It was this past Easter at Doug and Tara's that I decided I wanted to have a Wii, but since then I've been struggling to justify the purchase. I love the control system, and since I had no prior experience with modern platformers, Super Mario Galaxy blew me away easily. Nonetheless, as a gamer, I have a simple problem with the Wii: As far as I can tell, most of the other games for it are worthless low-rent shovelware. What to do?

Answer: I bought a Wii Fit this evening and gave it a test run. After racking up 35 minutes of fitness points (enough to unlock a few new balance, yoga and strength-training exercises), I gotta tell you, I plan to keep it. At least as far as this doughy, shapeless lump of protoplasm can tell, it's a pretty credible training system as long as you actually use it. I just wouldn't recommend it for the aerobics.

A few observations. First, lemme tell ya: You learn a thing or two about yourself when a video game starts kicking your ass at actual physical activities. We all know my upper body strength is the stuff that comedy routines are made of, so it isn't surprising I was hard pressed to complete the introductory course of six, count 'em, all of six push-ups (with side planks). What's really flummoxed me, though, is my poor balance, and it's particularly obvious that my right leg is the main culprit. I'll have to explore the program a bit more to see if it will coach me on these particulars and whether it will actually lead to a measurable improvement.