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Totally in love with your video games? Give your thumbs a lot of exercise, but maybe a bit worried that couch potato syndrome might be creeping up and there's a beer gut with your name on it somewhere in the not-too-distant future?

(Okay, so maybe we're laying it on a bit thick. Maybe.)

It sounds like help might be on the way with BodyPad video game hardware. Gets you right in the game.

"Imagine becoming your favorite Wrestler, Boxer, or Martial Arts Champion. You can do this with BodyPad! Get into the game yourself. You can now be a part of many exciting games, including but not limited to the following: Tekken(TM), Dragon Ball Z(TM), Dead or Alive(TM), Mortal Kombat(TM), Virtua Fighter(TM), Soul Calibur(TM), Dance Dance Revolution(TM), Jungle Book(TM), Athens 2004(TM), or Track N Field(TM). You will experience your favorite video game in a totally different way, and you can actually get in shape or stay in shape while you are having fun!

BodyPad will turn your body into the Controller and you will take the gaming experience to realistic and accurate levels never thought of before! The game adjustment system allows your body to make moves while sticking with the realism of the game content movements."

The BodyPad is currently available in Europe, but will be coming soon to North America.

Site.

We'd suggest you swing by the Yarukinoki.net Swinging Pendulum game site only when you've got some time because it's quite addictive. The instructions are in Japanese, but courtesy of Pocket-lint's instructions, we were able to give the game a go (again and again and again). Here's how you play: Click on one of the grey bars at the top of the screen, and hold down your mouse button. Your spacecraft will fire out a rope up to where you've clicked, and your ship will swing back and forth. What you want to do is let go of your mouse button (and therefore the rope) when you've got a nice bit of momentum going (note - you want to go forward!). When you let go, your spacecraft will fly. You've got to click on the grey bar again in order to get another rope going, or your spacecraft will crash into the jagged spikes. Keep going for as long as you can. We're not even going to talk about our "high score". Via Pocket-lint.

Looks like Google's launched an online game that's tied to the release of the Da Vinci Code movie: The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google.

"The quest, which began April 17th requires skill, intellect, and perseverance. Over a span of 24 days ending May 11th, you will encounter unique challenges. These daily puzzles will pull you deeper into the world of The Da Vinci Code. Answer all 24 puzzles correctly for a chance to win untold riches."

Technorati Tags: da vinci code, games

This game, courtesy of Pepsi Japan, is not easy. You've got to break through the icewall or else you end up smashing into it (as you can see from our pic above).

(Don't worry - it includes instructions in English.)

Via Adverblog.

How awake are you really? The Sheep Dash! Game checks your reflexes. You get darts to throw at these poor sheep that are trying to escape.

We couldn't clock in any faster than Bobbing Bobcat. We're going to try again tomorrow, after we've both had a whole lot more coffee (which is the way we like to start our Mondays).

This one isn't easy. Escape from the room, in the Inside the Firewall game, is a promotion for Harrison Ford's new movie, Firewall.

The setting is rather eerie, and we couldn't find the instructions (always a good way to start a game) so we just clicked around, which we think was what we're supposed to do. You know what we always say ... if we had more time, of course we would have finished the game (Well, some instructions would have helped. Actually, no - more like, massive hints would have helped.).

It did get us interested in the movie, that's for sure. February 10. Just in time for a Valentine's Day night out, with dinner afterwards to discuss (that's what we do on our dates. We discuss.)

Via AdRants.

If you've ever pined over playing paparazzi and snapping shots of the likes of, um, Nikki Sheraton and, er, Jackson Michaels, then Paparazzi - Adventures on the Red Carpet is definitely a game you'll enjoy.

You only get 12 shots, so you've got to make them good. At each level, you're told what celebrity you're wanting shots of, and you earn money for each shot you get.

Actually, it's kind of fun even if you've never hankered after being a paparazzi, although we never thought a paparazzi's life was quite like that.

Via Adverblog.

One of us loves Jelly Bellys (or should that be Bellies?) Which is good (for us), because in order to play the Jelly Belly $250,000 Mystery Flavor Game, you need an access code, and you can only get one from - you guessed it - specially marked bags of Jelly Belly (Bellies?)

(Apparently you can also send in that self-addressed stamped envelope and request an access code, but we can see it coming in the mail and wondering, what the heck is this for?)

Via Adrants.

