With just a month to go before the release of EA Sports Active it seems that the game's position as best new Wii Fitness title may be short-lived. A new title from Black Bean Games called New You: Inside Out looks set to trump EA's offering.

So what's so great about New You? While EA Sports Active focuses primarily on training, New You aims to provide a more complete package combining fitness with nutritional advice and daily health tips. And this is no half-hearted attempt either. New You was developed in collaboration with Fitness First, one of the largest health and fitness operators in the world.

The game features six in-game personal trainers using real video footage from several workout locations and each of the exercises which make up a Full-Body workout are demonstrated by one of Fitness First's leading Personal Trainers.

The game also features content from the well known You Are What You Eat series. Users will be able to choose a particular lifestyle goal and the game will create custom exercise and nutritional plans using recipes that complement physical exercises, whether you're trying to put on muscle or lose weight. The game even takes into consideration special requirements such as vegetarian or gluten intolerant diets.

According to Fabrizio Vagliasindi, Black Bean Games Head of Marketing, "NewU is not a game; it has been conceived as an interactive healthy lifestyle and workout video for the 21st century."

I have to say, by the sounds of this game I have to agree. I personally was looking forward to the release of EA Sports Active and will no doubt give it a try to see what it's like, but the way things stand it looks like New You: Inside Out is the fitness title to really watch out for. New You: Inside Out should hit the shelves this September.

We've known about a new version of Punch-Out for some time now but there's been some doubt as to whether or not the game will support the Wii Balance Board. Up until now the answer has been no. That was until earlier this week when reports began to surface that it actually does support the Wiiboard. This was based on a news update spotted on the Italian Nintendo site which confirmed balance board support. However, things are no longer looking that certain.

Firstly, Nintendo issued an English press release for Punch-Out!! on Wednesday via Games Press which made no mention of the balance board as a controller. Secondly, the original update from the Italian site has disappeared. It was originally here, but now that page now returns a 404 error. For the time being you can still view Google's cached version here.

So what's that all about? Was the Italian version released too soon or is the reference to balance board support actually incorrect. The game is scheduled for release on May 18th - we may have to wait until then to find out for sure.

Do you remember the 80's arcade game Crazy Climber? It used to be one of my favourites as a kid and although a Wii version was made, as far as I know it never made it out of Japan.

Now it seems Nintendo are releasing a new climbing game called Rock 'N Roll Climber. The game will use the Wii Balance Board to control your feet and use the remote and nunchuck to grab for handholds.

That explains the climbing part of the game so where's the Rock 'n Roll? Well no extreme sports activity would be complete without a hardcore soundtrack right? Supposedly, once you reach the top of a climb, as a reward you get to rock out on a guitar. Interesting.

Remember how, when the Wii Balance Board came out, critics called it a gloried bathroom scale? Well 505 Games have figured that's not such a bad thing because that's exactly what the WiiBoard is used for in their latest title, Nutrition Matters.

Nutrition Matters is less of a game and more of a personal diet journal. By entering what you eat, the exercise you do, and using the balance board as a scale, Nutrition Matters is a handy way to track your calorific gains and losses. While it's not groundbreaking, it certainly is convenient and better than using pen and paper, and for Wii Fit fans, a welcome addition (something that should have been included with Wii Fit to begin with in my opinion).

Nutrition Matters is part of 505's new Mind, Body & Soul range which also includes Big World Puzzle Book and Mind Storm 2, although the latter titles are only going to be available for DS. Nutrition Matters is scheduled for release in May and is available for pre-order in the UK.

At last we have something to celebrate with the long-awaited US release of Namco's We Ski & Snowboard (WSS) - the followup to the popular We Ski/Family Ski. Longtime balance board fans will no doubt remember We Ski which was released in May last year and was one of the first third-party balance board-compatible games. Whilst it was a fun family game, there was one obvious omission - no snowboarding.

The original Happy Ski Resort is gone, replaced with 7000 vertical meters to explore over two mountains (Mt. Angrio and the Jamboree Snow Resort). Unlike We Ski, which restricted you to the runs, WSS is a fully-explorable environment so you can do whatever you want, wherever you want. There's also a new Fun Park with a half-pipe and rails for snowboarding tricks.

While I've enjoyed playing Shaun White Snowboarding, it's definitely more of a 'gamers' game whereas WSS just adds that element of family fun. The original We Ski was fun but never quite delivered. This latest version is the family ski game we were always hoping for. Get yourself a copy - you won't be disappointed.

Check out the official We Ski & Snowboard website for videos, screens and more details.

Given my earlier post regarding Michael Torchia's class action suit against Nintendo, I though it would be nice to post a good news story on Wii Fit. News is that San Diego Padres reliever, Heath Bell, was motivated to get in shape by playing Wii Fit with his children. Weighing in at 270 pounds, good old Wii Fit labelled him as obese and adjusted his Mii character accordingly. According to Bell, "If you're obese, it makes (your character on screen) obese. I was disappointed that I was that big. I literally took the game to heart. I did the work but I kind of credit the Wii Fit."

