Wii does it for KIDS

Not only do you use the Wii remote while swinging your arms, but this game gets your feet and body moving, too. The game comes with a special Active Life Mat Controller, which looks similar to the kind used to play "Dance Dance Revolution" games and has colored shapes on which to place your feet. With the mat on the floor and the Wii remote in your hand, you will jump on a trampoline, slide down a slick pipe while avoiding obstacles, leap hurdles, sprint across a path of raised stones, speed skate through an obstacle course and much more. And all of these sweat-inducing activities happen from the comfort of your living room.

Think of this as a sort of "Wii Fit" for kids, just better. Instead of a somewhat delicate Balance Board that is at the center of playing "Wii Fit," the "Outdoor Challenge" mat can take whatever pounding a child can inflict. It's a game that demands that kids run in place, jump up and down repeatedly and even hop on one foot.

Not only does it encourage kids to be physical, but it also does an excellent job of supporting social gaming, a behavior that a new Pew Internet study of U.S. teenagers says is kids' preference when playing video games.

"Outdoor Challenge" has 16 active games. Unlike other Wii compilations where only some of the games in the bundle are good, in this bundle, all 16 are exciting to explore. Kids will jump on the mat to make their avatar perform tricks in the air while trampolining in the middle of a lake. They will sit on the mat to simulate sliding on a bodyboard inside a pipe where leaning from one side to another pushes you up the side of the wall to collect speed boosts and avoid obstacles. Other games are as simple as jumping a virtual rope, running a sprint challenge or jumping virtual hurdles, and yet they are all fun in this game's high-energy environment.