.

I would like to add: calling yoga a game just doesn’t sound right. “Practice” makes better sense but may sound too boring for marketing. Second, as CVG reported, Nintendo already has said no to developers using “wii” in their game titles so JoWoods may have to use the name “We Yoga” just like the “We Ski” game. I’d place my bet on “iYoga” but yogis don’t gamble.

Please add you ideas for a “Wii Yoga game title” in the comments section below: