Nintendo’s Obsession with Fitness and Health is Exactly What We Need Right Now
In the era of COVID, when our health and well-being is paramount, Nintendo’s ventures into fitness and gaming are more important than they’ve ever been.
The better part of the last half of my quarantine was spent patiently, though somewhat disappointedly, waiting for the next Nintendo Direct and any morsel of news on what new Mario titles might be coming our way.
At one point, in the depths of my despair, I thought I would just check out what other things Nintendo has to offer. I mean, there’s more to gaming than franchise Mario titles, right?
…Right?
The first thing that came to mind was Labo, which is a way to interact and modify your Switch with pieces of cardboard. But I’m in the middle of moving and the last thing I need right now is even more boxes.
The second thing was Ring Fit Adventure — just throw your JoyCons into this pilates ring and you’ve embarked on a fantasy adventure game driven by the different workouts you’re going to do.
It’s kind of a spiritual successor to Wii Fit.
But as it turns out, there are a lot of spiritual successors to the Wii Fit. And actually, Nintendo has been releasing interactive fitness peripherals and games since the very beginning. So instead of sitting around and gaming, I thought I would explore the world of fitness games… and sit around to make a video about them.
Gamercizing The Demons
If you don’t remember Wii Fit, it was a fitness game for the Wii that pretended to be nothing other than a fitness game. Apparently, the Internet has agreed to call this genre exer-gaming, even though gamercizing is a much, much, much better made-up word.
Anyway, instead of using a pilates ring, Wii Fit used a balance board that you could use to do push-ups or stand on or do yoga and it tracked all of your progress. The game was a smash hit and now it’s hit smash, which is to say, it was so popular that the Wii Fit Trainer is now a part of Smash Bros.
While Wii Fit was certainly a game, it was less about the gamer than it was about the ‘cizing. Its goals were pretty heavy handed — the point was for the gamer to get in shape and improve his or her health.
Not like this:
But like this:
It was a revolutionary idea at the time, but Nintendo has had this in their DNA since their first home console, the Nintendo Entertainment System.
In the eighties, the Power Pad had gamers up and moving. It was a mat that you had to physically run on to get your character to move.
It was a really innovative idea, especially for 1987. I mean, this predates Big.
The Power Pad was created by Bandai and originally released in Japan in 1986 where it was called the Family Trainer pad. Nintendo only bothered to acquire the rights to the product in North America. Not sure what they saw in this particular market…
Over the years, other companies have dabbled in the gamercizing world, too. But Nintendo is always trying to get us up and moving. Does anybody have an idea why?
American Idle
Gamers don’t exactly have a reputation for being the… healthiest. Many imagine gamers to be nothing more than overweight layabouts, our half beards powdered with Cheeto dust and veins sludgy with Mountain Dew-flavored plasma. That’s an exaggeration, but the negative health effects associated with extended sessions in front of the TV or monitor are well documented.
What’s more is that you don’t even have to leave your house to get games anymore. Amazon can ship them to your door. Or you can just download them. I still like to own hard copies of games, but I’m starting to rethink it. The other day I was playing Breath Of The Wild, until then I wanted to play Mario Maker instead. But what was I supposed to do—get off the couch and change the physical cartridge?
(That is not an exaggeration.)
Company Loves Misery
So what role do gaming companies play here, if any?
The goal of these companies, first and foremost, is to make money. To do so, they want their players to be playing as much as possible. That leads to more investment, which in turn leads to more money spent on things like in game loot, DLC, or other merch. The longer companies can hold a gamer’s attention, the more they stand to gain financially.
But do they also have a social responsibility to mitigate the downsides of gaming and technology?
There’s no consensus there yet. But recently, we’ve seen Apple release Screen Time, an app that allows you to access real-time reports about how much time you spend on your device and set limits for what you want to manage. The guy who invented pull-to-refresh mechanism that you now see on all of your favorite apps now says he regrets it. And the guy who invented the highly addictive infinite scroll feature that you also see on all of your favorite apps says he feels guilty about it.
We seem to currently be faced with the problem of reconciling our existence in the digital world with our existence in the real one. Now obviously there are some significant differences in the role video games play in our lives compared to the role smart phones play in our lives, but it feels like these things are starting to converge and the conversation has to start somewhere.
We seem to currently be faced with the problem of reconciling our existence in the digital world with our existence in the real one.
And, as crazy as it sounds, Nintendo might be a good place to start.
Just For The Fun of Fit
Nintendo seems to have figured out that asking gamers to get off the couch doesn’t have to mean asking gamers to stop gaming. It’s a crazy idea, but crazy ideas are what Nintendo does best. I mean, did you know that some hospitals use the Wii as part of physical therapy routines? Some call it Wiihabilitation.
Nintendo seems dedicated to finding a way to create fun gaming experiences that simultaneously get the blood flowing. Of course, the more cynical version of myself might say: “Nintendo’s evil plan is to keep us as healthy as possible so we can continue to buy their products for as long as possible.”
Nevertheless, Nintendo doesn’t just get people moving with official gamercizing releases either. Raise your hand if you ever had a bad case of Wii elbow. (That is, if you still can.)
But seriously, on Switch there’s a boxing game called ARMS that has players bobbing and weaving while they pretend to fight one another. There’s even a game called Jump Rope Challenge where you use the controllers as a virtual jump rope to see how many jumps you can get in a row. I’ve never played it, but I know it must be more fun than this jump rope challenge.
On the Wii, Just Dance was a huge success and while Nintendo didn’t make it, their hardware surely inspired it. And remember this little friendly nudge Nintendo would give you from time to time?
They didn’t tell you to go outside, they asked if you might consider a break and reminded you that outdoor exists and has sunshine and wind and might be more interesting to explore than a virtual dungeon. (Debatable.)
Speaking of going outside, there’s also Pokemon GO. I’m not sure there’s ever been a game that got people out and about more than that one. For weeks I rode my bike around town, met new people, and caught Pokemon — in that order. It was a blast. And it had me moving more — and socializing more — than I had in years.
Fate and Switch
So what does the future hold?
It’s hard to imagine we’ll be seeing a lot more games that encourage real world socializing in a time where a vital part of surviving is the practice of social distancing.
But so is being healthy. It’s more important than ever. And while these fitness games have never really caught on with the gaming community at large, now might be the time.
With the global pandemic in full effect people seem to be more focused on self-improvement than ever. And with quarantine closing gyms and fitness centers, it’s boomtimes for home workout apps. There’s no reason to believe gaming companies can’t offer a useful and effective alternative here. Pelotons are selling like crazy, but you can get a Nintendo Switch for about one-tenth of the price.
VR seems to be catching on more and more everyday, and getting up and moving is part of the experience. But it required a bunch of extra hardware and can be expensive, and still seems to have a way to go before it hits a tipping point.
And here’s maybe the biggest benefit: exercising is the worst. Sure, it gets the endorphins going, but the endorphins don’t start going until you start exercising… and exercising is the worst. Nintendo helps make this hard work less tedious. If you’re already a gamer, why not use the equipment you already own to help you get through your workouts? If you’re not a gamer… then it really doesn’t matter because you’re definitely not reading this.
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