Video games have come a long ways since I was young. Gone are the days where, with a joystick in hand – a controller that actually resembled a stick and had one, not a multitude of buttons – a gamer guided a blurry, barely visible adventurer over a trough filled with hungry alligators (ala “Pitfall") or blasted away at scurrying centipedes winding their way through a mind field of mushrooms (a la “Centipede”). Today, video games are as realistic as ever. One can play “Love in an Elevator” along side Joey Perry of Aerosmith (a la “Guitar Hero”) or play doubles tennis with Roger Federer and Andy Roddick at Roland Garros (a la “Top Spin 3”) – all from the comfort of home.

In the process, video gaming has taken interactivity to another level, with the emphasis on activity. So much so, in fact, that many people who enjoy using gaming systems like Nintendo Wii are snapping up Nintendo Wii fit programs from big box stores as an outlet for exercise instead of treadmills from nutrition centers.

I don’t want to sound like a prude here, but let’s get one thing straight: A tennis match in the living room does not replace a tennis match on an actual clay court. Strength training with the Nintendo Wii Fit console placed in front of the sofa is not the same as strength training at a gym or with actual barbells and balance boards.

But, in the words of “Reading Rainbow” superstar LeVar Burton, you don’t have to take my word for it. Take the word of doctors like Colleen Greene, who heads up the health division MFit at the University of Michigan. Speaking to ScienceDaily, Greene says that Nintendo Wii may be a fun outlet for kids and adults to use that implements physical movement, but “you ought to get outside, give [real exercise] a try, and have some fun.”

She notes how some activities for the Nintendo Wii do burn calories, but when performing the actual activity in the environment it was meant for, people burn three to four times more calories by comparison.

Something else gaming systems now offer are body mass index assessments. The body mass index has become perhaps the most reliable way for doctors and consumers to determine with relative ease how healthy they are in terms of weight (underweight, normal, overweight or obese). But as a Kansas State University professor of kinesiology notes in his review of the Nintendo Wii, the BMI measurements used for children are inaccurate, because the Nintendo Wii doesn’t take into account gender growth charts and the child’s age. Other physical assessments the Nintendo Wii offers, like one’s ability to balance themselves, are also considered flawed by the Wildcats’ kinesiology professor (Dr. David Dzewaltowski).

Again, I don’t want to come off sounding prudish. I also don’t want to come off sounding ungrateful for these innovations, or that I’m somehow unhappy people are at least getting some exercise. As I wrote recently, some exercise is always better than no exercise. All these things the Nintendo Wii offers are helpful and I’m sure they’re loads of fun. But machines like these are really not effective replacements for exercise in any form – not out in the yard, on the street, on a bicycle or on a treadmill. Should they be used in addition to a regular exercise program? Absolutely! But they shouldn’t be considered replacements or “as good as” the real thing. To quote an old jingle my younger readers may not have heard of, “You can’t beat the real thing” (Jingles: One of the few things soda companies have been good for).