After months of being a cuddly console, my Wii has developed something of a mean streak. First it tells me I’m old. Then my friend gets dubbed fat. Oh, and it wants to know if I trip a lot because I’m apparently just that uncoordinated. Plus, it thinks I stay up too late (“won’t you be ready for bed soon?”) and should sleep longer. Yet I keep coming back for more haranguing in a desperate attempt to win my Wii’s approval.

Welcome to the brave new world of Wii Fit, Nintendo’s latest game revolution.

Its arrival was inevitable—I not-so-boldly predicted a feet-oriented addition to the Wii in my very first Sideshow blog post on Exergaming—though Shigeru Miyamoto went with a balance board rather than ankle bracelets, so you feel like you’re weighing yourself rather than under house arrest. Alas.

Hardcore gamer sorts will, of course, hate it because it’s not a “game,” per se. Yet, when one walks through a major metropolitan mall like, say, Toronto’s Eaton Centre, one will witness hordes giving it a go at madly packed demo stations. It’s already a smash, with over two million sold in Japan and when it dropped off the UK charts, it was only because stocks had been depleted. Online and brick’n’mortar retailers have been similarly sold-out across North America and there are predictions that eventually 30 percent of Wii owners will pick-up the peripheral.

Wii Fit is a fascinating piece of software. The ultimate goal is to get people thinking about their bodies—weight, body mass index and, most of all posture—by tracking fluctuations and focusing on strengthening core muscles. The former is not much fun (unless you’re a trainspotter-type) though it does help keep you motivated. The latter, however, is where the game shines, especially on the balance-based minigames involving head-butting soccer balls, hula-hooping, slaloming, snowboarding and ski-jumping (which rules on a big screen). Other elements, like the aerobics, strength training and yoga, are less game-y—and accordingly less enjoyable—but are still vital to Wii Fit’s raison d’etre.

Is it worth it? Well, the balance board itself is a brilliant, if dead simple, piece of technology and like any peripheral, it can be used for more than its packed-in game. There have already been announcements for Ubisoft’s Shawn White Snowboarding the new Rayman Raving Rabbids (which will use the balance board for tobogganing among other presumably silly minigames) and EA’s Skate It while Namco Bandai’s We Ski is already on shelves.

So even if you soon decide you are quite happy with your fat, old, unbalanced ass, your $90 can still be considered an investment in the future.