Unboxing Wii Fit

Got my Wii Fit today. I'm supposed to claim it tomorrow but good thing that I called GameStop at Dulles Town Center. They informed me that they are now selling it so I rushed to the mall to get mine. It's worth 90 bucks. If you have 3 recent Wii titles to return, they could give you a 60-dollar discount.

Let's open the box. Inside, you have the balance board, the Wii Fit CD, 4 batteries, and 4 foot extensions (for thicker carpets). I bought a silicone cover (worth 20 bucks) to keep it clean.

Now, you have to do some synchronization. There's a button near the batteries of the balance board and another one in front of your Wii Console. I didn't know about that. Teehee. Other than that, there's no more additional step for you to do except play the game.You have to choose your Mii to play with. It then asked you to enter your height and birthday. It calculates your Body Mass Index (BMI) based on your height & weight. Mine is 29.24 and I'm overweight. I noticed that my Mii got chubbier too ;oP

It will check your balance. I did pretty good here. After performing some basic exercises, it will give you your Wii Fit Age. Mine is 37. 3-year difference. Not bad.Then you have to set your goal and with Wii Fit, it will help you track your progress. You can always change your goal after 2 weeks.

Now, let's go to the game proper. You can choose whether you like a male or female personal trainer. You have 4 different types of exercises: yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance games. I tried aerobics first. The hula hoop was fun. I remember my good friend, Chel. She's very good at this. You can also do step exercises or jog in place. 

Yoga reminded me of my Bikram Yoga session. There are some breathing exercises and some crazy positions. I was wobbly when I did the Tree pose. I should be doing this in the morning, I guess, for warming up.

Strength Training will help you build and tone muscles. I got 100 in pushups, although I used my knees.

Balance exercises include dodging soccer balls (it ain't fun when a shoe gets thrown at ya), the frustrating tightrope walk, table tilt (fun but really challenging) and my favorite, ski jump.

Lastly, there's a cute pig that tracks how much time you've spent on the Wii Fit.

Even though I've got Wii Fit now, I'd still go to the gym and watch my diet. But the nice thing is, I get to lose weight while having so much fun!

American Idol: Wii Edition

When my MagicSing conked out on me last Saturday night, I told myself, this is not good. Ogz and I will lose our singing career (or should I say, careers?)! And so I decided to check out the American Idol Wii game.

The CD gave me trubs at first but after re-inserting it back, it performed good. The first thing I did was to customize my character. I named him knottydon. Gave him the Emo hair and nice clothes.

Then I tried auditioning in front of our three famous judges: Randy, Paula and of course, Mr. Simon Cowell. The judges look like their human counterparts except Randy was a bit thinner in the animated version. For the Seacrest fans out there, you'll only hear his voice though. I must say, the audition venue looks very close to the actual room.

I chose, "My Heart Will Go On", as my audition piece. In order to get a high score, you must sing the correct pitch, sustain when you have to, and timing is important. There's a vocal accompaniment but I turned it off to avoid distraction. Lyrics are provided but you can turn it off too when you know the song by heart.

It was fun to hear praises from the judges (they recorded their famous comments). It's like going through a real AI audition. I got through Hollywood. Sweet!!!

Now comes the bad news: there are only, like, 40 songs in the game. What?!!! That really sucks big time. I'm used to having hundreds of songs in MagicSing. Big Bummer. The microphone only works when you're supposed to sing. Not sure if we can use it as a regular mic when we wanna do YouTube videoke sessions.

When I played tournament, I passed through audition, semi-finals, and became a Top Ten finalist. Unforch, with a lousy "Holiday" performance, I got voted off. Well, there's always a next time.

If you have more than one USB mic, you can do a duet. It can also support up to 8 players so you can battle it out when you're in a party or sumpthin. When you reach the highest score for a song, which is 100,000 points, you can unlock several contents (bonus songs and vids).

Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3

I haven't seen any Dragonball Z episode. All I know is that the characters have funky hair and they do the casting with their hands. That looks fun to do especially when you're actually physically doing it yourself in a game.

Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is not a new game (well, it's new to me). But it's the first time that you can play with your friends online. So Why-Fhy is a must.

I still don't have Wii Sports so having a game where you move different body parts is a nice workout. I can't wait to see Lance & Fiong-Fiong battling it out as cute Animé characters. Am pretty sure they will enjoy this game.

Ogz, get yo ass down here in Ashburn so we can do some serious jombagan.

Wii Keychain

Am so happy to receive my Wii keychain in the mail today. How did I get one? Well, I bought the Brain Academy game at Circuit City. After registering my game, I got an e-mail from Nintendo. They wanted me to take a quick survey about the game. Y'know that I'm a sucker for reviews so I completed the survey. As my reward, they gave me a pretty cute Wii remote keychain that gives you a blue light when you press the "1" button.

Big Brain Academy

I missed working out yesterday 'cause I got busy with some client stuff. So today, I went to the gym on the ground floor of our office building. It's fun to have the gym to myself. I quickly changed. Plugged into my ears my new Bose earphones and tested it. Went straight to the treadmill.

Walked for 5 minoots. Jogged for 5 minoots. Walked for 5. Jogged for 5. Walked for 5. Then jogged for 5. Really sweat it out! I love jogging now.

We couldn't leave the office yet because we had to wait till the heavy rain stopped. I prayed that I didn't leave the van windows open. Otherwise, I'll be driving on wet car seats. Dropped Noel, Rene and Ruthie at their apartment. Then I went back to work for some mo'. Went home to eat some corn on the cob. I miss eating this. Picked up Mark and Alwyn later on.

Ruthie, Noel and I went to Circuit City to check out the new Wii games. I found the Big Brain Academy and Noel picked up his Super Monkey Ball. He asked me to ask the associate about the actual price of his Wii game. It says 49.99 on the package but he's pretty sure that it's only 39.99.

I approached one associate and inquired about the actual prices of our Wii games. He told me that the Super Monkey Ball and Big Brain Academy are both priced at 39.99. Cool! But wait! He told me that he can give me a 20-dollar discount on both games. Sweeeeetttt!!! I asked him if they have Zelda 'cause I wanna buy it too. He told me that they have one.

I delivered the SUPER great news to Noel while the associate looked for my Zelda game. Unforch, he couldn't find it. According to him, it may be stolen. Crap!

So after cooking dinner tonight (I cooked tortang talong and Rene baked his salmon), we tried the two games. Noel played with his Monkey ;oP Alwyn and I played the BBA. All I can say is that, it's WORTH it!

The game starts with a Planters-mascot-looking guy greeting you at the academy. The graphics is very simple. The speaker of the controller needs to be turned on. The first thing ya gotta do is to enroll your Miis. You'll also be given a personalized book (with your face on the cover) so you can keep track of your progress. It's fun to see all our Miis in the school hallway. It reminds me of South Park. Then it was time to go head-to-head with another Mii.

Alwyn and I played a series of minigames simultaneously. First was a boardgame where you must choose the next track to move your train to the target point. Since we didn't read the instructions, I thought that you have to guide the train. Stupid. There's the uber simple guess-the-animal game where you have 4 choices (the photo is slowly revealed). Numbered ballooons that you have to pop in a sequence from lowest to highest. Then there's the more challenging where-are-the-three-birds-in-the-six-covered-&-shuffled-cages game (I hate this).

I love mini games! I also like competing. There's one point that Ruthie and I played against each other and we encountered this "Sum Up" game. We both panicked because we didn't know how the game is being played. As soon as we discovered it, we laughed so hard because instead of removing the number that doesn't add up to the number on the right, we both added all the numbers. Trust me, you'll make mistakes because you're time pressured.

Before ejecting the CD, I did the solo exam where the game determined my overall score (got 900++), my letter grade (C+), and a description (Consultant). You'll also get some medals if you keep on playin' just like in school! So far, I got a bronze. I want me gooooold medals!

