Wii Fit U wants to be a gateway drug for physical fitness.

This unintimidating fitness product is targeted at families who want to start getting active. With a friendly interface, a useful tool for tracking fitness outside of the game and an impressive selection of activities, it offers a baseline incentive for people looking to get off the couch.

But constant inaccuracies and other problems mean Wii Fit U can't compete with a more professional training program. The actual exercise benefit here is uneven at best.

Upon starting up, Wii Fit U calculates your BMI and tests your balance — info that's used to calculate your Wii Fit Age and provide example goals to achieve. From there, you can choose individual activities, each of which ends in burned calories — visualized as coins going into a bank — or progress toward other fitness goals. Alternatively, you can check in with a Fitness Meter — a sort of supercharged pedometer that tracks steps, calories, and even altitude.

A whole range of activities — from yoga to aerobics to dance — is available either as one-off sessions or in routines. Yoga and strength training are the best bets for people who actually want to work out. There are a variety of simple yoga poses, all painstakingly explained, with a focus on correct posture and breathing. Strength training consists of simple calisthenics — push-ups, planks, squats and the like. These are similarly well-illustrated, and contain the most real-world exercise benefit.