NINTENDO WII GAMING SYSTEM

Nintendo Wii Gaming System

Use of the Yoga Program on the Nintendo Wii Gaming System

Introduction

The Nintendo Wii becomes even more attractive as a Mother's Day gift with the announcement of Yoga for Wii, a Balance Board exploration of personal wellness. The cleverly named Yoga for Wii is exactly what it sounds like - a yoga game for the Nintendo Wii. Using the Wii Balance Board, players will be able to yoga their way through three different modes. There's a training mode that teaches the 67 year-old patient new poses, a Routine Mode, which lets the old patient create her own daily yoga routine, and Story Mode, where the old patient start off as a novice and end up a yoga guru, presumably after defeating mentor in yoga combat.

Main issues that effected the patient; prolonged hospitalization, which lead to balance issues

The Wii Fit is one of the newest tools in fitness. It is bringing many non-traditional gamers to the world of video games and teaching fitness basics in the comfort of the home. Learning how to design a Wii Fit workout schedule that complements your interests, goals and available time will help you to lose weight or get into better shape. The Wii Fit and accompanying software include yoga, balance, strength and cardio activities for all fitness levels.

Cognitive: Games can assist memory, problem-solving, deduction and planning skills. Mastermind, Clue,Memory and Master Labyrinth and the computer version of Pictionary are examples of games that help cognitive skills.

Language: Many games can improve vocabulary skills. Classic examples of language skill games are Scrabble and Boggle. The computer game, Reader Rabbit and Baby BumbleBee videos also help increase vocabulary.

Math: Children can practice counting, learn to recognize number and engage in math with game play. The games Rat-A-Tat-Cat, Uno and Chutes and Ladders and computer versions of Bingo are examples of games that improve math skills.

It actually sounds like a rather interesting product. The Balance Board and Wii remote are used in conjunction to measure old patient balance, while a computerized guru tracks old patient overall progress, giving old patient suggestions and plotting a course towards whatever the goal of yoga is. Finding Shangri-la or something. Not really well-versed in yoga. The game is basically a part of the same pattern for Wii Fit that we saw with Wii Sports. Nintendo releases mini-games, other publishers step up to create full versions. This time around it's JoWooD and DreamCatcher, who plan on an October release for Yoga for Wii. A bit late for Mother's Day, but I'm sure she'll be happy with an I.O.U.

For those who haven't paid much attention to video games since playing Ms. Pac-Man at the pizza parlor in 1986 (that would be me), let's take a quick look at the Wii. This gaming system is innovative in its use of motion sensors, which allow the players on screen to be controlled by old patient movements. Let's say that the old patient is playing Wii tennis, as my husband and I did ...