My younger sister is a personal trainer, who manages a gym in Manhattan. She’s not a gamer. She got an e-mail at work from the managing editor of PFP (Personal Fitness Professional) Magazine asking about Wii Exercise and what she thought. She forwarded it to me, my other sister, and my parents, asking what we thought. It had a link to the following article:
Are Wii Workouts Real Workouts?
Posted on: 3.3.2008 10:07:24 AM Posted by John E. Thompson
The Nintendo Wii system also offers an easy-to-use, versatile system to perform some sport-based and aerobic workouts as well as a Dance Dance Revolution dancing simulator. With such games as bowling, tennis, golf, boxing and those that require quick-draw coordination (like Raving Rabbits and Wario Ware Smooth Moves), in which one must perform a specific move in a matter of milliseconds, what’s not to love about such innovations? It’s getting everybody off the floor to work with their arms — but is it presenting a real workout and promoting a healthy lifestyle for today’s youth (or everyone in general)? Or is it giving people a false sense of exercise?
Some people even opened up a video game gym for kids, replacing treadmills and other workout machines!
What do you think about the fitness video game wave?
Here is my reply to her e-mail:
I certainly don’t think Wii workouts are real workouts. (DDR, on the other hand, is cardiovascular exercise, provided you play consistently for at least 20 minutes.) They are, however, more active than just sitting on the couch. This in itself is a step forward. Wii Fit is coming out in the US in May, I think. This “game” includes actual workout activities, including jogging, strength training, and yoga. Kind of like “Yourself, Fitness.” Nintendo makes no promises that you will lose weight or become physically fit. It does promise that you’ll have fun playing with your family, though. And this can promote other activities that families can participate in like going on a hike or something. Everything is what you make of it. 
Some people have actually lost weight playing Wii. I’m guessing that they’re the freaky dedicated ones. I’ve already got my Wii Fit on pre-order. I’m not getting it to lose weight, but I’m hoping that regular physical activity will help me take a step toward being a healthier individual. I don’t smoke, almost never drink, and I eat okay. I just need to get some regular exercise and I’ll be set. Wii Fit, disguised as a game, is enough to make me think I’m not really exercising. Same with DDR. I need to buy a new dance pad. Ours are dying. Once I do, I’ll play that regularly, too.
It’s interesting to read the comments on the original blog post. If you have a minute, check them out. What I think is important to note about this is that the fitness community is beginning to acknowledge the Wii and its relationship with exercise. I figure that they can use the Wii to encourage people to do REAL exercise. That would be a good thing all around.
“According to the developers, when a foreign disc is inserted it disables the console from being able to update its firmware. What about future firmware updates? Datel believe that it won’t have any effect, but we’ve emailed Datel ourselves to confirm. “
Sexy eh? Hopefully it’s all true and one disc will enable us crazy importers across the globe.
Via Vooks
UPDATE: It seems Codejunkies is now shipping this product and I’ve been able to confirm how it works:
This is what freeloader does, confirmed by codejunkies staff, who actually investigated my questions when I asked about it, TESTED it, and then called me back:
• WII FREELOADER IGNORES ALL REGION-CODING.
• WII FREELOADER IGNORES ALL WII UPDATES ON A WII GAME DISK (INCLUDING SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL).
• WII FREELOADER IGNORES THE NECESSITY OF CHECKING FOR GAME UPDATES; THUS ALLOWING THE GAME FILES TO BE PLAYED SAFELY WITHOUT ANY RISK OF BRICKING YOUR WII CONSOLE.
• CODEJUNKIES STAFF HAVE CONFIRMED TO ME, BY PHONE, THAT IF A WII FIRMWARE UPDATE SOMEHOW BLOCKS THE WII FREELOADER, THEY WILL SEND YOU AN UPDATED WII FREELOADER FREE OF CHARGE WHEN ONE IS CREATED, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE PROOF OF PURCHASE OF YOUR ORIGINAL COPY OF WII FREELOADER.
“This is the one you’ve all been waiting for! Wii FreeLoader lets you play ANY region of Wii or GameCube game on your Nintendo Wii! At last, you can import games from other territories and play them on your Wii…”
Via CodeJunkies
Divineo.co.uk has confirmed to us that in around 10 days, Datel are set to release Freeloader for the Nintendo Wii. The product allows you to play import games from all over the globe and a single version works on PAL, USA and JAP consoles.
Via MaxConsole
Dear Play-Asia,
Yesplznowkthnxbye!
“Yes, this title exists… for Japan. There are no plans for a Western release for the title at this time.
And now, I’ll bet we see all sorts of complaints about that fact, after pages of outrage on this forum and others that the title even exists with people telling us to “go to Hell” or how we “suck”. 
We simply can not win.”
Official Capcom Forums
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