Viva la Revolucion!
Okay, I'm about the last gamer on the planet to get hooked on the "Dance Dance Revolution" thing. But now I'm hooked. The last time I felt myself compelled to go "one more time" to get my exercise, I was in a fairly expensive fencing club (the kind with the foils and sabers and masks - not partitioning real estate).

My wife and I played the game a few times in the arcades (a dissapearing fixture... sigh...), but never enough to actually be competent at it (or actually finish a song). When the first machine appeared at the local Nickle-Cade, we tried playing it a little more - got a little better at it - but there was a lot of people waiting to play, so we still didn't play much. I had read stories in the late '90s of kids lining up to compete on these machines, limbering up --- men and women. I thought, "Oh, how nice, they are getting their exercise playing video games. That's cool."

The last time we got a chance to play one in the arcade - I think it was in October - my wife asked, "Do they have this game for the Playstation 2?" I vaguely recalled seeing dance pad controllers for sale at the local Game Stop, so I mumbled something to that effect. She said, "That would really be great exercise - lots more fun than exercise tapes."

For Christmas I got her DDR Extreme for the Playstation 2, and the Ignition dance controller - a nice $100 number that was recommended to me. I was worried she wouldn't like it.

Well, she got hooked. I got hooked. Our friends got hooked. The game is WAY more fun than it deserves to be, and I'm not happy until my calves are aching and I've burned off at least 300 calories playing it.

Last week an article appeared on CNN about some forthcoming 'exercise videogames' at CES - including Konami's existing DDR offering. It's an interesting read. I say: BRING 'EM ON! If they are as fun as DDR, I can't think of a more enjoyable way to stay in shape. The article is here:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/fun.games/01/09/gadget.show.fitness.ap/index.html

Now I just need to find a videogame to make my weight-lifting more exciting.

Labels: Mainstream Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:34 AM (Permalink)