Are there fitness benefits from playing the Wii?

The Nintendo Wii is still being talked about and studied by fitness professionals, myself included.  The American Council on Exercise completed an exclusive study The Wii: As Good as the Real Thing?  This Study used the Wii Sports, which includes baseball, boxing, bowling, tennis and golf.  To begin the study fitness baselines were established, Wii Sports demonstrations were given, and 15 minutes practice sessions for each sport were allowed. 

In my opinion, the key of the study is that the participants were instructed to move their bodies in the way you would normally during each sport. It is possible to achieve success onscreen with very little body movement, however, you do not get the fitness benefits.  The results of the ACE study showed

golf burned 3.1 calories/minute (the actual sport @  a driving range burned 3.9 cal/min)
bowling burned 3.9 calories/minute (the actual sport 7.2 cal/min)
baseball burned 4.5 calories/minute (the actual sport of pitching a baseball 7.3 cal/min)
tennis burned 5.3 calories/minute (the actual sport 8.1 cal/min)
boxing burned 7.2 calories/minute (the actual sport 10.2 cal/min)

At the end of the day you will be better off playing Wii sports than sitting on the couch, but nothing is better than playing the real sports.