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nli10 · Jun 8, 2009

Walk with me! Do you want to know your walking routine?

aka Personal Trainer: Walking in USA

aka Is that an Activity Monitor in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

Picked this up on it's UK Launch last Friday from Blockbuster for £40 and I've been giving it a go.

It's not like the other training software, it doesn't pretend that it's going to improve anything & it's even less of a game than even the cooking tutor, it's just a way of monitoring your movement habits. There are some really bare bones ways to compare this against the other people on the cart (which is slightly translucent so the IR works) and you can go on to the WiFi to see who has been walking the furthest and see if collectively we have made it to the moon. It's a nicely done package, but if you don't enjoy walking or stats then it's not for you.

I was interested in the fact that you can attach the Activity Monitor to animals and it measures the steps differently so I stuck the spare one on my cousins Chihuahua to see what happened.

Turns out the little thing does around 12,000 steps a day where as lazy me (at the weekend anyway) was getting about 2,500. As the owners are on holiday I made a video and stuck it on YouTube of that first weekends walking.

You can't really customize the MiiDogs much other than colour but it's a nice touch. Copying over the Mii from the Wii was easy and shows off a hidden setting (A then B then 1 then hold 2 in the Mii Plaza to communicate with DS).

Today was the first real typical day for the software and I'd already hit the 3,000 step target before I got to work at 9am.

Checking now for the day I got 7,561 but instead of walking home I went to town so that probably lowered my total. I do less 'active walking' - periods of more than 10 mins walking - than I expected but otherwise it's pretty much as thought.

It's no effort to leave the little white tracker in a pocket or bag so i'm going to keep it up.

Hopefully there will be some other software (DSi ?) that use the Activity Monitors, but knowing Nintendo probably not.

Did anyone else here actually buy it or even get a review copy? When I last checked there were less than 1,000 people (and dogs) registered on the online leader-board for the week.

Stumpokapow · Jun 8, 2009

I bought it because I was in the market for a pedometer and this software represents good value for money. But... like you said, Brain Age and Wii Fit both have game elements to them. This does not. Like Personal Trainer: Cooking, this is pretty much entirely lifestyle software. So I'd say the lack of discussion about it on this forum is because it really has nothing to do with gaming whatsoever. Anyone buying this should know that it's absolutely not a game whatsoever.

Progress-wise, I've been doing anywhere from 4500 or so steps on a lazy day to 8000+ steps on days when I walk to substantially more if I'm running on the treadmill. I do like the stat comparison stuff. I find the little unlockable things are pretty neat.

I am disappointed that it doesn't save much data. If you wait a few days without syncing, you will lose data. Even with syncing, it only holds a month or so. This is kinda baloney--there's no real reason Nintendo didn't invest further either including PC export functionality or better storage.

Still, again, it's good value for money. If you're in the market for a pedometer it's worth checking out.

It's also kinda baloney that you can only sync one person per pedometer. If you want to share with someone or alternate days, you need to go through the arduous process of swapping profiles. If you lose your pedometer, a replacement unit is $15 plus shipping from Nintendo, which I think is a little expensive.

Nintendo will almost certainly not do anything much more with this, specifically because--well--what can you do with a pedometer? The Pokemon Gold/Silver remakes will use the pedometer to gain experience for your Pokemon while you walk, but I kinda don't see that taking off. If you play Pokemon beginning to end, the game is so ridiculously easy that there's not much reason to power up like that. If you play at a higher level (WiFi competition stuff), then EVs are important enough that you're not going to ham experience using it.

nli10 · Jun 9, 2009

Stumpokapow said:
I am disappointed that it doesn't save much data. If you wait a few days without syncing, you will lose data. Even with syncing, it only holds a month or so. This is kinda baloney--there's no real reason Nintendo didn't invest further either including PC export functionality or better storage.

I presumed that the graphs kept going - it mentions 5 years on the box somewhere. Probably not the minute by minute stuff just the color blocks. If you say this isn't true then thats a bit disappointing.

Stumpokapow said:
Still, again, it's good value for money. If you're in the market for a pedometer it's worth checking out.

