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Sure, Wii Fit looked nice, but most of us were thinking up entirely different uses for the Wii Balance Board the moment we laid eyes on it. Here's the four best uses for the intriguing new accessory.

I'll be honest. In my humble opinion, Nintendo's E3 press conference this year wasn't really what I had hoped it would be. Instead of new game announcements and/or trailers, we were treated to a ton of gloating from Reggie. Not that they don't deserve to gloat ... just they could have kept it a little shorter in the interest of keeping the people at the event awake.

However, regardless of the fact that the conference didn't live up to my hopes, two things are clear. The first: Nintendo got the most applause from the audience despite the fact that it was filled with journalists instead of fanboys. Second: Wii Fit looks awesome. Nintendo has mentioned that third parties are already trying to work in Balance Board support. Here's the four kinds of games we think will make the best use of it:

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Rhythm-based games:

DDR is the most obvious game one could think off with the Wii Balance Board in mind. Heck, Nintendo featured a dumbed-down dancing minigame in Wii Fit! It would eliminate the need to buy extra Wiimotes and have to strap them to your arms and legs. The Balance Board is a far cheaper solution, and it would most likely adhere to the traditional DDR control scheme, keeping a lot of fans happy. Come to think of it, there's room in Guitar Hero, too...

Pros: No need for additional Wii remotes. Familiar gameplay.

Cons: Currently, no one is aware whether or not the Balance Board merely senses shifts in balance or also consists of multiple touch-point sensors. Balance Board might be too small for DDR-like hopping.

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Skateboarding games:

Another obvious use for the Balance Board. I'll bet EA is already looking into exploiting the board's technology to see if they can't crank out a Tony Hawk game that beats Skate. Truth be told, a skateboarding game could be rather fun and intuitive once balanced and polished to perfection.

Pros: About as intuitive as you can get for pulling off simpler skateboarding tricks.

Cons: But, how would you pull off the more advanced tricks? It's quite likely that you would need to use a Wiimote along with the board. Not that that's a bad thing ... it just makes developing the game that much harder and the risks of it sucking that much higher.

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Fighting games:

Not quite something most people would expect to see on this list. However, if you think about it, the shifts-in-balance-sensor could be used for adding entirely new gameplay mechanics to the fighting genre. Leaning back to dodge blows, leaning forward to add more power to your blows ... there are a ton of uses you could think up, if you put your mind to it.

Pros: The possibility of offering entirely new gameplay mechanics in a fighting game. The thought of actual body language affecting gameplay is orgasmic.

Cons: Getting people to stay on the board would be a bit of an issue.

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Minigames / party games:

Looking to some of the stuff featured in WarioWare for the Wii, I'd say this is probably where the Balance Board's largest potential lies. I can just see a gazillion companies (Ubisoft and SEGA for starters) who would like nothing better than to shower us with more minigame compilations that are even crazier than the stuff we've seen in recent times.

Pros: Tons of crazy mini-games requiring you to hop all over a Balance Board sounds fun.

Cons: Unless it was a first-party game, would anyone buy a minigame compilation that wasn't bundled with the Balance Board?

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While these are all baseless predictions, we're playing it rather safe in this article by only including some of the more obvious uses that come to mind when one thinks of the Balance Board. Developers on the other hand ... they've got some crazy ideas.

Square Enix, for example, is interested in developing a role-playing game that makes use of the board. While I can imagine how this would help in some ways (eliminating several extra buttons and menu navigation for one), I really have no idea what they could possibly have in mind that has got them so excited about this.

As always, where there's Nintendo, there's innovation. When I heard about the rumored "hardware announcement at E3", I just figured it would be the Blaster (now the Zapper once again). I don't think anyone saw the Balance Board or Wii Fit coming. However, now that it is out, what does everyone else think as far as incorporating the board into other games is concerned?

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