Category Archives: Exergaming
Zumba Fitness Rush is out now, with bonus DVD at Target
Zumba Fitness Rush for Xbox 360 Kinect
1,2,3, ZumBAH! The next installation of the legend of Zumba is now available: Zumba Fitness Rush for Xbox 360 Kinect. If you pick it up at Target, a bonus “Fitness-Concert” DVD is included.
Last year’s debut of Zumba on Kinect got not-so-caliente reviews, mainly because of problems with Kinect picking up all the shimmying or shutting down entirely, but the Zumba sequel on Wii has been getting raves, so there’s a good chance for improvement here too.
And if not, just party it up with the DVD, the first Zumba DVD to hit retail in a very long time.
Study: exergaming may have more benefits for seniors than “traditional” exercise
Dame Helen Mirren stays young with Wii (via Jezebel)
Another good reason for older folks to get their (exer)game on: as reported in The Atlantic, a study at Union College found that a group of seniors who rode exercise bikes equipped with a Cyberbike-like video game, gained better executive function and a lowering of progression to dementia than a group of seniors riding exercise bikes that weren’t equipped with video games.
There was the same exercise frequency, intensity and duration between the two groups – but the exergaming elders performed better on memory tests than the non-gamers, and I bet they had more fun, too!
Oh where, oh where can the Nintendo 3DS exergames be?
Count real steps in Nintendogs + Cats for 3DS (courtesy Nintendo)
My daughter loves her Nintendo 3DS, the handheld game console that succeeded the Nintendo DS, and I agree that it’s a nifty little gadget. Among many other features, it has a pedometer built right in, and an Activity Log on the main menu automatically records your daily steps if you go for a walk with your 3DS. The built-in pedometer means that games can also have the ability to give you bonuses for getting up and walking around. No need anymore for 3DS games to have peripheral pedometers like the Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver Pokewalker or the pedometers that came with Personal Trainer Walking or My Weight Loss Coach for DS.
So there should be more 3DS walking and activity games than you can shake a walking stick at, right? Doesn’t look that way. Even though there were several walking and general health and fitness games for the old DS console (see the list here), my active game list for 3DS remains empty. You can play any DS game on the 3DS, and it is easier to have a tiny pedometer clipped on than to carry the 3DS console in your pocket all the time, but it would still be great to have more games that take advantage of the built-in pedometer technology. Besides, you’re less likely to put your pants in the washing machine with the 3DS in the pocket.
It’s not easy to even find which 3DS games give you bonuses for walking. One that does is Nintendogs + Cats, a fun simulation game in which you adopt and pamper a virtual puppy. You can take Rover for a fake walk by just steering with your stylus, but if you take the console for a real walk with the game turned on, not only do you burn real fat and gain real fitness, you also get presents from your dog, and not the kind you have to scoop. Gifts depend on how many steps you take; according to the list at Nintendogs Wiki, they range from a dog biscuit for 10-99 steps all the way up to a gold bar for 99999+ steps.
The Street Pass feature built in to the 3DS is another feature that might encourage walking, or at least getting out of the house. With Street Pass, you leave the wireless internet detector on in the 3DS as you walk around, and if another wireless-activated 3DS is in the vicinity, your Mii avatars will “visit” each other and sometimes exchange gifts, or show off their Nintendog or Nintenkitten. We’ve walked extra loops around crowded malls just to try to collect Miis.
Do readers know of any other 3DS games that encourage walking?
Just Dance Kids 2: Exercise-in-disguise for the purple dinosaur set
I received a free copy of Just Dance Kids 2 for Kinect through the Amazon Vine program, so the following is a copy of the review I wrote for the game.
Vine reviewers with kids between the ages of 3 and 8 were asked to review this game, and I think that’s a good age range for Just Dance Kids 2. My 7-year-old enjoys this game, while my 10-year-old prefers the “big” Just Dance 3 Kinect game.
This game is structured slightly differently from JD3. When players jump in front of the camera to play, it takes a picture of your face, and with gestures you can select a cartoon avatar that’s either boyish or girlish. (That’s an important distinction for young kids!) The videos show actual kids dancing against colorful backdrops, and the steps themselves are much simpler and more repetitive than the regular Just Dance dances. The songlist is more kid-oriented than JD (“Lollipop” here is the “lollipop, lollipop, oh lolly lolly lolly” song, NOT the “sucking too hard on your lollipop” song in JD3) although not as large, and so far there’s no downloadable songs. It’s very easy for players to jump in and out mid-song, but make sure there’s plenty of room for them to jump around – it can get pretty chaotic! The “create your own dance” feature is also included and a lot of fun.
This would probably have the most appeal to the Barney and Yo Gabba Gabba set. The controls are easy to use even for the youngest gamers, provided the camera can see them. If they’re older and already listen to a lot of pop songs, Just Dance 3 may be a better buy.
Here is the song list, from the description on Amazon:
Hot Pop Songs for Older Kids!
- Alright
- Burnin’ up
- Dumb Love
- Feeling Good
- On Our Way
- I’m Gonna Catch You
- Intuition
- Just The Way You Are
- Love Me
- Positivity
- Rocketeer
- Whip My Hair
- Song 2
- Start All Over
Songs from kids’ favorite movies and TV shows
- Accidentally in Love
- Despicable Me
- Hold Still – Yo Gabba Gabba
- I Am A Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)
- Jump Up!
- The Robot Song – Yo Gabba Gabba
- Follow The Leader – The Wiggles
- The Shimmie Shake! – The Wiggles
- The Lion Sleeps Tonight
- Something That I Want
Fun Songs for Younger Kids
- Party Goes Down
- Itsy Bitsy Spider
- Five Little Monkeys
- Mah Nà Mah Nà
- Girls Can Too
- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
- Summer School
- Hand in Hand
Classic Kid favorites!
- Barbara Ann
- Crocodile Rock
- Istanbul
- Jingle Bells
- Lollipop
- Shake Your Groove Thing
- Hand in Hand
Be a junk food ninja and rack up “good” calories with Junk Fu exergame for Kinect
Junk Fu, or Nightmare Before Christmas (courtesy Xbox.com)
I love making virtual fruit salad with Fruit Ninja Kinect, a downloadable, active version of the popular app. It makes a great warmup, finisher or just “something” when I don’t have time to do a “real” workout.
Now there’s another downloadable game coming up where you can punish those bad foods instead of healthy ones. Junk Fu, coming January 30 on Xbox Live, looks kind of like a full-body Guitar Hero with empty-calorie targets like giant candies that you kick and punch as they approach on a giant conveyor belt. Instead of points, you score “calories”, which I doubt match your actual calories burned, but it still looks like a fun way to burn them.
The game is reminiscent of an add-on to Kinect Sports, Calorie Challenge, where you compete against anthropomorphic, rather creepy food items like milk cartons, celery and chocolate bars (at least they offer a balanced diet), also for calorie-points. This raises the question, does playing with your virtual food ultimately raise your hunger hormones, or lower them?
Celery jock from Calorie Challenge, courtesy Xbox.com
For me, it depends. Strolling past one of the Burger Champ outlets in Walk It Out tends to whet my appetite, but an attack of the giant mutant food makes me feel more like Little Audrey with her tummyache blues. Perhaps that’s a good thing!
(Via 123Kinect)