If you've been gearing up for the annual Monopoly marathon with all the family over the Christmas holidays, this mgiht come in handy: Hasbro offers a PDF file that lets you print your own Monopoly money.

And if you're leary about wasting all your ink on printing out fake money, RealTechNews has a good tip: buy yourself some colored paper that matches the denominations you need, and print the money on the colored paper using black ink only.

Now you're all set - total domination of the Monopoly board, anyone?

(If you're missing some hotels, you can always use those processed cheese cubes ...)

Via RealTechNews.

So, we're going to take a guess. You figure you might not be able to snatch an XBox 360 off the shelves before Christmas so there's a kid on your list who's going to be XBox-less?

Chances are, that kid probably owns PSP and/or a Nintendo DS. Are we onto something here?

Well, here's something that might make up for it. The Pyramat PM220 is a vibrating chair for gamers. It's got built-in speakers and a subwoofer. It's available at Target, for a mere $129.99.

Something a little bit different, we figure.

(And if you did manage to grab an XBox 360 and it's under your tree, the chair's compatible with that, too, apparently.)

Via CNet News.

Lots of games are coming out, it seems. The Elf Zapper is quite addictive, and sort of fits in with the whole holiday spirit.

(Just remember that you're zapping the evil elves. That will make it more Christmas-y. Not to mention that zapping the good elves makes you lose a life.)

Tip: We did the point the mouse and shoot thing to begin with, and didn't find a single chocolate chip cookie (for extra lives). But if you wildly shoot everywhere, as quickly as you can, you'll hit some cookies (which should make up for hitting the good elves).

Via Adverblog.

Virgin presents Exercise Your Music Muscle at Heavy.com:

Yeah, yeah, yeah - we know. You're a music god. You're a master of what-to-know and who-to-listen-to. You'd be the head of your class at the school of rock. You were on to the Seattle scene before anyone had even heard of Nirvana. You would have had the vision to sign Eminem before Dre ... right? Okay hotshot, now's your chance to show off your big brain and exercise your music muscle. Tell us which of the 74 bands and artists you're able to spot in this effed up world of music.

This requires a bit of lateral thinking and will definitely take some time. It's fun, though.

(And no, we couldn't find all 74 ...we would have, of course, if we'd had more time, but you know, we had to go do stuff, clean out the fish tank, call the pool guy to book the pool cleaning in May, emergency stuff like that.)

Via Adverblog.

One of us can remember watching some show where people raced their exercise bikes. Really.

This kind of reminded us of the same sort of thing.

Mind you, we'd like to point out rather proudly, we're both:

50-54 truly a connoisseur of clickers

Give it a try, but don't break a finger trying to beat us. Won't work.

Via Grow-a-brain.

Nescafé is offering a new interactive website, Life Your Cups, where you shoot these things from a spoon on a kitchen table into a series of coffee cups. It's a little bit tricky at first, getting the hang of the real direction and the power of your shot, and that last cup high up on top of the cupboard is quite a reach.

You also get the chance to win a £10,000 spending spree with Trinny and Susannah, stars of a British morning show.

We found this game really really hard.

Good thing we decided to start with the 3rd edition. There are answers! (Same with the 1st and 2nd editions).

Looking for even more challenge?

Give the 4th Edition a shot. But be warned: there are no answers.

It will cost you $4 for a hint for one letter. And $8 for the solution for one letter:

Because of the escalating demand for solutions and the rapidly increasing load on my web server, I am now offering letter-by-letter solutions to the Game for a fee. First, my goal here is not to make tons of money off of random players. On the contrary, the Retail Alphabet Game is a hobby of mine, and I'd rather satisfy the curious by allowing them to purchase solutions instead of emailing me requesting them. Second, I set the price high enough to encourage players to work as hard as they can to figure out the answers on their own, utilizing their friends, the Internet, their car to drive around, etc. while still providing a light at the end of the tunnel.

Here's a very cool version of Monopoly. One of us does not like Monopoly very much (well, okay, she would phrase it differently but we're trying to keep this blog on the clean side).

But even she would be quite willing to hang out with a few blogging friends to play Blogpoly.

(As long as there's lots of wine and beer, she adds. Free wine and beer.  And munchies. And more wine and beer.)

