Keeping in step with the Nintendo Wii

Back in July of 2009 Krystalle wrote up a review of the game Personal Trainer : Walking for the Nintendo DS.   Having used the product myself I can say it’s a really neat way to motivate yourself to go out and walk if you like video games, and the ability to communicate with your Nintendo Wii to download an avatar was an awesome feature.  The only real “criticism” I had of the game was that all of the motivation took place after you were done walking. There wasn’t really anything built into the game itself to make your walks interesting and you are only entertained for the few minutes it takes you to upload your step records every night.

Games like EA Sports Active and Wii Fit are fine ways to get exercise indoors, but they can be very daunting for people who haven’t been doing any kind of exercise. Walking is really the best way to get going when you’ve been sedentary for a long time, and Konami has come up with a new way to get you walking and entertain you at the same time.

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InsertCoin winners announced

Earlier this year Humana Games for Health put out the call for aspiring video game designers to pitch them with their ideas for a fitness based video game. The contest, dubbed InsertCoin, was an effort by Humana to find new and innovative game concepts that would motivate people of all generations to get more exercise. The top three entries in the contest would earn a chance to see their idea developed into an actual video game and also receive a fairly significant cash prize. Considering how difficult it is to break into the video game industry, and how hard it can be for game developers to come up with original ideas, the contest looked to be a potential win/win situation for all parties involved.

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Nice Muscle, America!!

Regular readers of the site may recall a post from a few months ago where I lamented the fact that the disturbingly bizarre Namco/Bandi game Muscle March was not available for purchase in the Western markets. As I said at the time this game really doesn’t fit all too well into the “fitness game” genre that we generally cover here but, frankly, I don’t care. You could burn calories basking in the sheer awesomeness that is Muscle March. I mean, come on! You can play a body building Polar bear in a swimsuit who has his protein shake powder stolen by a football player, working your way through the various obstacles thrown in your path by going into body builder poses! How can a game like that NOT be good for you??

Well soon there will be no need for you to spend hundreds of dollars for a Japanese version of the Wii to experience the awe that is Muscle March!  Namco/Bandi as announced that Muscle March will be available for download next Winter through Nintendos online service, Wiiware.

The only bummer about this particular announcement is the fact that we have to wait so long for it to be released. I suppose the upside is that we have plenty of time to work on our form so that we’re in top shape and ready to bust some serious protein shake stealing butt next Christmas.

Guess it’s time to go speedo shopping.

EA SPORTS Active special at Amazon.com: Today only!

EA Sports ActiveIf you’ve thought about picking up a copy of EA SPORTS Active but haven’t pulled the trigger on the actual purchase yet today may be the day to do it.  As part of their “Black Friday Deals Week” Amazon.com is now selling the popular fitness game for only $39.99 (which is $20 off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price).

Amazon is limiting the purchases to one per customer and, if I am reading the site correctly, this offer expires after today (Monday, November 23rd). The odd thing to me is that this is being advertised as a “Black Friday” special. They are calling it a Black Friday Deals Week, but the last time I checked today was Monday, and it’s not even “Cyber Monday.”  I don’t know about you folks, but in kindergarten they taught me that there were seven totally different days in a week, and only one of them was Friday. I just don’t think Friday would be quite as awesome as it is if everyday was Friday.

It is clear that in the mad dash to actually turn some kind of profit in the wake of a horrible economic recession retailers are extending sales well beyond the traditional Day after Thanksgiving madness, but like all things Holiday related the constant push to have the shopping season last longer is getting a bit out of control. Next thing you know we’ll have Black Friday sales in January.

Exercising with Aion

Aion TreadmillA few years ago several World of Warcraft players with way too much time on their hands decided that it would be a good idea to rig their computers to a treadmill so they could virtually “run” across Azeroth.  Unfortunately the video and the page that originally linked to it have vanished into the virtual ether, but suffice it to say that the heroes of the story soon learned that they were not, in fact, nearly as fit as their digital selves.

It seems as though these days you can’t have a conversation about Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games without someone asking which one is going to be the World of Warcraft killer.  Personally?  I happen to agree with my buddy Kevin Stallard who boldly stated that there would never be a WoW killer.  Regardless of our opinion, though, people still speculate who is going to have the power to dethrone the 800 pound gorilla that Blizzard created, and many folks are wondering if the Asian inspired Aion from NCSoft has what it takes to become King of the Hill.

