more appealing to gamers; in games like Kinetic, it assists exercise by watching players with a camera instead of measuring their weight and balance on a board.

Another current gaming sensation, Guitar Hero, may seem like a big step down on the exergame exertion ladder — but only to those who have never seen a 13 year-old in thrall to the demonic possession known as Air Guitar, a phenomenon that has over the years grown from private bouncing-on-the-bed indulgence to competitive sport. As with DDR, Guitar Hero has already lived through multiple generations on each of the gaming platforms; the newest is wholly devoted to the music of Aerosmith, and was created with extensive help from the band, who licensed original master recordings of hits and endured motion-capture sessions to lend their computerized likenesses extra verisimilitude. Not that rocker participation is new: Guitar Hero III offered brand-new recordings by Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) and Slash (Guns N’ Roses).

Cutting the tether from TV-bound games, toy store shelves now overflow with something I would’ve given a year’s allowance for as a kid: Laser tag. No longer something you have to go to a cavernous game center and rent equipment for, the game is now easily played at home, with various companies offering their own lines of gear, from Jakks’s Laser Challenge to (coming full circle to the video games we’re ostensibly avoiding) a set whose design and operation is inspired by the hit game Halo.

If getting the kids up and around is just too much to hope for, you can at least try to stimulate their brains or get their creative juices flowing. Juvenile robotics kits have gotten awfully impressive, with offerings bridging the gap between toy and science kit from the cute robot dino Pleo to the Robosapien and the big Mindstorms NXT line popularized by LEGO.

By the way, if this is your first trip down the kiddie-electronics aisle in a few years, don’t be surprised to see some vaguely familiar faces: There’s a surprising number of products out there seemingly designed less for kids than for parents hoping to get a vicarious dose of nostalgia by way of their offspring’s’ toy chest. While an updated version of Simon (pictured) probably has some staying power, this Merlin game looks as archaic as a gizmo from Space: 1999 — and the company selling this handheld Mattel football game surely doesn’t even pretend Dad isn’t its main target.

Retro gaming gets a boost from today’s tech, though, in the proliferation of joysticks, paddles and
specialty controllers that plug straight into the TV with no console or computer necessary, often containing a dozen or more old-school games like Space Invaders on circuit boards within the controller itself.

All of which, we reluctantly report, involve nothing more strenuous than the threat of carpal tunnel syndrome.

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