Published: October 02, 2009 04:07 pm      

Nintendo's 'Wii Fit Plus' adds pet support

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pet owners can weigh themselves with their furry friends on "Wii Fit Plus," the follow-up to the top-selling Nintendo workout game.

The updated title lets players create avatars of their dogs and cats, enter information such as their pet's birthday, and use the scalelike Wii Balance Board controller to weigh themselves and their pets. The game will then continue to monitor the pet's weight alongside its owner.

"It's so fun to have a motivator when you're working out," said Katie Cray, Nintendo entertainment and trend marketing manager. "Obviously, if you have a dog, you're probably out there walking your dog and playing with it, and that's exercise in and of itself, so it's nice to have the ability to track the progress of both your dog and yourself."

"Wii Fit Plus," which launches Sunday, doesn't have any training exercises for pets. It does have several new features for human users, including three strength training exercises, three yoga activities and 15 balance games. Players can customize their routines, allowing them to focus on working out specific parts of their bodies.

Nintendo invited the media and celebrities including Rachael Leigh Cook, Nick Cannon and Brooke Burke — and their pooches — to preview the game Tuesday at the "Wii Fit Plus" Fitness Club, a Beverly Hills space transformed for one day into a posh health club, led by trainer Tracy Anderson, whose celebrity clientele includes Madonna.

"I will definitely prescribe it to people who are at a level where they lack a mind-body connection or they lack motivation or also people like Gwyneth Paltrow, who I train all the time," Anderson said. "Sometimes we're in trailers on movie sets, and we don't have a lot of room, but it doesn't take much room to set up 'Wii Fit Plus' and customize a program."