Well he did the work all right, losing 25 pounds in time for his next season. Interestingly he doesn't mention spending hours on Wii Fit trying to lose weight which is highly unlikely given that as a power pitcher, he's most probably more used to spending many hours in the gym. The point is that Wii Fit was simply the catalyst that got him thinking about his weight and motivated him to do something about it. For many, I think that in itself proves Wii Fit's worth.

Source: The Canadian Press

Majesco has just announced their Go Play initiative aimed at provided a range of family friendly Wii Games with an emphasis on 'motion-based fun for everyone.' The first title to be released late this spring will be called Go Play Lumberjax, with Go Play City Sports and Go Play Circus to follow.

According to Majesco's press release, "Go Play Lumberjax is a competitive party game that lets players use the Wii Remote to chop, climb, saw and logroll to victory in more than 15 fun outdoor events. Go Play City Sports features six classic games played on street 'courts' filled with manhole covers and parked cars. Finally, Go Play Circus Star lets players perform for the big top crowds in 15 different games."

All three titles are said to include support for the Wii Balance Board but no specific details have been released as yet.

Let's face it, it was only a matter of time before somebody jumped on this bandwagon. I'm just surprised it's taken this long. First we had parents up in arms because their children were being labelled 'obese'. Then we had reports of increasing numbers of Wii-related injuries. Now we have fitness guru, Michael Torchia, who's on a mission because he feels that adults and children are being brainwashed by Nintendo's marketing into thinking that Wii games (specifically Wii Fit) are a safe and effective way to become fit.

According to Torchia, "Nintendo is contributing to the epidemic of obesity. Young and old are putting away their gym clothes and shying away from going outdoors to play sports, because the addictive appeal to the Wii game products. Just as the tobacco companies created such a false image of their products and hid the potential dangers, so is Nintendo."

Wow – comparing Wii to tobacco advertising – that's pretty strong talk, but I think he's taking things too far. Yes it's true that as a fitness tool, Wii Fit may not be as good as the hype may have led us to believe, but for many it's a great starting point. Wii Fit has also done a great deal to generate awareness of exergaming and paved the way for future fitness titles such as Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum and EA's Sports Active. Of course there's no denying that improper use of Wii Fit can lead to injuries and yes, some people (a minority in my view) may see Wii Fit as an alternative to outdoor activity but why the need for this negative crusade and the knee-jerk reaction to sue.

Obviously Torchia has a lot to gain by all this increased attention but surely if he really had people's best interests in mind he would follow the example of fellow fitness pros like Bob Greene (currently endorsing EA Sports Active) and focus on the positive effects of Wii Fit (or does he consider that as selling out?). So Wii Fit can lead to injuries – why not use your years of experience and do more to show us how best we should warm up or what the best form should be for the various Wii Fit activities. So Wii Fit stops people from outdoor exercise – surely there's room for both – how about creating some fitness programmes that can incorporate both.

Instead, Torchia has decided that suing Nintendo is the best thing to do. Is that really the answer? Does he really think that this is what we need to help us get off our couches and physically active and healthy? Or maybe he's just upset that nobody offered him the chance to be the face of a Wii fitness title and now it's payback time.

I'm not sure what the general feeling is, but I was somewhat disappointed by Wii Music. For me, the best part of the game is being able to play drums using the Wii balance board. That's why when I first heard about We Rock: Drum King (think Guitar Hero for drummers) a few months back I was quite excited that this would be a pretty good game for wiiboard fans.

At the time there was no mention of the game having balance board support so I thought I would wait and see before mentioning it here. The game's publisher, 505 Games, recently released some PR for the game which is scheduled for European release this April and the bad news is that there's still no mention of balance board support which is a real shame. I've tried to contact 505 to confirm this but had no response so it looks like wiiboard fans will have nothing to look forward to.

It's not all bad news though. If you still feel you need to beat the hell out of a set of drums and don't want to buy Wii Music you could always download Wii Drum High, a free download that will let you connect your wiimote/nunchuck/balance board to your PC via bluetooth to control a full drum kit. Pretty cool!

Looking to get a little more out of your Wii Fit step workout? It seems you can now get a balance board add-on call the RIISER Aerobic Step which raises your wiiboard by 4 inches to give you a better step workout. (Thanks Jas for emailing me about this.)

Of course you could just put your balance board on a pile of books (joke) but I'm not sure how safe that would be. The RIISER looks pretty secure but at $79.99 it seems like a lot to pay for 4 inches.

Anyway Jas is considering buying one and was wondering if anybody's bought one yet and has a review or comments.