Nintendo is releasing what might be the first big-budget console game that can pull in that ever elusive segment: mothers. I blogged about the Wii craze last year, pointing to the ALPHA MOM as the key audience Nintendo looked to in creating video games that would spur their children to get off the couch. For an industry that’s often been blamed for helping cause obesity and inactivity, Wii Fit is a chance to turn back the criticism by offering a game that targets health issues in a way that’s fun.

Wii Fit is a health and exercise program that I believe will boost the momentum of the Nintendo Wii, which has sold more than 9 million consoles since it was released in November 2006. The Wii has created a huge shift in the gaming world, inviting millions of casual and nongamers, many of them women, to pick up the motion-sensing Wii remote controller and play games using gestures and waves.

Officially, Nintendo said Wii Fit is designed for an “expanded audience.” But the game has the potential to attract what some marketers have called the chief household officer, ALPHA MOMS, a large but mostly unreached population of potential gamers. Some think that the new Wii game will skew female, much like the “Richard Simmons Sweatin’ to the Oldies. ” videos of the Eighties.

For about $90 players can chart their weight and body mass index over time and work to improve them by engaging in about 40 activities including yoga, aerobic step routines, strength and training exercises, and balance games. The balance board can track the progress of up to eight players, so users can encourage each other toward their respective goals. (Nintendo’s Wii Fit mini-site has video demonstrations of each training mode. For those who are well aware of the Wii Fit and have been patiently awaiting its release, you may have a tough time finding it in stores!)

The increase in new female gamers on the Wii has been noticeable, but Wii Fit can take it a step further by enticing moms to spring for the Wii for themselves, not just for their kids.