Huffing and puffing, players can move vigorously about while playing, needing much energy and effort so that the scores will be as high as they want it to be. Extra calories and an agile body is a must, in order to meet that goal.

Based on the stuff above, you might think that we’re talking about just about Wii, but actually, it’s referring to  about the sensational DDR or Dance Dance Revolution arcade game, which was a super hit back in the 90s (to the present, of course).  The dance platform based game was a hit in Japan when it was first released back in 1998, and shortly the craze was caught by Europeans and Americans alike.

Although the Wii and the DDR are very similar on some things, there is one huge thing that they can both be considered as connected, which is the concept of their existence.

Wii was designed by Nintendo to make a game platform that will require users to become physically interactive, in order to combine great virtual fun but still keeping the more popular issues in check, such as keeping its players physically active in order to avoid obesity (or being overweight) and laziness (in short keeping the customers healthy while making a lot of money AND avoiding lawsuits at the same time). While not everyone can agree that playing Wii is the best way to keep in shape, some still argue that it is MUCH better to have their kids play the more violent genres of games, or have their kids lounge about while playing WoW.

So, not surprisingly Wii was a huge hit upon its release.

But the Nintendo Wii was not the first when it comes to “healthy gaming”. The concept of DDR is the same, as players need to vigorously stomp on the colorful dance platform while following the set or arrow patterns that will be flashed on the screen. Keeping in sync with the music, maintaining a good rhythm and hand-eye coordination also set the DDR apart from others. The DDR is ultimately the pioneer, popularity-wise, when it comes to “active gaming”.

The Wii and the DDR also have something in common when it comes to criticisms.

A lot of people said that the DDR has a rough, if any at all, resemblance to real dancing, because players can “cheat” while playing the game. While real dancing requires the person participating to make energetic movements while executing steps, a DDR player can easily minimize his or her steps in order to keep getting great scores. Although the other Wii games of today have greatly out-performed DDR on the criteria of movement freedom, the arguments from the critics are very similar.

Arguably the DDR and Wii combo of players can get nice results, as not every player would insist on becoming a technical player.

The “activeness” of a player may not be as good as it would be if a person is actually dancing or practicing yoga or boxing, instead of playing some video game. But ultimately, these video games are trying to do something better that most capitalists would have ignored, and that is mixing wholesome fun with a little dash of exercise.

• Social Bookmarking
  
  • Subscribe
  • Blinklist
  • Bloglines
  • Blogmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Ma.gnolia
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati