By now, you should know that I am a big proponent for games that take gamers beyond the physical exercise of twiddling their thumbs.

I love games like DDR and DrumMania which make you do a little more than just sit on the couch while playing.

Yes, the cost of extra peripherals like dance mats and drum sets makes it slightly more difficult for these kind of games to penetrate the gaming market as opposed to something like Halo 3, but hopefully mommies and daddies will see the benefit to paying a little more so that their chubby-kins can get his ever-expanding backside off the couch and start sweating a bit... okay, that might have been a bit harsh and generalised. I do believe that it's not unwarranted though. There are a lot of parents who just dump their kids in front of the TV and PC so that the kids are out of their hair... and the kids are paying for it with their health.

I believe I have found the perfect middle ground. Remember when you were a younger? Bullied by everyone bigger than you? You just sat at home playing Super Mario while all the 'cool' kids were outside on their skateboards? Well, now you can be one of those cool kids!

At E3, a new game with a new peripheral was announced. I was a bit skeptical at first. Tony Hawk Ride puts you on a skateboard to play the game. I was also a bit skeptical until I went looking for more information and found this:

Loading...
[Video courtesy of YouTube]

Not sure how you feel about that video, but it looks fun!

As Ben Kuchera left the demo floor where he was playing Tony Hawk Ride, a representative asked him whether the demo made him more likely to buy the game.

He answered affirmatively.

I think I would too.