*Question of the Month is the sound of rain on a tent at a camping trip organised by LaterLevels

Unfortunately I just didn’t get around to answering last month’s question, which was double-bad because the format has been all shaken up and poured over ice; from the beginning of the year, a star blogger gets to both set the question and make their decision on who’s managed to best answer that month’s conundrum. For February I have to try and impress Kevin from over on The Mental Attic. The QotM master post gives you something of a glimpse into the world of our quizzing puppet-master for this month who asks:

You ate everything during Christmas so now have to diet and work it all off; which video game character do you recruit as your personal trainer to get you back into shape?

Ah, the post Christmas slim-down, a tough challenge for any personal trainer, but as we know, the gaming world is full of fantastically talented and gifted individuals, so I was pretty sure that at least one was up for the task, the problem was picking the best.

Firstly I considered someone with athletic prowess, Dante from Devil May Cry; although I would likely struggle to keep up with a half-man, half-demon when it comes to.. well pretty much anything physical so I discarded this approach quite quickly in favour of someone more… human. My next choice was Faith from Mirror’s Edge, her athletic ability is certainly closer to being human and the idea of free-running to burn off those extra pounds is quite appealing. As with Dante however there is the minor drawback that joining her for a leisurely run across the glistening rooftops of an ultra-modern futuristic dystopia comes with some pretty severe penalties for any mis-footing and as a beginner I’d prefer to have some kind of safety net.

… the “severe penalties” argument eliminates a fair number of potentials from Super Meat Boy right through to the DOOM Marine…

For a much safer option I considered joining Solid Snake in some of his VR training – he’s bound to have a program on file that would burn some calories; after all he looks like he’s in pretty good shape. There are two drawbacks however, firstly that VR kit is expensive and I’d want Snake in there with me as a personal trainer so I would need to buy my own; being as I can’t afford any of the PC VR options at the moment, I wouldn’t even like to think what the cost of a futuristic totally immersive setup would cost. Secondly I don’t quite know if a VR workout would just burn VR calories, I might be in tip-top condition in that neon outlined training arena, but in the real world still carrying around one too many mince pies.

So what I need is someone qualified to be a personal trainer where I engage in a physical workout routine with few physical dangers…

… which leaves me with only one obvious answer; I’ve decided that my ideal gaming personal trainer would be:

The Personal Trainer from Wii Fit!

… and I know that’s possibly the least imaginative answer, but it is the one character that fulfils my own requirements of a personal trainer; namely being a personal trainer. Sure she might be a bit on the pale side, but her yoga technique is flawless.

So there is my answer! Do you agree? disagree? did I miss a character even more appropriate?