Remember when Nintendo’s Wii came out? It was a revolution that suddenly made gamers much more active in gaming. The white device came with an extremely strong Mario game, namely Super Mario Galaxy, but also with a special… scale as an extra. And it was very popular. Step into the time machine with us to the year 2007.
Wii Balance Board
Normally we usually go a little further back in time with our time machine, but make no mistake: 2007 is also 17 years ago. So if you still have a Balance Board, it is probably gathering dust under a cupboard somewhere. The device was a kind of personal scale, but had a little more to it. It came with the Wii Fit game, in which you could do all kinds of exercises that were then registered in the game thanks to the balance board.
The Balance Board connected to the Wii via Bluetooth and was powered by 4 AA batteries. Technically, the device itself has 4 sensors that can sense pressure, making this device a real scale: this gaming accessory could determine your body weight and transmit it to the Wii. Also on the Wii U, because it also supports this scale. There is no such support on Switch.
Miyamoto
The games that could be played on that Wii Balance Board were a lot of other games in addition to Wii Fit: Wii Fit Plus, Wii Music, We Ski, We Dare, We Ski & Snowboard, Yoga, UFC Personal Trainer, Tetris Party Deluxe, Skate It, Shaun White Snowboarding, Project Runway, Punch-Out!! and more. It was an endless list, although we must say that the support of one game was a lot better than the other. In any case, Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo must have been happy that there were many snowboarding games, because he thought that was one of the most ideal possibilities for the Balance Board.
We still remember some yoga sessions on that device, but also trying to keep our balance while doing all kinds of crazy exercises, only to hear the Wii tell us again that we had to work better on our core. The Wii Fit trainers may have looked friendly with their white, minimalist appearance, but secretly they were sometimes ruthless. Which is also a nice memory of Wii Balance Board, namely Wendy van Dijk. Sounds random, but of course she is in that yoga lifestyle and has been for a long time. Nintendo was willing to advertise this device.
100 euro
Now you can buy a Wii Balance Board for 20 euros, but the device once cost around 100 euros. Different times, although you could use it for a very long time. In fact, there are people who still regularly pull their Balance Board out from under the TV cabinet. After all, Wii and Wii U still work, although Wii U will lose its online options overnight.
The Wii Balance Board was a major accessory for a gaming device, but one that many families embraced. It provided a completely different way of gaming and it completely fits in with the experience of Wii and what Nintendo had in mind for it. To enjoy. Until you stubbed your toe on it: ouch.
