If we can trust Wikipedia, Wii Fit is the second best-selling game of all time, if we don't include sales of games bundled with a console like Super Mario Brothers or Wii Sports. Considering that if you subtract the cost of the bundled controller people would have bought anyway, the number one best seller, Wii Play, is really only worth $10. This beats Wii Fit, a game/accessory that costs $90, which to me It's much more impressive. Nintendo's success gave rise to imitations such as EA Sports Active and Bandai's Active Life Outdoor Challenge. Except Active Life Outdoor Challenge isn't really a copycat, it's the original series of exercise games: the Power Pad! The story of the Power Pad is easier to explain if we stick with Nintendo of Japan's naming schemes. A Japanese toy company called Bandai released a series of "Family Trainer" games on the Nintendo Family Computer (also known as the Famicom or NES) that used a special controller pad. This mat was basically a large, flat controller whose buttons you mainly pressed to interact. It couldn't tell if you were properly balanced, it didn't have accurate pressure sensors, nor could it tell how much you weighed. He could only tell if you were standing on a button or not. When they brought it to North America, they released a limited version in Woolworth stores under the title "Family Fun Fitness". Nintendo of America immediately saw its potential, so it bought the rights from Bandai, redesigned it, and renamed it the Power Pad to match its game console. More than twenty years later, a new "Family Trainer" for the Wii is released in Japan. Except that in the United States they decided to call it Active Life Outdoor Challenge, which unfortunately glosses over any story brought forward by the game. However, that… middle of paper… precise and ruthless inputs games require. I own most of the modern equivalents: Wii Fit, Active Life Outdoor Challenge, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and even Dance Dance Revolution. Compared to modern exercise games, I'd say you could get the same result by playing the classics if you really wanted to. But modern games have many more built-in motivators that don't unfairly punish you if you make arbitrary timing errors. Older games had no way to measure your personal successes or record any progress you made. I shouldn't be too harsh on these pioneers, they were ahead of their time. Only now are video game companies marketing these games better, making them easier to use to reach a wider audience. Whether you're playing Wii Fit or 8-bit Fit, exercise games still motivate you to get up and move.Works CitedWikipedia