We just got the Wii Fit yesterday (great job, Amazon, on that whole "pre-order" thing, getting it to us only a week after release), and it's made of awesome.
It suffers a bit from some of the same problems as the Wii-mote--it doesn't quite behave the way it seems like it should, and the further from your feet the body part it tries to measure is the less well it works (the heading soccer balls game is a bit frustrating, because it just doesn't respond very well), but the skiing stuff is great and very responsive. The girlfriend also likes the hula hoop game. Now that I think of it, I like the hula hoop game, too...not so much playing it myself, though.
Anyway, the wide array of controller options makes me want to write software for the Wii. A live music performance system would be wonderful with a Wii-mote, a nunchuk, and the balance board. I'm a little giddy just thinking about it. Might be a good time to learn one of those new-fangled music languages...maybe I'll drink the Lisp Kool-aid and go with CLM.
I'm thinking actual tools for producing real original music. I'm the kinda guy that loves tinkering with analog synths, odd analog drum machines, acoustic instruments of many types, old amplifiers and effects devices, recording gear. I've owned and played some lovely and bizarre stuff...Chapman Stick, Synsonics Drums, accordion, banjo...as well as normal stuff. I just think there's an amazing amount of fun one could have with entirely novel input devices like the balance board and Wii-mote.
You should check out the prequels to Guitar Hero, Frequency and Amplitude for PS2. They had gameplay similar to guitar hero only you played on a controller and you switched between tracks of music with the d-pad. They also had a remix mode where you could actually make new remixes of the new music. The gameplay from that remix mode could be greatly enhanced with the Wii controllers... you only get 3 discrete notes/pitches in each track in the Frequency remix mode.
They didn't have a remix mode in Guitar Hero so they could license more music, but it was a really innovative feature that hasn't yet been replicated in gaming.
I played the drums a lot in high school; I'd love to spend a lot of time making music after making it with a startup.
"you only get 3 discrete notes/pitches in each track in the Frequency remix mode"
Yeah...see that pretty much breaks the idea for me. If I can't possibly hit a "wrong" note, then I might as well not play any note. (I have a pretty heavily jazz-tinged musical education. There are some things that rub me the wrong way. I'm even a little suspicious of diatonic harmonicas.)
This is awesome, wii fit just dropped and someone has already taken it to the next level. Very cool manipulation of the wii, interested to see whats next.
It suffers a bit from some of the same problems as the Wii-mote--it doesn't quite behave the way it seems like it should, and the further from your feet the body part it tries to measure is the less well it works (the heading soccer balls game is a bit frustrating, because it just doesn't respond very well), but the skiing stuff is great and very responsive. The girlfriend also likes the hula hoop game. Now that I think of it, I like the hula hoop game, too...not so much playing it myself, though.
Anyway, the wide array of controller options makes me want to write software for the Wii. A live music performance system would be wonderful with a Wii-mote, a nunchuk, and the balance board. I'm a little giddy just thinking about it. Might be a good time to learn one of those new-fangled music languages...maybe I'll drink the Lisp Kool-aid and go with CLM.