It's also kinda baloney that you can only sync one person per pedometer. If you want to share with someone or alternate days, you need to go through the arduous process of swapping profiles. If you lose your pedometer, a replacement unit is $15 plus shipping from Nintendo, which I think is a little expensive.

They said they were selling extra meters at retail in the UK in the pastel DS lite colours, but I've not seen any in store or online. It entered the Full Price UK chart at 38 and should rise as the supermarkets stock it, but I'm not sure it's breakout hit material.

To swap profiles (or to get the dog off and put someone else on) do I just have to delete the profile and start a new one? Or is there a slightly less drastic way?

I'd have loved a GPS based solution like the Garmin ForeRunner but I can't justify that for the little I'd use it (and it doesn't like Macs). This kinda does the job.

And yeah - I'll leave it at the Discretion of the Mods as to whether this stays here or goes to the non-gaming forum.

Stumpokapow · Jun 9, 2009

I realize my original post sounded more negative than I wanted it to. This thread is fine; I was just trying to explain why you didn't see many posts about the product around here before now. Also, I'm by and large quite satisfied with my purchase so if I seemed like a downer, that wouldn't be accurate.

nli10 said:
I presumed that the graphs kept going - it mentions 5 years on the box somewhere. Probably not the minute by minute stuff just the color blocks. If you say this isn't true then thats a bit disappointing.

Oh yeah, it can keep your daily step total for far longer than you'll use it. But what I mean is that it doesn't keep the detailed stuff for more than a month. You can save individual dates as being "meaningful" dates or whatever, but it still sucks that you can't track day-in-day-out for a year or whatever.

Even if someone could take this pedometer and cobble together some data transfer software for the PC, I'd be happy with that.

They said they were selling extra meters at retail in the UK in the pastel DS lite colours, but I've not seen any in store or online.

Truthfully, I didn't even check retail stores here. Girlfriend misplaced her pedometer and while she ended up finding it, I checked into getting a replacement anyway so I happened to know the price. I guess it depends on whether or not they end up using it further.

To swap profiles (or to get the dog off and put someone else on) do I just have to delete the profile and start a new one? Or is there a slightly less drastic way?

All I know is that girlfriend started her profile on the white pedometer and wanted to switch to black. The only way we were able to facilitate this was to delete my profile, have her switch to the unused black pedometer, and then re-creating me attached to the white pedometer. If there's an easier solution, I haven't found it

Notorious_Roy · Jun 9, 2009

A friend of mine has bought this and she's using it to see if she walks enough. The second meter was for her cat and it was real fun to see the creature just slept all day when she's off to work :lol

nli10 · Jun 9, 2009

IWATA ASKS Walk With Me!

I'd wanted to put our spare on the cat but it has a habit of removing collars so doesn't wear one. The Chihuahua was a compromise.

Looks like I will have to delete the dog to add other people then - will experiment with that.

Not done the check for today, but I've got a green light on 5,000 steps.

Notorious_Roy · Jun 9, 2009

Does anyone know if it works while cycling? At my work I don't walk that much, but cycling to and from work could count... Right?

TheGrayGhost · Jun 9, 2009

Notorious_Roy said:
Does anyone know if it works while cycling? At my work I don't walk that much, but cycling to and from work could count... Right?

Good question. Although I plan on walking more often, I mainly use my bike for travel.

I plan on using this, WiiFit Plus, and a renewed effort in dieting and exercise to get back on top of things.

EDIT: Wiki says the release date for this game in NA was May 25. I've had on reserve at GS but didn't receive notice. Is it already out, or is Wiki wrong?

AquaticSquirrel · Jun 9, 2009

Shouldn't they be giving this to kids and not animals?

nli10 · Jun 9, 2009

Notorious_Roy said:
Does anyone know if it works while cycling? At my work I don't walk that much, but cycling to and from work could count... Right?

In the IWATA Asks article it says that it's a shock sensor and that it's set to only register after 10 sec of motion. When on a private road that isn't very flat I registered walking even though I was driving, otherwise it's too smooth. I guess cycling would be the same.

Plus it'd not tell you how far or how hard you were working.

I'd go for the £15 cycle computers as they'd suit your needs better.

I was pretty sure it's out in the USA as there are some peeps on YouTube with it that aren't English.

