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Nintendo apologizes for it's Wii Fit game that dubbed a young British girl "fat".
The lure of a Wii is so strong that when Lazarus Banks went shopping for a TV, he decided to get a Wii instead. "I love it, this is very addicting."
It's so addicting, that no Wiis could be found on the shelves and the new Fit game that launches Wednesday won't be around for long either. Only 18 are available for general sale and they are expected to sell out in minutes.
"I need it, so I'm excited how it will work into my scheme of things," said Wii owner Debbie Brown.
Brown pre-ordered her Wii Fit and had been looking forward to playing it with her two grandchildren. The Wii Fit games require players to input their height and weight, a measure of Body Mass Index, or BMI.
"Both of them are conscious of their body, I don't think it would be frightening or upsetting," said Brown.
Overseas, a young 10-year-old Britain girl was upset when her BMI measured "overweight".
"I was horrified, I would have smashed the game, there's no excuse for that," said Julie Boocks.
"Ten-year-olds, do what they want to do, they want to play with it, not worry about their body image," said Johanna Montano.
Dr. Joseph Wright at Children's Hospital said a person's BMI can easily be mis-measured or misinterpreted by kids. "Certainly in the context of combating obesity, it is just a very small element of what needs to be followed."
Wii's Europe headquarters reportedly apologized to any customers who were offended by words like "obese" and "overweight" that were used when measuring BMI in the games.
A Nintendo media representative told ABC 7 that parents who worry their could react negatively to the BMI categories should use Wii Fit in a way that the BMI tracker actually does not appear on the television screen.
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