I'm dying to try it. Unfortunately, I don't have a Wii.

Apparently XBox 360 and Playstation 3 are scrambling to get their own versions of fitness video games out on the market to compete. I find this all rather exciting. Of course, there's plenty of backlash from the non-gaming crowd. The ever popular "Go play outside!" naysayers who have yet to accept video games as an art form. Yes vitamin information is good, yes damage control is good, but lets think in a new direction.  I see WiiFit and its kin as a great step forward.

Exercise videos have been pushed down the throat of the mid-American consumer for decades ago. It stretches all the way back to Jane Fonda, yet nobody was in an uproar about those videos. The WiiFit is a much more versatile, creative version of the exercise video. It is something that can track progress, that can be tailored to the abilities of the person working out.

Finally, I believe this is just the beginning. The possibilities really are endless using a gaming system to get in shape and tone the body. So far as I understand it, the Wii fit right now is similar to an aerobics class, but how long is it before somebody figures out how to attach weight sets to that little Wiimote and the video game can help guide form and reps for an at-home free weight workout? I'm sold.

I've been working my way through the Mega Man series on my emulators. I've played Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X (for the SuperNintendo). Both excellent games.

Mega man is a classic platform shooter. It excels beyond its peers in several ways...

1) Level Selection: In an era of no saves, any game could dry out after a few hours when you get stuck on one particularly difficult passage in a single level. There may be a dozen more levels to play in the game, but you have to play level 4 or level 8 over and over and over until you beat it to get to the next ones. In mega man, you got to choose which of the 8 levels to play in any order. If one was too hard, skip it and try a different one until you got better at playing or until...

2) Weapon selection. Mega Man was the first great multi-weapon game. Mega Man acquired a new weapon at the end of each boss fight, making him better and better the further you play the game.

3) Timing verses mashing. Most games of the classic era could be overcome with enough button mashing. Mega Man required timed jumps and sequences of jumping and shooting that required developed skill at gameplay. This was where mega man 2 really gained its legend.

4) Multivitamins. Mega man wasn't a hero with washboard abs. There was no life extension if he died. He was a robot. He didn't need any vitamins online. And that's one cool thing about our little blue Zero.

I recently started fooling around with emulators.

I started with the classics. I downloaded the original Nes emulator and immediately downloaded the first two games I ever played after I unwrapped my Nes on my eighth birthday. Super Mario Brothers and Castlevania.I never beat Castlevania, and with good reason, the game is F'ing hard! I still can't beat it at 26!

Next I downloaded Zelda and did beat it. I have fond memories of Zelda as my dad actually played the game with me. I remember the shiny golden cartridge. It was also the first game I broke. I dropped it into a puddle on my way to my friends house. I lost all my saves!

I quickly moved onto the Genesis emulator. This was my second video game system, the one that stayed with me through most my childhood. Sonic the Hedgehog, mutant league football, and my two favorites: Sword of Vermillion and Gunstar Heroes. Gunstar Heroes was unique at the time because it was a two player action game without a split screen. Like Contra, both players fought all the same enemies, and players could team up to do special tricks. My friend and I played this game all the way through dozens of times.

The Sword of Vermillion was my first true RPG. I realized the epic quality of RPG and I fell in love. Playing it again, I realize it ripped off most the good traits of Zelda, and didn't offer up too much variety, but simply the achievement of beating a game that takes more than a day to play had me in tingles.

Finally I downloaded the Super Nintendo emulator. I never owned an SNes and I was always a bit jealous. The cool kids all knew about the secrets of Super Mario World and Metroid Prime. I was lucky just to get to watch my cousins play the hip games.

The SNes had one of the best video games ever made, Final Fantasy III, and I never played. I watched my friend play it, but that's a whole different matter. So now, I've downloaded FFIII, the game I own action figures of, the game I can play most the songs to on the piano, and for the first time, 15 years after I was introduced to it, I'm going to play all the way through it.

And for good merit, I'm also going to mention omega 3 supplements and omega 3 vitamins just for brownie points. Have a good one!