Yesterday I was a Daytime Horse (7,586 steps)
Today I was a Morning Deer (5,938 steps)!!

I got the bus half way to work today (it's free and if it goes past I get it) but it meant that I had no active walking today as I got the bus home too (because I knew I'd hit my target!!).

I think I need to set my target to 6,000 steps instead of 5 so that if I do get the bus I make up the walking elsewhere. 2,000 steps seems to be about a mile at the moment I think.

CANLI · Jun 18, 2009

Notorious_Roy said:
A friend of mine has bought this and she's using it to see if she walks enough. The second meter was for her cat and it was real fun to see the creature just slept all day when she's off to work :lol

:lol :lol :lol

I bought the game last weekend and it makes me want to walk more than ever. I like the game. Yesterday, I finished the day with more than 12000 steps. I also make a lot of steps at work.

Deku · Jun 18, 2009

Got this and I'm most impressed with the quality of the pedometer.

I have more than a few shitty ones that were handed out for health and wellness or sold at sports stores.

CANLI · Jul 6, 2009

Yesterday, I walked more than 41000 steps.
I was the first in the end of the day yay

[/IMG]

there are more than 4300 people for the walk to the moon.

nli10 · Aug 24, 2009

Quick update as the other thread on the Vorderman game reminded me.

Average steps 5184 - lower than expected, mainly as recently some days I forget to take it.

Monthly the average has gone 5,906 - 5,502 - 3,992

Collectively the 56,888 walkers have made it to the moon and 1/3 of the way to Mars. To be honest the added extras lost their appeal fairly fast. The walk the world is a time killer but doesn't load fast enough. Once you've lit the house up once it's not worth looking at. The world ranking is interesting, but the top few people seem to cheat and you have to do it on a Sat evening to get an accurate update. Only around 5,000 people each week upload stats.

Wario64 · Feb 15, 2010

Sorry to bump a pretty old thread, but what happens if you don't sync your device every day? Does it affect any stats if you sync every two days?

Just got this from Target on clearance for like $25, which comes to $12.50 for a pedometer really and I find it pretty neat. A friend needed one to track stats so I ended up using the 2nd one just for fun.

larvi · Feb 15, 2010

Wario64 said:
Sorry to bump a pretty old thread, but what happens if you don't sync your device every day? Does it affect any stats if you sync every two days?

Just got this from Target on clearance for like $25, which comes to $12.50 for a pedometer really and I find it pretty neat. A friend needed one to track stats so I ended up using the 2nd one just for fun.

It stores multiple days of stats so you don't have to sync daily. I'm not sure what the maximum it can store is but I've gone a couple of weeks in between and it looks like it had all of the data still when I finally synced up.

Shiggy · Feb 15, 2010

nli10 said:
Hopefully there will be some other software (DSi ?) that use the Activity Monitors, but knowing Nintendo probably not.

Half a year later...there's Active Health developed by Fuse Games.

OMG Aero · Feb 15, 2010

Watching the video in the first post has convinced me that the best way to play Soul Silver is to get a dog to level up my Pokemon for me.

nli10 · Mar 6, 2010

Just spotted this was bumped.

Yeah - it stores a good few days worth of steps, and when it's full it dumps the min by min amounts and keeps the totals so you don't loose much.

I've passed 1 million steps now.

Shiggy said:
Half a year later...there's Active Health developed by Fuse Games.

Ha - not seen that will have to look it up. ED: Oh that's the Carol Vorderman one. In the UK that came out 1 month after the original for the same price with only one activity monitor. YOu can get it for £15 now some places though.

OMG Aero said:
Watching the video in the first post has convinced me that the best way to play Soul Silver is to get a dog to level up my Pokemon for me.

Depends if the SS has the 4 legs setting that Walk with me does.

jgkspsx · Feb 22, 2011

Why did I bump this ancient thread? Why, it's because the world community is about to get to Mars. In the next day or so. Pretty cool, even if the pace slowed massively in the last three months.

I'm irked by the 1:1 distance mapping they did for the "Walk the Planets", though, because there is no way we will ever get to Jupiter, much less further. I bet they didn't even program the other planets.

My wife and I use this software religiously. Not to any particular effect, I suppose, but it's been well worth the $20 or so I paid for it on clearance.

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