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Video dance game melts away American obesity

Forget the image of paunchy video gamers holed up in a dark room, surrounded by sticky Twinkie wrappers and empty soda cans.

Dance Dance Revolution players burn extra pounds along with their quarters. Weight loss is an unexpected benefit of a game designed for dance music.

Natalie Henry, 14, was drawn to the pulsing techno songs, and didn't realize she had slimmed down until she went clothes shopping.

"I went to go buy pants and the 14s were too big. The more I played, I gradually had to get smaller size pants," said Natalie, who now buys size 8 baggy cargoes.

The premise of DDR is simple: Players stand on a 1m-square platform with an arrow on each side of the square -- pointing up, down, left and right. The player faces a video screen that has arrows scrolling upward to the beat of a song chosen by the player. As an arrow reaches the top of the screen, the player steps on the corresponding arrow on the platform.

Sound easy? Throw in combinations of multiple arrows and speed up the pace, and the game is as challenging and vigorous as a high-impact aerobics class.

Stomping on ants

Most beginners look like they're stomping on ants and are flushed in the face after one or two songs.

"At first I was playing it for fun, but when you see results you're like, `Yeah!'" said Matt Keene, a 19-year-old from Charleston, South Carolina, who used to weigh more than 157.5kg and wear pants with a 122cm waist.

Also aided by better eating habits, the 1.95m-tall Keene explained in a phone interview he had dropped to about 90kg. Now he works out on a weight bench to bulk up because he thinks he's too skinny.

More than 1 million copies of DDR's home version have been sold in the US, said Jason Enos, product manager at Konami Digital Entertainment-America, which distributes the Japanese game in the US. About 6.5 million copies have been sold worldwide.

The home version, which costs about US$40 for a game and US$40 for a flat plastic dance pad, includes a "workout mode" that can track how many calories the user burns while playing.

The game was designed to be fun. But "what the creators knew is that this is a physical game no matter how you dice it," said Enos, who says he has lost 13.5kg playing DDR. "At some level there's going to be people who want to focus on that element of the game for their own physical health or for exercise."

One pediatrician is so convinced of the health benefits that he's planning a six-month study of DDR and weight loss among 12- to 14-year-olds in an effort to give the game credibility among physicians.

DDR has been so effective in getting teens off the couch that some schools have incorporated it into their physical education programs.

Addictive

The chief drawback fans cite is that DDR can be addictive, and therefore expensive. In the arcade, it costs from US$1 to US$1.50 to dance for about six minutes.

Natalie spent US$150 the first four months she played.

"Unless you have the money to do it, you shouldn't do it. I came here with US$3," she said.

As she cooled herself in front of a fan at a video arcade, two teenage boys danced on a machine nearby. Their sneakers pounded out a staccato rhythm at a pace so fast that Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley would be envious.

Not everyone sees dramatic results. Seventeen-year-old Justin Meeks says his body is more toned, but his weight hasn't changed. He's pleased to point out, though, that his dancing skills have helped him get girls.

"Two. I'm guilty of that," Justin said with a grin as he watched friends play DDR.
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