Feel like you could stand to lose a couple of pounds? Luckily, there's a genre of games out there that aim to do for people what self-help cassettes did for your parents. You've got mind-expanding games such as Brain Age and its ilk, as well as Nintendo DS games that will help you with your foreign-language skills, and a new wave of games that look to do for your body what the aforementioned games do for your mind. The most obvious example is the upcoming Wii Fit, but Ubisoft has its own entry for the body-conscious gamer: My Weight Loss Coach for the Nintendo DS. GameSpot had a chance to see the game at the most recent Nintendo Media Summit in San Francisco.
NoBSGamers writes: "There was a time when the purpose of a video game was simple. It existed solely to entertain you. Sure, companies were in it for profit, but the product was all about fun. Today however, the sirens song of self improvement has warmed its way into the ears of game makers, and games that also teach have gone from Pre-K to a multi-million dollar industry."
In August 2007 Yourself!Fitness for Xbox/PS2/PC developer ResponDesign entered into a license agreement with Ubisoft to produce a Wii version of the game called My Fitness Coach. The title was intended for release in April 2008 to coincide with the release of Wii Fit but the game never materialized and now ResponDesign is suing Ubisoft for loss of royalties and for breaching the terms of the agreement.
My Weight Loss Coach is a nice piece of educational software, it has an interesting peripheral hook to it, but you're just as well off watching what you eat, going for a daily run or bike ride, and looking up some general nutrition info online; all of which won't cost you a cool $40. It's a fun motivational tool, and a neat little package that IGN is surprised even released considering the peripheral pack-in, but it's no Wii Fit, and Ubisoft's own My Word Coach software feels much more at home on DS than this.
Presentation - 8.0
Graphics - 7.0
Sound - 6.5
Gameplay - 5.5
Lasting Appeal - 7.0
Overall -
