Parents despair over the many hours spent by their children playing video games. Kids stare at the tube, nervously twitching at the controls, with no physical outlet for the frenetic pace of their minds. The jury is still out on how these self-indulgent pastimes will further add to the obesity and sloth of a generation.
There is, however, one video game that can actually improve fitness, as well as coordination. Know as Dance, Dance Revolution (DDR), the video game was introduced in Japanese video arcades in 1998. Wikipedia says “The game is typically played on a dance pad with four arrow panels: up, down, left, and right. These panels are pressed using the player's feet, in response to arrows that appear on the screen in front of the player. The arrows are synchronized to the general rhythm or beat of a chosen song, and success is dependent on the player's ability to time his or her steps accordingly.”
We bought a DDR for my fifteen-year old daughter this Christmas. She spent five hours on Christmas day, trying to score a B at Hard Level on Mario’s Island Serenade. That sucker is tough. She laughed heartily at Daddy trying to keep up to the Easy level.
The game can play dozens of different tunes, from various genres. A stream of arrows flows up the screen. The arrows point up, down, left or right. The player stands on a mat that is spread on the floor, in front of the TV. The mat is connected to a game console, in our case a Nintendo Gamecube. The mat is divided into 3×3 squares. The player has to stomp on one or two of the squares at the exact instant the arrows pass across a template on the screen. You get lesser points if you’re slightly off in your timing. At the end of song, your score is displayed on the screen. The game keeps track of players’ best scores.
The fun part is that it helps if you have good rhythm. To achieve a respectable score, you need an intuitive, subconscious feel of the pace of the music, and can reach with your feet without even thinking. You get better as you repeat the same moves and tunes, which is actually very entertaining.
There are pads available for the Sony PS2, the Microsoft Xbox, etc.
A half hour spent with DDR is as good a workout as you’ll get with a treadmill, any day. Some of the more difficult levels are wicked. They involve tapping a square rapidly three times in a row, or simultaneously landing on the back and left square. I’m waiting for some joker programmer to display three arrows at once on the screen (I know I’d do it if I were a DDR programmer).
I wish I had had this technology when I was a teenager. I was pathologically shy about girls and parties. (Having been educated in a boy’s school didn’t help). DDR would have been a great ice-breaker. I also wish someone would have explained to me that girls gauge desirability by dance prowess. That would have got me going. Ah, youth is wasted on the young.