Fit Game Forum (Formally Wii Fit Forum)

In Europe, sold under the name: Step to the Beat
In the US, sold under the name: Walk it Out
Equipment Wii only, requires Wiimote and either the Wii Balance Board or a Dance Dance Revolution Mat. Some of the mini-games require use of the nunchunk
Modes: Single or multiplayer
Publisher: Konami
Price: 30 Euros

Overview

Your Mii-type character is on an island. In order to explore the island and build it up, your Mii has to walk, but not just walk, he has to walk to the beat of the music.

Every step that is in time with the music gives you a token point. Different amounts of token points allow you to unlock things that can be constructed, new routes, additional songs, astrological signs for the night sky, a clock that allows you to change the time of day in the game, and a rainbow.

It's simple, but very effective, because if you want to build that bridge that will allow you to cross over into a new area, if you want to be able to add another song to your play list, or whatever, then you have to walk, and walk, and walk...

Gameplay

The setup section is very brief. You chose the sex of you Mii, colour of hair, skin and track suit and enter in your height, weight and age and your name. You also choose a partner to help you as you walk: either Warren or Nancy. That's it, and you're set to start walking.

At the beginning of your first session, you start in the stadium. Your partner guide you through the simple rules of the game then directs you out of the stadium so that you can explore the island. The setup and first session take about ten minutes in all.

Your Mii has to walk along routes but there is no set route that your Mii has to follow. As long as you have unblocked a route, you can walk on it. If you decide you want to turn back, all you have to do is click on your Mii and he will turn around. There is no time limit: you can walk as long or as little as you want.

As stated above, you gain points for every step that you make that is in time with the music. You can, depending on how you have set the parameters, also lose steps for when you miss the timing. There are 120 songs in the play list, although only 15 of them are unlocked at the beginning of the game. Some songs are slow, some fast, and some fall somewhere in between, meaning that you never get locked into one pace and that matching the timing for each song can be a challenge in itself.

As you walk along, you will see capsules. There are six types of capsules: construction, routes, songs, magic clock, zodiac signs, and rainbow spheres.

The construction capsules are brown with a little house on them. They allow you to create all sorts of things, such as trees, houses, cars, benches, bridges and even a dirigible. There are 3346 construction capsules, some of which are quite cheap, such as planter that cost 10 points, and some of which are quite expensive, such as bridges which cost 1000 points.

The route capsules look like arrows. They either allow you to open up new areas or provide you with another entry point into an area. There are 69 total routes on the island.

The song capsules, which look like little green and white CDs, allow you to add new songs to the play list. There isn't, however, just one capsule for each new song. Each song is divided into 4 capsules, each costing different amounts of points, and each scattered throughout the island. There are 120 songs in total: you start out with 15 songs, so that means you have to walk enough steps to find and collect 420 capsules in order to get the entire play list.

The magic clock capsules, which look like little brown clocks, allow you to change the hour at which the game is played. By default, the time of day for the game is the same as the actual time of day. If you want to play under a sunny sky, for instance, but only have the time to play the game at night, you won't see the sun unless you collect enough capsules for a daylight hour. There are 24 magic clock hours, and the capsules for each of these is divided into 4 and scattered throughout the island, meaning that, in order to be able to change the game clock to any time of day, you have to walk enough steps to find and collect 96 capsules.

The zodiac sign capsules, which are blue with a star on them, allow you to unlock the 12 signs of the zodiac. Each sign is divided up into several capsules that are scattered throughout the island, meaning that you have to walk more than quite a few steps to gain a full zodiac. The zodiac sign capsules only appear late in the afternoon and at night. If, therefore, you can only play in the day, you have a further reason to collect the magic clock capsules so that you can collect zodiac capsules and see the signs in the sky.

The rainbow sphere capsules are coloured spheres. Each sphere is a different colour and represents that colour of the rainbow. There are seven rainbow sphere capsules. If you collect all seven of them, a rainbow appears in the sky. The rainbow sphere capsules are free, but every day (note, that's every day, not every session, which allows you to look for all the parts during multiple sessions in a day), their location changes, so even when you have finished collecting all the other capsules, you will always have the challenge of finding all the ones for the rainbow.

