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Wii Fit Could Have Been “Mario Fitness”

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Legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that the immensely popular Wii Fit could well have been named Mario Fitness. Miyamoto went on to explain that Nintendo thought it was important to create new IP’s, rather than building on existing ones. Miyamoto also said that as the company continues to generate new ideas, they may come across an idea that makes the most sense to release with a new character.

When we created the original Wii Sports, we could have done it as a “Mario Sports” game, but we decided not to. Similarly with Wii Fit, that could have been a “Mario Fitness” game, but in both of those cases we ultimately decided that introducing those games as new IP or new franchises was a better approach. Because those games don’t have specific characters associated with them, people may not view them as new IP, but certainly when we created those games we intended them to be new franchises. It may be that in the future, as we’re generating new ideas, we’ll come across an idea that makes the most sense to release with a new character.

33 thoughts on “Wii Fit Could Have Been “Mario Fitness””

    1. I know. it might of been arguably better as Mario fitness , BUT it wouldn’t of appealed to all ages like Wii fit did.

      Nintendo need to stop over using Mario, they’re going to burn the little fella out. Yet I still keep coming back for more and more and more….

      1. Agreed. They should slow Mario’s role, even though most of the games are completely differen’t and are great, they could use some new mascots.

          1. I hear ya. The Yoshi game looks pretty “yarn” good actually ;) We could use some dlc for Nintendoland as well, at keast some more crash courses.

        1. They could have ”Nintendo all stars golf” instead of mario golf , with samus and falcon in it XD

            1. Mario part = Nintendo Party. Mario tenniss = Donkey kong tennis and so forth… they really should use their other , amazing IP’s more.

              Metroid pinball on DS ftw!!!

              1. Mario Tennis does feature Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong though.
                Mario Sluggers (baseball game for Wii only released in the US) featured even more characters from the Donkey Kong series, including King K. Rool.

                1. I know , but still. they could use their other franchises in place of Mario sometimes. Not every sports game has to be mario based…. they’re just doing it to sell more.

  1. I would’nt want Mario to train me to be fit. I mean come on a Italian plumber that stops on murshoom and turtles?

  2. Glad they didnt do this but still mario can be in everything else idc. Hes the best video game character

  3. It definitely would have made it more interesting if it was called Mario Fitness. I might have actually bought it then. But (even though it’s not a gender specific game) I feel like these games are made just for women. I’d love to own the Balance Board. But there’s no way I’m paying $100+ just to get a balance board and a game I know I’ll never touch.

  4. I saw a exercise bike in our local retailer, claimed it can be used to play mario kart on wii.
    That might have been interesting,

  5. Pingback: Nintendo Charged » Mario Nearly Made His Way To Wii Fit

  6. Pingback: Commercially available games used in balance training for patients with Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease. | Area 88

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