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 ign.com:

Today Ubisoft announced that My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr is now available on store shelves. Designed exclusively for the Nintendo DS system, My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr provides players with an entertaining, interactive method to quit smoking.

Based on the method outlined in the international best seller, Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking, My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr removes the smoker’s belief that smoking provides any genuine pleasure or crutch, and takes away the feeling of deprivation, therefore ridding the smoker of the fear of stopping.

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From canada.com:

The Nintendo DS has captured a lot of the coaching software market. The hand-held system, with a double screen, has taken off strongly. In addition to Super Mario and other games, it also has proven a useful platform for companies such as Ubisoft, which produces coaching titles ranging from language tutors to cookery coaches.

Ubisoft’s language-coach series includes not only a vocabulary coach for English speakers called My Word Coach, but has also expanded the series into Spanish and French. My Word Coach features a range of games designed to help you improve your vocabulary.

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From businesswire.com:

“Today Ubisoft announced that My SAT Coach with The Princeton Review has shipped to retailers nationwide and is available exclusively for the Nintendo DS™ system. Developed in Ubisoft’s Montreal studio and in partnership with The Princeton Review, the video game will help students prepare for the SAT exam with timed drills and mini-games where scores are tracked and the player is given recommendations on how to improve testing performance. With more than 2,000 new practice questions and two diagnostic exams, My SAT Coach with The Princeton Review is an invaluable test preparation tool.”

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From krisabel.ctv.ca:

“The success of Brain Age games and Wii Fit has proven so effective in establishing new trends in video games that Nintendo, along with partner Ubi Soft Montreal, were able to fill a spa this week with demonstrations of seventeen titles in the life coach and fitness genres including a new cooking guide, a stop smoking coach, two new yoga trainers, language instructors for Chinese and Japanese, and a Pilates guide. In previewing them, I found myself surrounded by female reporters, the only man in the tour, and suddenly recruited for a Yoga lesson. To make up for the tree poses and breathing exercises, I was given a rather butch tattoo on my forearm, so I still left the spa with my dignity intact.”

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From gamedaily.com:

“Ubisoft announced today that it has joined with Handicap International for a new campaign called “AbilityTogether.” The two have worked together to create a serious game called Handigo, which is designed to help people realize the difficulties that disabled people endure.

This serious game focuses on three characters that have a physical disability, sensory disability and learning difficulties, respectively. This educational game can be found at www.abilitytogether.com.”

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