From msnbc.msn.com:

Ubisoft wants to help us shed a few pounds with “My Weight Loss Coach.” It wants to help us improve our vocabulary with “My Word Coach” And it wants to help us kick that cancerous habit with "My Stop Smoking Coach" Meanwhile, its "Dog Whisperer Game" promises to help us tame our problematic pooches … no kicking involved.

Nintendo, with its “Wii Fit” and “Brain Age ” games knows a thing or two about self improvement and has, most recently, launched “Personal Trainer: Cooking” and “Personal Trainer: Math ” (both for the Nintendo DS). And — I’m not making this up — they plan to launch “Personal Trainer: Walking” in the near future. Yes … walking.

It seems that video game publishers have discovered that human beings are imperfect creatures. More importantly, they know that we know that we’re imperfect and are desperate to fix the situation. So while I am fairly confident in my ability to put one foot in front of the other, I succumbed to my deep-seated arithmetic and culinary insecurities and decided to find out if Nintendo’s personal math and cooking trainers really could fix my most glaring personal flaws. 

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From canada.com:

“But he’s right: I have been getting a lot of thumb exercise recently while I tried out Ubisoft’s new Nintendo DS game My Weight Loss Coach.

And I have to say, it was indeed fun and will probably become rather addictive for some people – which, I would think, is exactly what the designer of the game is hoping for.

As Gazette technology reporter Roberto Rocha pointed out in his story about the launch of the product in June, it’s not really a game, but a lifestyle manager. It aims to help people get up off the couch and become more active.

And I’m all for things that can do that.

The program encourages the user to get out and move, and offers different challenges that will earn you points as you move toward your weight loss goals.”

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