Previews// Family Trainer - Wii

Family Trainer doesn’t take itself as seriously as Wii Fit does, and it’s a good job – because no one else is going to take it seriously, either.

It’s more of a party game built around physical activity, than a fashionable health-‘em-up. You can tell Family Trainer is just out for a good time with one look at those garish graphics, which are brighter than anything in the N64’s entire library and which feature cute cel-shaded Mii characters. And yes, even though Family Trainer is a third-party effort, it has a fully operable Mii system, so you can look like your Wii Fit self when messing about here (although your Mii will be cel-shaded to suit).

There are 15 types of ‘attraction’ on Family Trainer’s island-based theme park of a central hub, and there’s a good amount of variety between attractions. Inevitably, some of these are more ‘attractive’ than others, but overall the level of enjoyment is surprisingly high.

Family Trainer’s version of whack-a-mole is one of the game’s mediocrities, and the running/hurdles events also become a bit dull after a few goes. Hurdling also highlights some of the potential problems of exercising on a plastic mat: sometimes your on-screen self will jump when you haven’t, and sometimes you’ll jump but the on-screen you won’t. It’s a bit vague and… plasticky.

On the upside, attractions such as canoeing, which uses the Remote and mat together to deliver a surprisingly rich simulation, and ‘trick-boarding’ (pulling tricks while snowboarding on grass – on a grass-coated piste, that is) both convey a good sense of speed and offer plenty of scope for combo movements.

When ‘boarding you can get away with just moving a foot to the square on the right side of the mat, or you can do something like a quick mid-air Morris Dance for a better score and bigger laughs. Another activity puts you on a trampoline suspended above the sea, where the trick is to time your jumps for maximum ‘air’. It’s oddly exhilarating.

Unlike typical DDR mats, Family Trainer’s sheet of plastic is just about big enough to support two players at a time.

The button symbols are split down the middle, with four blue symbols on the left side and four orange ones on the right. So, while there’s no chance of hooking up two mats for four-player action, at least Family Trainer supports its two-player mode straight out of the box.

The two-player mode gives the game a sharper competitive edge than Wii Fit. Some of the versus games are pure slapstick: there’s a seesaw fight where the goal is to force the other player into a pool of water; a two-player skipping rope challenge, and a game where the object is to stay on top of a platform without being bowled over by rolling timber.

So, yeah, Family Trainer is another collection of Wii mini-games, but at least, with its combination of mat and Remote control, this collection has something unique to offer.

It’s not difficult to see why Atari has picked up Family Trainer for a UK release (due in September, by the way). I reckon it deserves the best of luck for focusing on fun and actually delivering a largely enjoyable game, rather than getting tied down with the "here’s your daily quota of play, but first let’s recap your performance yesterday" thing.