The description made by Games Press – general British hub for press releases, screenshots, that sort of thing – of this week’s UK games chart said it all: “Wolverine ranks as this week’s top game that isn’t Wii Fit.” Once again, for about the 20 billionth week in a row, Wii Fit has topped the UK multiformat sales charts.

How? More importantly, why? Thoughts, and debate-encouraging gibberish, over the jump.

Wii Fit is no stranger to success in the UK charts. It sat at number one for the whole of April, and skulked around in the top three during March. Before that, it was back up at the top in Feburary. To put it simply, Wii Fit has owned the charts completely for most of 2009.

Wasn’t always this way though; sometime in December – when you’d think that, as a Christmas must-have, it’d be riding high in the charts – it simply disappeared completely. Whether that’s down to there not being enough units to meet demand or people simply not wanting it, I’m not sure, so make of that what you will.

At the start of January, things started picking up and save for some duking with Call of Duty: World at War it’s been nothing but plain sailing, high flying and any other travel-oriented figures of speech you can think of for Wii Fit. And I refuse to accept this is ongoing.

Who hasn’t bought Wii Fit in the UK already (save for myself)? There can’t be many people left in these kingdoms united that actually think that buying a little white plastic square will be a do-all alternative to going to the gym. Even if a little step aerobics may or may not get the heart going a little.

It is, to all intents and purposes, still the gaming world’s alli. alli is, for those out of the loop, the over-the-counter name for the drug tetrahydrolipstatin; since 2007 in the States and earlier this year in Europe it’s been sold as a anti-obesity weight-loss drug and works effectively within a calorie controlled diet as a method of losing weight without much fuss.

My friend works in a pharmacy and has been utterly buried in phone calls from pudgy Glaswegians seeking a quick solution to their distended bellies and wobbly thighs. They won’t accept that alli requires commitment and a change in lifestyle and is an accompaniment to a weight-loss program rather than a dedicated solution in itself.

Plus, alli makes you fart like a bitch.

As I see it – and the only way to explain Wii Fit’s simply unreasonably massive sales – Wii Fit is to gaming what alli appears to be to the world of pharmaceuticals. People are buying it up in scores because it appears to be a quick-fix solution to the problem of weight loss, and this is simply not true.

How many more are going to buy it up and realise that actual effort outside of these “quick fixes” is required? Or am I the chump here for thinking that everyone else is a chump? Sound off in the comments as we spark the Wii Fit debate all over again…

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