I am just about to finish my Nintendo Wii Guide – when I happened to see this game at Target today:
Outdoor Challenge.
The boy jumping got me at first look. The game has different adventures players interact with using the mat (included) and a Wii Controller. The instructions show very clearly the movements necessary for each game. I had my 10 year old, a male sitter that just got out of college, and my 6 year old twins try it. All had fun, and even broke a sweat. The game had "clean" excitement and gave everyone good challenges. The sitter said that he gets more of a workout from using the Wii Fit because it is set up for workouts – but that this game was "active fun". As it said on the cover, it did get my kids off the sofa during the time after school/sports that they usually like to relax in front of the TV.
Another benefit of this game is that each session is very short – so reminders that the gametime is almost over was not a big deal. Some games do engage players in a longer session, which makes shutting them off harder.
Next I may try the Wii Fit with Wii Ski or Shaun White Snowboarding because my son just learned how a few weeks ago in real snow. While anything Mario (especially MarioKart), Lego, or Super Smash bros seems to be popular with my tweener and his friends, the active games did engage my 10 year old who told me "that he felt like he exercised" with Outdoor Challenge, especially while playing the mountain track and log jumping games.
Relevant Links:
- Common Sense Media posted Active Gaming Tips for Parents to help set up the right guidelines for gaming.
- CBS had a review of Outdoor Challenge.
Amazing how much the video game world is changing to adapt to new demands from kids and parents. Parents are so much more vigilant now about the content their kids consume from digital entertainment; while kids just keep getting more and more tech savvy. It’s encouraging for me, as I think about what kind of games my son will want to play when he gets a bit older (just a baby now). Games that at least gets them off the couch are a good sign for what is to come.
I wonder how this would play out in the real game markets…
Im not sure if it would play it to well but who knows wii fit was a huge success for example 🙂