Students playing Dance Dance Revolution Classroom Edtion
Last week it was announced that Konami had joined forces with UnitedHealthcare for a joint initiative to fight childhood obesity with the Classroom Edition of their hugely popular game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). Another initiative just like it was undertaken by Konami Digital Entertainment in early 2012 in partnership with leading health and fitness organizations in America, including the American Diabetes Association, The National Foundation on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition and Let's Move in Schools.
The DDR Classroom Edition has been launched in three schools so far in Longwood, Florida; Gainesville, Georgia and Fresno, Texas. So far, there have been successful tests reported in schools in Southern California as the game is folded into the "Active for Kids" school wellness program, which is run by the UnitedHealthcare Foundation.
The game and its associated hardware were designed and developed by Performance Designed Products, it works as a group dance session and allows up to 48 simultaneous players using mat controllers. These mats are also fitted with a 'smart card reader' that can track an individual students progress. Teachers also receive this information which keeps them informed about the students health, including number of steps taken during a song, caloric burn rate and body mass index.
The suspected playlist for the Classroom Edition has a whopping 300 songs, including fan favourite Konami Originals, with licenses for Dancemania and Sony Music Entertainment, and tracks that have never been used in a DDR game before. The game is also expected to be updated every 3-6 months, so there's no chance of the kids getting bored. Click here to check out the suspected song list.
Check out this commercial for the DDR Classroom Edition (sourced from theofficialkaitie):
