So I’m enjoying playing with our Wii Fit (early morning run to a big box score netted us one on opening day). A few minutes here and there while dinner cooks or the kids dress themselves (though that slows them down as they watch me play).

One of the kid’s favorite games is a sliding game, involving catching fish. The youngest will insist on having a turn on the board (a few dummy ones we made up don’t thrill her at all) and that’s about the only game I’ve unlocked we can “play” together.

She’s not quite got the hang of the game, so I usually sit behind her and tap the board to score her enough points to “win” the game. She doesn’t always notice my help, but enjoys it either way. However, she wants to “help” me when it’s my turn, doing the same move of tapping the board to “help”.

Playing these games with her has helped me discover a way to really mess with your friends’ sense of balance (and scores, all in fun) in the game ….

Change the weight during the games. It’s kind of tricky, and requires precise timing. The best way I can figure it out is to challenge them to the ski jump game. Contrive some way to get them out of the room, and immediately switch with their Mii to the penguin/fish game. (This may work with other game combos - I’ve not tried them all.)

When the game starts, put some weight (but not all) on the board. You’ll get a message that asks about the weight difference: play through, lightly tapping the board back and forth instead of playing it with your full weight. After the round ends, switch back to the ski jump.

When we did this, the Wii did not complain about the weight differential when we went back to the ski jump. It was nearly impossible to control our balance on the board. The slightest weight shift would jam the indicator in corners, and jumping or landing was near impossible. We were getting distances of 5 meters.

Once we figured out what was going on, we backed out to the main Fit screen. We selected the same Mii again, forcing the Fit board to re-calibrate, and everything worked fine after that. But it was a mess trying to figure out the sequence that caused it (though “shut up and reboot” worked fine to fix it). Mostly because I couldn’t understand how I was playing as if I were juggling kittens and the world was tilting like a light sailboat in rough seas while completely sober.

Anyone out there with a Fit? Anyone know what other game combos work to distort the tuning of the board?