Giggling Like a Schoolgirl

It's hard to describe just how crazy-fun the Wii Fit Plus mini-game Obstacle Course is.

Check out this video, if you haven't seen it. Seems very basic, right? Seems very tame. Until you play it. The video only shows the beginner level, there's an advanced level as well - with ice!

Anyone who's spent much time gaming has encountered platformers - basically these are games that involve a lot of running and jumping, hopping on platforms, leaping over pits, dodging dangerous elements of the environment.

Some classic examples of platformers are: Pitfall, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros, Moon Patrol, Mega Man, the list is long. Hell, even 'Prince of Persia, Sands of Time' is a platformer.

These games were fun when I was a kid, and while I might play one of them for a few minutes today for nostalgia's sake, they're too simple to hold my attention for long.

Enter the Obstacle Courses in Wii Fit Plus. There's definitely a small element of immersion due to using your own customized character, but beyond that, YOU are the one doing the running a jumping, thanks to the Wii Balance Board, which draws me in big time - it's almost as if I'm inside the game.

You're not getting that great a workout, basically you're walking in place - but it's more of a workout than you would get sitting on the couch. Even the 'run' is just a faster walking in place. But you're burning calories. (It would be a simple thing to use ankle weights to increase the calories burned.)

And I can't explain why, but actually running and 'jumping' through obstacles, from platform to platform, and occasionally falling to my death is a real, child-like giddy fun. (Would this wear off if the mini-game were any longer? Perhaps.)

Sadly, the obstacle course is only a small part of the whole Wii Fit Plus experience - I would gladly pay $50 for a game that was nothing but hour after hour of assorted obstacle courses, if I could use the Wii Balance Board to play through the game.

I'd love an obstacle-course builder tool from Nintendo, especially something I could use to design my own maps, and then share online for/with other players.

I don't even notice the calories I'm burning as I run through the course again and again, tweaking my choices and trying to shave a few seconds off my time.

I'm not a modder, and there have been few things I've encountered in life that made my hands ache to reach for a soldering gun, my fingers itch to write some code - but this is a project I would love to work on.

There are so many great platformer games in the history of gaming that would be kick-ass adapted for the Wii Balance Board, including stuff like the great Futurama game that came out in 2003, or hey, why not Mirror's Edge?

The TV game show Wipeout would make for a great obstacle course game.

Wii Fit Plus is only $20, if you already have a Wii Balance Board.

It would be far simpler to mod for the PC than the Wii, since you can typically set custom control schemes in PC games.

Careful, specific adjustments would need to be made for each game, but playing any platformer with the Wii Balance Board would kick ass. You would still need a number of other controls - the ability to simply walk or run forward and jump would not be enough to control much more than Donkey Kong or Moon Patrol.

So you'd still need the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk to control things like directional control, inventory, weapons, aiming and attacking, etc - but all movement would have to come directly from the Wii Balance Board.

There's a lot of improvement that could be made, of course - a far more heavy duty balance board would be great, something you could actually run and actually jump on would improve the immersion. It could be larger, more square, and have a built-in LCD that would display the surface under your virtual feet. But now I'm just getting carried away.