A new video game, “Body Mechanics,” teaches kids how to avoid being overweight by having them team up with a group of super heroes.

The fight takes place inside the body of “Jack Decayd.” If “Obeez City” is not contained, Jack will die soon. A few sweet snacks here, a soft drink there– it adds up

Body Mechanics is the latest video game promoting exercise and better eating habits.

“Dance Dance Revolution” encourages kids to exercise. While 15-year-old Miles does not need to lose weight, he recognizes the importance of being healthy.

At one poin,t he played the video game every day for hours at a time. Now, he has another mat so his sister or friends can play the game with him.

Roughly 17 percent of American youngsters are obese, and millions more are overweight. Experts hope this new entertaining approach could provide a win in the battle against obesity.

The Body Mechanics video game is a teaching tool packaged with an animated movie and sold as a two-disc set. It is available in stores including Target, Borders and Walgreens and CVS pharmacies.

Source from 13wham.com

The video game teaches youngsters how to avoid the ravages of being overweight, and may the healthy force be with you.

Video Gamers join a team of super heroes called Body Mechanics and war against the Evil Coalition of Harm and Disease, battling villains with names like Col Estorol and Betes II. The fighting takes place inside the body of Jack Decayd and if Obeez City is not contained, “Jack will die soon,” says Neuro, the Yoda-like wise one who narrates the video game’s story line.

I remember how it started. A few snacks here, a soft drink there, Neuro speaking in an ominous tone says during the opening. And before we knew it, the Evil Coalition of Harm and Disease was threatening us all.

Neuro then makes his plea: You must join the video game team of heroic Body Mechanics. They need your help in order to gain the knowledge necessary to save Jack�s life. Only you can change how this story ends.

The Body Mechanics DVD video game is the latest in a string of products in the video gaming industry to buck long-held notions and stress exercise and healthy living.

The video game is packaged with an animated movie and sold as a two-disc set. Body Mechanics will be in limited release Tuesday in retail outlets such as Target, Borders, Walgreens and CVS/pharmacy.

Souce from pensacolanewsjournal.com

The video game teaches youngsters how to avoid the ravages of being overweight, and may the healthy force be with you.

Video Gamers join a team of super heroes called Body Mechanics and war against the Evil Coalition of Harm and Disease, battling villains with names like Col Estorol and Betes II. The fighting takes place inside the body of Jack Decayd and if Obeez City is not contained, “Jack will die soon,” says Neuro, the Yoda-like wise one who narrates the video game’s story line.

I remember how it started. A few snacks here, a soft drink there, Neuro speaking in an ominous tone says during the opening. And before we knew it, the Evil Coalition of Harm and Disease was threatening us all.

Neuro then makes his plea: You must join the video game team of heroic Body Mechanics. They need your help in order to gain the knowledge necessary to save Jack�s life. Only you can change how this story ends.

The Body Mechanics DVD video game is the latest in a string of products in the video gaming industry to buck long-held notions and stress exercise and healthy living.

The video game is packaged with an animated movie and sold as a two-disc set. Body Mechanics will be in limited release Tuesday in retail outlets such as Target, Borders, Walgreens and CVS/pharmacy.

Souce from pensacolanewsjournal.com

At the Sedgebrook retirement community in Lincolnshire, where the average age is 77, something unexpected has been transpiring since Christmas. The residents, most of whom have never picked up a video game controller in their life, suddenly can’t put the things down.

“I’ve never been into video games,” said 72-year-old Flora Dierbach last week as her husband took a twirl with the Nintendo Wii’s bowling game. “But video game is addictive.”

Dierbach said residents love the Wii set up in the clubhouse lounge.

“They come in after dinner and play video game,” she said. “Sometimes, on Saturday afternoons, their grandkids come play with them on video game.

“A lot of grandparents are being taught by their grandkids. But, now, some grandparents are instead teaching their grandkids.”

The Wii has become so popular at Sedgebrook that on Sunday afternoon there will be a video game bowling tournament in the lounge. More than 20 residents have signed up to compete.

“We’ll even have a fan for people to dry their hands before they bowl,” said Dierbach, head of Sedgebrook’s entertainment committee.

If the retirees in Lincolnshire are any proof, video games are no longer just kids’ play.

And that’s the whole idea, said Beth Llewelyn, Nintendo’s senior director of corporate communications.

“We certainly appreciate our `core’ video gamers and will continue to supply them with video games,” Llewelyn said.

Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) on Wednesday announced his bid for the White House in 2008, and also reintroduced his Truth in Video Game Rating Act, which proposes to overhaul the way that video games sold in the United States are currently rated. The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prescribe rules to prohibit what Sen. Brownback described as “deceptive conduct in the rating of video and computer games and for other purposes.”

Video game and computer games sold at mass market retailers across the United States are, by and large, rated by the non-profit Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). The ESRB provides both an age rating and a content descriptor, to help buyers (and their parents, in the case of minors) decide whether a game’s appropriate — that information is then put on the outside of the video game box.

Like the ratings system used for motion pictures, it’s purely voluntary, but many major retailers won’t sell video games without an ESRB rating. Sen. Brownback is concerned that the ESRB doesn’t play all the way through the games it rates — instead, it depends on pre-rendered footage, scripts and other content provided by the game developer and publisher to make its recommendation.

