Game history repeats itself. North American gamers who rushed to buy Wii Fit, Nintendo’s new exercise game, are reporting damages and injuries that the company did not anticipate. Gamers are getting carried away with the stretching, aerobicizing and wobbling that the Wii Balance Board peripheral prescribes. Some enthusiastic gamers are flying off the board and crashing into potted plants and furniture, while other gamers have posted pictures of themselves smashing head-first into their expensive LCD teevee screens.

“We didn’t expect this amount of zeal from Wii Fit players,” says Yoshi Fakeymoto, Nintendo’s Vice President of Artificial Affairs. Nintendo experienced a similar issue with the release of its Wii console, first issuing sturdier straps for its Wii controllers, and later repackaging the controllers with soft sleeves to mitigate damages when the devices slipped from players’ hands.

Fakeymoto-san says the company considered creating a leash to help tether people to the Wii Balance Board, but has instead opted to produce a full body-sized soft rubber sheath so that rambunctious Wii Fit players will cause fewer damages to themselves and their surroundings.

Nintendo is keeping mum about details of the product’s availability, but the company has released this video of its prototype Wii Fit body sheath: