Change4Life endorses video game exercises - News - LIVING SPORT

Change4Life endorses video game exercises

Times Online {Main}, 26 Oct 2009, Journalist: Anil Dawar - The Nintendo Wii Fit Plus has become the first computer game to be endorsed by the Department of Health, which has allowed it to use the NHS’s Change4Life logo in its advertising on television and in shops when it goes on sale on Friday.

From next year, it is possible that the logo will be used on the product itself in an unprecedented partnership with the Government.

A spokesman for the Department for Health said that it was not endorsing a video game, but rather an exercise. “Active video games, where kids need to jump up and down or dance about as part of the game, are a great way to get kids moving,” he said.

The Change4Life programme is a campaign by the NHS to persuade people, especially children, to take more exercise and eat healthily.

One of its early adverts featured two characters playing video games, suggesting this was something children should avoid. It prompted an angry response games console manufacturers including Sony and Nintendo who lobbied the Government against demonisation of their industry.

Wii Fit Plus is an updated version of the Wii Fit game, which was released 18 months ago and allows players to undertake exercises with an on-screen guide. The exercises vary from difficult yoga positions to skiing and hula-hooping.

The new game will allow players to tailor an exercise programme according to their own preferences and to target areas of their body.

Nintendo’s Wii console has already been used by Seacroft Hospital in Leeds to encourage recuperating patients to take exercise.

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