From sfgate.com:

Maybe you’ve moved on to Guitar Hero or perhaps you’re playing Wii Fit now, but both games owe a debt of gratitude to Dance Dance Revolution, the dancing rhythm game from Konami that is 10 years old today.

We sort of take the game for granted because it’s been around a while but it truly was a pioneering title and the more we see casual gaming grow, we see that DDR played a good role in laying the ground work for that.

For the uninitiated, DDR challenges people to dance on a pad, hitting the various sensors in time with musical beats represented onscreen. It popularized the idea of a game based primarily on rhythm, which is basically what Guitar Hero and Rock Band are, just with different peripherals.

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From ign.com:

Today Ubisoft announced that My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr is now available on store shelves. Designed exclusively for the Nintendo DS system, My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr provides players with an entertaining, interactive method to quit smoking.

Based on the method outlined in the international best seller, Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking, My Stop Smoking Coach with Allen Carr removes the smoker’s belief that smoking provides any genuine pleasure or crutch, and takes away the feeling of deprivation, therefore ridding the smoker of the fear of stopping.

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From desmoinesregister.com:

XRKade, in the newly opened 7 Flags 24/7 X-Press at GreenWay Crossing in West Des Moines, is all about exercise gaming in a fun environment. Members get a workout while playing video games that involve dancing, boxing, cycling and snowboarding, in competition with people nearby or, in some games, at other XRKade locations.

…

Next, we tried a running-and- jumping game called “Jackie Chan Action Run.” Using a special running pad, we became Jackie Chan on the TV screen, running along the streets of Hong Kong, jumping up and sideways to avoid obstacles, and running along the length of the pad to battle dangerous-looking ninjas dropping from the sky.

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From spectrum.ieee.org (via slashdot.org):

Rehabilitation specialists have taken to Nintendo’s Wii game console as a way to help motivate patients during physical therapy and rehabilitation. The latest addition to the Wii-hab phenomenon is perhaps its coolest—Air Guitar Hero. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have made the popular Guitar Hero game into a tool for amputees who are being fitted with the next generation of artificial arms. With a few electrodes and some very powerful algorithms, amputees can hit all the notes of Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” using only the electrical signals from their residual muscles.

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From sfgate.com (via slashdot.org):

Rather than wasting their time, children who gab on Facebook or play online games are gaining valuable social skills and learning some technology basics, according to a study to be released today.

The report, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, contradicts the idea held by many educators, parents and policymakers that children should be blocked from online social networks and video games like Halo, which allow users in different locations to play together. Instead, children should be encouraged to use the technologies to gain a certain level of digital literacy, the study said.

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From  thepeterboroughexaminer.com (via gamepolitics.com):

Normally, dodging slow-moving cars and running red lights while impaired is no laughing matter, but students and officers had a chuckle at how silly drunk driving is during a test of an impaired driving simulator yesterday.

Peterborough County OPP brought the vehicle, which is the shell of a car outfitted with a video game console, to Adam Scott Collegiate yesterday to show automotive technology students what they will be constructing.

The students will spend the next several months gutting a car to remove the engine and hooking up video game controls and a television screen to give the user the sensation they are driving in the immobile vehicle.

But the key to the experience is a pair of goggles that simulate the effect of having twice the legal blood-alcohol limit.

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