Jillian Michaels, fitness trainer from the US version of "The Biggest Loser" has created* a new fitness game for the Wii, which will use the WiiMote and Wii Fit balance board.

Here's the trailer

I like the fact that it will have routines, rather than just a collection of games as Wii Fit does. This is one of the big gripes about Wii Fit. Whether pre-configured, or self defined, having routines that you can work through would be brilliant. However, there are only 11 activities, which doesn't sound many to someone who has used Wii Fit for a while. It doesn't give you the chance to pick and choose from a wide selection as Wii Fit does. If you don't like some of them then you are stuck.

Unfortunately the trailer doesn't show much of how you will actually use it, which is a shame, as the control system on Wii games is critical as to whether they work well. I'm also not so impressed with the look of the thing, I think they have tried too hard to make things look "good" and realistic. I'm not sure that is such a good idea for a game like this. I find the cartoon-y look of most Wii Fit games, and the lo-fi look of the fitness trainers to be quite good, it is less visually distracting. For example, the jogging which is briefly shown in the trailer looks much less engaging than that in Wii Fit.

I also suspect that Jillian herself could get very annoying. I love the fact that, while occasionally admonishing, Wii Fit is generally a pretty friendly and non-agressive system. When I get up in the morning it makes me smile. I'm note sure being urged on by someone who uses the word "bootcamp" a lot is going to put me in a good mood first thing in the morning.

An interesting development and hopefully the first of many, but it doesn't look a patch on Wii Fit.

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* Presumably with the help of some programmers, unless she is very multi-talented