EASPORTS really has cranked up the PR machine in anticipation of the November 16th release of EASPORTS Active 2. In the last few months they have announced that David Beckham and Venus Williams will be celebrity spokespeople for the product, and they have also been releasing a steady stream of promotional videos to drive player interest. The latest video, released last night on Facebook, reveals an impressive array of interesting and, perhaps more importantly, challenging looking exercises.
While dance simulators are nothing new in the realm of console gaming, the upcoming release of the Kinect for Microsoft’s XBox 360 opens up the field to a whole new world of possibilities in the realm of getting your digital groove on. One of the first games that we’re going to see tackle this new level of booty shaking is Dance Central from MTV/Harmonix (the folks behind the phenomenal Rock Band series). Featuring tracks from the likes of Lady Gaga, No Doubt, and Bell Biv Devoe, Dance Central will follow in the footsteps of the Dance Dance Revolution series that came before it by including a feature that will allow you to track the calories you burn while playing the game. While there hasn’t been any word on whether or not new tracks will be available for digital purchase to add on to the initial game, it seems fairly obvious that the with the success that MTV/Harmonix has had selling content for Rock Band they will follow suit with this new franchise. This would help to remove the one obstacle that always seemed to get in the way of regularly using Dance Dance Revolution as a means of getting your exercise in – The songs get old after a while!
On Tuesday, August 17th, at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, MTV/Harmonix announced several new songs that will be available with the initial release of Dance Central. Look behind the cut to see what new grooves are going to be available, along with a list of tracks that had previously been released.
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It appears as though the line between fitness and video games is getting even blurrier.
Nintendo announced on Wednesday that they will soon be bringing the Nintendo Wii in Sports Authority chains nationwide. Marketed by the folks at Sports Authority with the catchy phrase “We know fit. We know fun”, the console will be displayed in an interactive kiosk that will include fitness and sports related games and accessories in select stores starting on November 19th, 2009.
I have mixed feelings about this.
Not too long ago I wrote a story about how several programmers hooked up a treadmill and a Wiimote controller to their personal computer in order to play the Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game Aion. I’ve also written several articles about how the fitness gaming industry is exploding and more and more companies are coming out with innovative new ways to help players get fit using their consoles.
I knew that game designers were going to continue to push the envelope to find the “next big” thing in the fitness gaming arena, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the step that Bigben Interactive decided to go in.
As part of a media campaign to celebrate the release of the sequel to their popular Wii Sports game, Nintendo announced on Thursday they would be touring around the country with a portable island straight out of Wii Sports Resort.
Starting with a huge display in the middle of Times Square, the portable islands will have plenty of fruity (but non-alcoholic beverages), a steel drum band, a reflecting pool and a lounge area. Oh, yeah…You’ll also be able to try out Wii Sports Resort!
There has been a considerable amount of innovation that has surfaced over the last few years in the fitness gaming market. From dance pads to balance boards game developers are constantly thinking up new ways to get us moving in order to get healthy while we entertain ourselves. “Exergaming” seems to be one of the next great things in the video game realm and those of us who enjoy the genre eagerly look forward to the next big thing that is going to come down the line.
The folks over at Black Bean Games are hoping they have found the new hotness.
I’ve made it past the first big milestone in the my experiment with the EA SPORTS Active 30 Day Challenge by completing 10 workouts. As a reward I got a new trophy and an “attaboy” video from Bob Green in which he explained that they were going to be increasing the difficulty of my workouts from this point on. I’m much more comfortable with how the program works and I’m learning the proper way to move to maximize the benefit I’m getting from my workouts.
I don’t want to give the impression that I’ve become a total EA SPORTS Active fanboy I thought I’d take some time this week to share my thoughts on ways I think the game could be improved.