By Michelle Mahoney
Exercise is frequently looked at as a boring adventure to the gym, where lifting weights or riding a stationary bike for hours on end, but it can be more fun. Instead of heading to the gym, check out your local arcade where interactive games are the latest phase.
One physically challenging video game that is growing in popularity is Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). In DDR one stands on a pad that has four arrows: forward, back, left and right. One chooses a song to play and as the arrows scroll up the screen, one would step on the corresponding pad. There are four levels of standard play, they are beginner, light, standard and heavy and there is also “doubles mode” where one plays with two pads and eight arrows at the same time and “verses play” which allows a player to compete against his friends.
DDR is a great exercise because you do “jogging” steps, jumps and with a lot of practice, trick steps. The home version is also complete with an exercise mode which allows you to enter your weight then tells you how many calories have been burned off.
“When we were little our parents always told us to put down the video games and go outside and play,” Mike Boord, a freshman film production and studies major, said. “But now we can bring the video games inside. [DDR] is great because it gets your whole body moving.”
Many students on campus have Play Station 2 or X Box versions of DDR in their dorm rooms so that they can play with their friends and have fun, and still manage to work out at the same time.
Other arcade games can also be used to lose weight. In the past several years, interactive sporting games have become increasingly popular. The market currently has boxing, skateboarding, skiing and games where competitors race to beat the clock or other players.
Although these games seem like nothing but fun, they require a lot of physical effort. The boxing games require players to stand on feet sensors that can tell whenever they duck, move or are building up a sweat. They also wear boxing gloves that are programmed to tell what kind of punch is thrown and when. This helps build muscle tone and it’s as close to a real boxing ring as most people wish to experience.
Similar games to the boxing include a role playing game where the players are police officers and the players in the game have to move, duck and shoot at the criminals. Sensors are used to pick up all of the players’ movements, including the location of the gun.
In interactive skiing and snowboarding games, the player stands on simulated skis or snowboards. The objective is to reach the bottom of the run faster than the computer players. This requires players to twist, turn and lean in all directions, as if the competitors were really on the slopes.
So next time you want to exercise, but are also looking for some fun and entertainment, go down to your local arcade or gaming store and see what games they have to offer there to get in shape.