This is a great game if you're in a party. It would be MORE fun if we add booze into the equation ;oP

Wii Doubles, the Real Deal

Around 4 pm, I, along with Ruthie & Mark, went to Giant to buy some grocery. We got some bread, salad, and detergent for the apartment. Ruthie got herself some water. Told her that I'm the only one here who buys bottled water. Now I've got company ;oP

Since Mark and I haven't had lunch yet, we looked for a place to eat. Mark found Papa John's but unforch, they don't have tables inside their small resto. We decided to go to Ruby Tuesday's instead.

Mark got some salad, Ruthie got the baked chicken parmesan pasta and I got the Triple Prime Burger (it's ground beef with tenderloin, ribeye and sirloin). Delish!!!
They mentioned that they need some gym clothes and a swimsuit. There's only one place that came to mind... Marshalls! After our shopping, Ruthie got a message from Rene. Rene and Alwyn were already waiting to be picked up.

We had dinner at House of Emperor in Ashburn Village. Since we're still full, we just ordered some Kung Pao, fried rice, and dumplings. When I looked at my fortune later on, it says, "Success is on its way to you". Sweet!
Afterwards, we went back to Giant to buy some beef for tomorrow's dinner. Ruthie and I will cook salpicao. Mark and I also bought a Merlot ;oP

This got me excited, on our way to Giant, we passed by an animal clinic. They have this sign, "Kittens for adoption". I wanna check it out tomorrow ;oP

Back to the apartment, I brought my 2 controllers for a doubles game in Wii Tennis. I was paired with Alwyn. Rene and Mark were our opponents. During the first game, Alwyn suffered Wiitis (from playing too much of Wii maybe) so Noel replaced him. It's fun to watch Noel and Mark battling it out when they're the front players. 'twas SUPER exciting!!! We won 3 sets.
I suggested that we team up differently: Apt 20062 vs. Apt 20052. Mark and I played against Noel and Rene. Guess what? We won 3 sets again! I was so freakin' happy ;oP

To celebrate, we drank some Merlot. Ah, I miss drinking red wine.
Next game was boxing. Mark and I fought against each other. Knocked him down thrice. Rene took over and he beat me twice. I couldn't beat him in boxing!

Mark played some baseball. No one here plays this game. Well, this time around, we found the Baseball King in Mark. His timing is excellent! He hits home runs every now and then. While he's playing, Ruthie got interested in playing too. She tried out tennis first. After playing it for awhile, she surrendered. We suggested that she play bowling 'cause it's a lot easier. I think she enjoyed it more. She played golf last.

Ruthie found an option in Wii Sports where it can determine your Wii age based on stamina, strength and speed. She got 79. Teehee. Mark was 46 Wii years old. Of course, I had to try it too. I found out that in May, I was 40 years old. But after trying out a series of tests tonight, I became younger--25. I can't believe too that I hit like 6 home runs in the baseball test.

The Search is Over!

The best news that I got this week is that my friends have bought me my own Wii! The endless and tiring search for this elusive game is finally over. Noel and Rene woke up early last Saturday to fall in line at Circuit City. Due to a shipment error, they weren't given enuff Wii consoles. They took their chance at Best Buy. At Best Buy, there were like 80 Wii consoles. In short, they got two. The shops have this policy that you cannot buy more than one console. Super thanks to Rene for being my proxy.

Today is the unboxing day. It's like an early Christmas! I'm freakin' excited.

After opening the box, I noticed there are two inner boxes. One holds the Wii console, along with the adapter, controller, and two AA batteries. The other box holds the Wii Sports game, the sensor bar, and the nunchuk.

I immediately looked for the installation guide. After 2 minutes or so, the Wii was already setup. Sweet!
Of course, the first thing I did was to create my Mii character named knottydon.
I played Tennis first. I made sure that I'd win in the first game. Buena Mano ;oP
Bowling came next. I got 247. It's very easy to hit strikes here.