So what, you may be wondering, does dominance in the MMO industry have to do with a Health and Fitness blog?

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Trish Stratus gets in the fitness gaming ring

Trish StratusYou know, it’s not very often that I get the opportunity to post a picture of a rather attractive and scantily clad woman here on ShrinkGeek and still have the right to claim that my doing so is in the realm of “legitimate” reporting.  Today just happens to be one of those days.

Fitness model and former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Trish Stratus announced on Thursday that she is partnering up with Frima Studios to produce Stratusphere, an exergame that will focus on using Yoga as a “real workout.”  The game will use the Wii Balance Board along with other peripherals and include video segments of Stratus encouraging the players on.

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Hands-free fitness gaming with Your Shape for the Wii

Your ShapeThere was a lot of buzz on the floor of E3 this year after Microsoft unveiled Project Natal, and rightly so.  The potential to have a game system that can track your movements so precisely that it can actually recognize who you are when you walk into the room is pretty amazing (and, admittedly, pretty creepy at the same time).  While attaching a camera to a console to use in a video game is nothing new, the level of interactivity that Project Natal is promising is going to be a huge leap forward if it ever actually makes it out of development.  Needless to say, this kind of tool could totally revolutionize the fitness gaming industry.

Ubisoft, however, isn’t waiting around for Microsoft to finish development of Project Natal.  This Christmas they are bringing the hands-free fitness gaming concept to the Nintendo Wii.

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Official release date for EA SPORTS Active expansion announced

EA Sports ActiveEA SPORTS announced today that the first expansion to their hit fitness game EA SPORTS Active will be released in North America on November 17th, 2007 (just in time for the holiday season).

As much as I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this particular little expansion I have to admit that the name leaves a lot to be desired.  When I first wrote about the “tropical” theme of the expansion I figured it would be something like EA SPORTS Active: Fitness In Paradise! or something along those lines.  Apparently my marketing mojo isn’t as good as I thought it was because the name for the latest addition to this franchise is a descriptive but less-than-imaginative EA SPORTS Active More Workouts.

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Television really IS bad for you

Image courtesy of Aaron Escobar

Image courtesy of Aaron Escobar

As we human beings have raced through the modern era there seems to be, in every generation, some form of popular entertainment that the previous generation looks down upon as being a symbol of the impending doom of society as a whole.  I say modern era because I have a hard time picturing such a thing happening in ancient times, but I suppose it IS possible (“I worry about the boy, Banafrit.  He spends all day messing around with those damned hieroglyphics!  When I was his age I was dragging stones to Giza.  Uphill!”).  From Rock and Roll to Mini-skirts and everything in-between there has always been some crazy thing “the kids” were in to that was simply an affront to the sensibilities of those who came before them.

The big villain on the block these days is video games, but I grew up in the 80’s during the height of the Saturday Morning Cartoon era.  Back then our parents were convinced that television was going to rot our brains, give us cancer, and turn us into pasty blobs who lived on nothing but junk food.

Turns out that, in some ways, our parents were right.

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NewU Fitness First to be released in Europe

newULogoOne of the games we heard about while poking around on the floor of E3 this year was NewU Fitness First Personal Trainer.  Touted as an “interactive training solution focused on well-being,” this new entry into the exergame field looked interesting but did not, at the time, have a release date or distributor.

Well it appears as though Ubisoft, distributors of lifestyle enhancing games like Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout and My Healthy Cooking Coach (not to mention somewhat more traditional games like Assassin’s Creed) has decided to add yet another fitness game to their arsenal.   It was announced on Tuesday that Ubisoft would be handling the distribution of NewU in all of the PAL countries except Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.

There has been no word yet as to whether or not Black Bean has found a distributor for NewU Fitness First Personal Trainer in the NTSC regions, but with the ever growing popularity of the fitness gaming market it’s only a matter of time if the game sells well in Europe.

Something interesting – According to the press release, NewU Fitness First Personal Trainer is only the first release in the “NewU Family of products.”   No other details were included, but it seems as though Black Bean is committed to releasing a whole series of lifestyle enhancing games under the NewU line.

Those of you who live in the PAL regions (essentially Western Europe) should see NewU Fitness First Personal Trainer for the Nintendo Wii in stores this September.