Source from PC world

2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., announced that Ghost Rider, the action-packed combat and motorcycle video game featuring Marvel Comics’ iconic supernatural superhero, is now available in North America for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system and Game Boy Advance video game. The title will be available in Europe as the movie releases in different regions. The Ghost Rider video game reflects the stylized action of the successful Marvel comic series and Sony Pictures’ upcoming Ghost Rider movie.

The game was developed by Climax and its storyline was authored by famed comic writers Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti. In the video game, stuntman Johnny Blaze is brought back as his alter ego, Ghost Rider, to protect others from experiencing his Hell on Earth. Ghost Rider haunts America’s highways, inflicting his righteous wrath upon the souls of the wicked and the damned. The unique storyline takes Ghost Rider to a large variety of scenes and locations, while facing off against familiar faces from both the Marvel comic universe and Sony Pictures’ movie.

Souce from www.superheroflix.com

A new survey shows a rising number of youngsters are accidentally exposed to sexual material on the Internet. While parents can use software to block certain Web sites and prevent e-mail messages from popping up with adult content, few people realize that newer video game systems also can connect to inappropriate Web sites and download images and video game.

The Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 connect to the Internet so gamers can meet other players, buy new video games, and keep their video game systems up to date. The Wii and PlayStation 3 also feature browsers that can access Web sites, including those aimed at adults, if parents aren’t watchful.

“Given all the different ways various consumers can use their consoles, we’ve taken the area of parental control very seriously,” said Eric Lempel, senior manager of online development for Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

Parents can use passwords to keep the PlayStation 3 and the Wii from surfing the Web (The Xbox 360 does not yet have a Web browser.)

Using those passwords will help parents keep their children from unwanted exposure to sexual material. A study published last week in the medical journal Pediatrics found that about one in three Internet users ages 10 to 17 received unwanted exposure to sexual material from mid-2004 to mid-2005. That is compared with 1 in 5 youths in 1999-2000, according to researchers at the University of New Hampshire.

Souce from chicagotribune.com

A new academic program in the works at Michigan State University will allow students to focus on their true passion — video games.

The school will launch a graduate-level program in so-called “serious” video game design in the fall. Rather than encouraging students to design the next generation of Xbox video games, the degree program will teach them to design video games that help educate, train or present messages in a fun way.

Concepts for the video games range from programs that allow emergency workers to practice making real-time lifesaving decisions to video games that teach adolescent girls about self-esteem and maintaining a healthy body.

Carrier Heeter, the professor leading the program, said video games make for good teaching tools because they can be sequential, teach patterns and offer progressive levels of challenge.

—From the Associated Press

In Hawaii on Thursday, a 21-21 tie score with no time left on the clock put Haaruwn Brown, 20, of Mobile, into an overtime fight for his virtual life in the Madden Challenge video game tournament that awarded its winner a $100,000 prize.

Brown, whose nickname on the video game competition circuit is “Houseshoe,” lost that particular game of “Madden NFL” to Ayan “Fool” Tariq, 16, of Ridgefield Park, N.J., the eventual Madden Challenge winner.

According to a play-by-play report on an online forum for video game enthusiasts sponsored by video game publisher EA Sports, a game-winning field goal in overtime kept Tariq’s Madden Challenge dream alive as it ended Brown’s for this year. Both video game players played as Atlanta Falcons.

The loss for Brown left the Mobile man finishing in the final eight of the video game competition — impressive, but not as good as his No. 2 finish in the same contest a year ago, acknowledged his brother, Esa Brown of Mobile.

“I’m very proud of him,” Esa Brown said Friday. “I think when he gets his stress levels down, he will be able to focus a little better, because he has been burning himself out.”

Tariq went on to play more video games Thursday, finishing ahead of 31 Madden Challenge finalists to take the $100,000 prize.

The other players, Brown included, were awarded free trips to Hawaii, $1,000 spending cash apiece and tickets to today’s Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

“Madden NFL,” the top-selling video game by EA Sports, has been developed for multiple gaming systems and allows players to control the on-screen movements of simulated professional football players. The game is named for Pro Football Hall of Famer John Madden.

Welcome to Week 27 of the 411 Video Games Top 5. This week we look at the Top 5 Video Game Character Heroes. First, let’s see what the forumers had listed.

5. The Player - The beauty of video games is that they allow you, the player, to be the hero. There have been countless adventures, whether swinging over alligators in “Pitfall” or blasting aliens in “Halo”, and they had one common factor besides being great; the player, you.

4. Lara Croft - Another example where the layout changed the landscape of video gaming and a female could shine as the lead. Didn’t hurt that she was hot, British, and bad-ass.

3. Samus Aran - Surprised the world when our favorite Metroid hero turned out to be a hot chick. Showed that the game is more important than the sex of the hero.

2. Link - Helped start the fantasy-adventure video gaming genre. You can always count on Link…

1. Mario - The unlikely heros are the best ones. A little moustached Italian plumber runs through magical kingdoms to rescue a Princess and save the world. Someone should make a movi-….well, anyways….Mario!