From the site:

It is just a game. It is fun to use the board to lay out the Blogosphere Ecosystem. It helps me to think and learn about blogging culture by transforming the original game into this version. I had to think about which company and enterprise to choose and set up first on the board. The space is limited, so I picked well known names in blogging industry. Besides the private properties, there are two public utilities--the water works and the electric company. Then I thought of "Wikipedia" and "Creative Commons", and then a few more, making "criminal" into "spammer", "free parking" into "free hosting". "Chance" and "community chest" become "comment" and "trackback". Fun -- yes?

Fun? Yeah. We think so.

(By the way, you can click on each of the squares. So if you didn't know who the "big players" in the Blogosphere are, you don't have anymore excuses.)

We know. We know. Two posts in a row about the Big G.

We've got Google on the mind. Or rather, everywhere we turn, there's Google.

But try this game out. It's addictive. And fun.

The only thing we'd ask for? The answers to all the ones we missed. The clues are good but answers would be even better.

Just the thing for a relaxing Sunday morning.

(Only if you like brain teasers and puzzles, that is. One of us could care less - a game controller is definitely preferable - but it is Sunday morning and we like to start the day with peace, and a good cup of coffee.)

Braingle is one giant games and puzzles site that could take you hours days months to get through. We're not kidding - the site contains over 7,500 brain teasers, riddles, logic problems and mind puzzles. You can also rank each game, and there are also online multiplayer games.

(Before you online gamers get all excited, we're talking classic games like battleship, chess and checkers.)

There's a daily teaser. The one we landed on today was kind of lame, but we peeked at some of the previous ones and discovered that the logic puzzle ones actually come with a logic puzzle grid, all ready to fill in.

(One of us was thrilled by this, in case you didn't notice.)

If you're viewing the site with Firefox, the quick tour ends with the last arrows pointing to the wrong menu items. But hey, it happens sometimes. (Less and less, we're happy to say.)

Via MonkeyFilter

By now you've probably figured out how much we both like those silly little games that pop up all over the place these days.

We came across this one today and were quite overjoyed, since we figured it's a great game to start off a regular, boring Monday morning at work.

(See? We think about you all the time.)

BBC Learning comes to the rescue if you're bored at work. Their tag line, not ours. We say, "IF you're bored at work? What do you mean, IF? Are you nuts?"

Mind you, we work for ourselves. We're never bored. Really. Stressed and often running around like a chickens with no heads, but never bored.

Anyway, give it a shot. You're throwing crumpled pieces of paper into a wastebasket but there's this pesky little fan that keeps getting in the way. Quite addictive.

And hey, you can always come back and post your score. (We did lousy so we're staying mum on this one.)

Here's a rather silly game in which you catapult yourself into the arms of your lover. It gets even sillier as you progress through the levels and everything starts moving a lot quicker. There's nothing like your first huge guffaw when you find you've hurtled yourself at your lover - who has darted off to another location at the last moment. After we crashed through a few windows this way, we weren't too sure which was more enjoyable, scoring points or hearing the tinkle of the glass. (Actually, we were sure which was more enjoyable. It was a really a toss-up between breaking glass, leaving a huge hole in the roof or splashing into the romantic ocean backdrop.)

Play with your mind: We're going to be going back to this one. Between the card games, the typing games, the word games, the mind games and the logic games (there are a few more but these are our favorites) there's enough here to keep us staring at our monitor for hours.

From the site:

All this started late last August. My job ended in June (I was a teacher) and over the course of July, I decided to take a risk and try to start up a gaming web site. My wife agreed to support us during my efforts, and that has allowed me the last six months to build this website and these games.
 
So what you see here is only the very beginning. I will openly assert that I am a creative genius, and I think you are going to enjoy what I have in store for you. In the next year or two, I plan on creating a bit of a revolution in gaming and I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Hey, you've got to like someone who proclaims he's a creative genius ... especially when the site he produces definitely puts him in the running for a creative genius crown, in our opinion.

So, how are you at triva? We stink at it, but hey, you can give it your best shot. Answer six trivia questions, and get a chance to win a Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary Edition Game.

This is one of those games where you can find yourself sitting there, still hitting the space bar, after a couple of hours have gone by. It's mezmerizing and almost addictive in a way. The whole point is to shoot these different colored balls into a container using a pinball sort of mechanism. If the ball touches at least a couple of balls of the same color, they evaporate. You can aim for a landing spot by the amount of "pressure" you apply when you're shooting the ball.

We think the point is to get rid of all the balls. We're not sure, though. We just kind of kept going back and starting over and over and over. Very soothing.

There is a hard level and an easy level. It really didn't make that much difference to us, though.