While walking along, when you see a capsule, point at it with the WiiMote and it will tell you what it is that it will create and how many points it will take to create it. If you have enough points, the capsule will glow. If you don't have enough points at that moment, you can always click on the capsule to put it in the queue. You can queue up to three items at a time. If you try to queue another item, it bumps the first one you queued off. When you get another steps, the item you queued will be unlocked except if it is a construction capsule. These items will be marked as unlocked, but, to give you the joy of seeing them appear, you have to click on the capsule once you find it again. These capsules are easy to spot as they not only glow, they pulsate. The game remembers the capsules you have unlocked, so if you forget to go back and click on the capsule after having unlocked it, you can always go click on it in another session.

Even if you have 3 items queued up, if you see a glowing capsule, you can always expend the points you have built up to unlock it. So the game has scope for different tactical approaches. Do you, for instance, just save up a bunch of points and go on a 'click rampage' or do you queue up items, occasionally clicking on a cheap item that won't wipe out all your points, allowing you to unlock the things you have queued? Perhaps you might decided for a particular session that you will only click on route capsules and song capsules. Or perhaps you will decide to walk round and round a particular section of the island to build it up completely. The choice is entirely up to you!

And if all this isn't enough to get you walking for hours on end, then there are also three mini-games: whack-a-slack, psycolo, and smash 'n run. In whack-a-slack, you must hit as many slacks as possible. Smash 'n run is similar, but you use a hammer that grows in power the more you walk. In psycolo, you have to roll onto matching squares to evade the slackies.

The game has a very fine-grained control of the difficulty level: you can set how difficult it is to be considered in time to the music, the number of points you lose if you miss a beat, and the relative cost of capsules. This means that after you have finished building up the island at one particular level, you can always create a new Mii and start again at another difficulty level. Further, you can chose which songs you want on your playlist and even if you want to see the lyrics.

The game remembers all the steps you take, whether in the main game or in a mini-game session. When you quit, it informs you of how many total steps you have taken, the distance you have travelled, the number calories you have burnt, and the amount that you have built up the island. It compares your activity from session to session and tells you when you have beat your old records.

Verdict

If you like the cycling game on WiiFit Plus, you will love this game. This game really gets you walking. It is very easy to start a session saying that you'll just walk for half and hour and find yourself still walking two hours later. There is so much to build, so many routes to unlock, not to mention building up the play list, magic clock hours, and finding all the pieces of the zodiac and the rainbow. This game is addictive. It can easily get you into a 'just one more thing' mode: 'I'll just walk a bit more so I can create that house over there' or 'Just one or two more passes and I'll have unlocked everything that can be built on the beach'.

If this game doesn't get you walking, nothing will. It is definitely a must-have for anyone who wants to improve his fitness.

I rate this game 10 out of 10. Go out, buy it and start walking.

"10 out of 10"? What, no "11" button?

As Nienna said on the other thread on this game, it's like crack. I have a project, starting tonight. I am going to build every Burger Champ I can find. They are such a silly price - nothing else has a price that ends in not a zero - and the idea of building a burger bar in a Wii game is just so silly.

Seriously, though, this is an incredible way to make hours disappear, and the speed of the target beat on some of the songs (I've seen up to 156 steps a minute, and there are several at 150) guarantees that you will work up a sweat, so it should burn away a few kilos as well.

This isn't Spinal Tap.



I hadn't thought of that: this is a fitness game and you get to build a burger bar. It's really quite wonderful.

One other wonderful thing about this game is that most of the Miis don't engage in self-destructive waving behaviour. One Mii will wave at my Mii if she sees it, but then she goes back to walking and doing her own thing. The rest of the Miis don't even look at my Mii as they are too busy fishing, talking, looking at the sea, etc.

Crack, I tell you! Don't start, you have your whole life ahead of you! Once you start down that dark path forever will it dominate your destiny!

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off work and I need a fix before dinner.

Throwing Frisbee...

Ooooo... I don't have any frisbee throwers yet! Something to look forward to.