We have enough self awareness here at Nintendo Life Towers to know that, while some members of our team are athletic and healthy examples to us all, a few of us share an unfortunate body-shape resemblance to Mario. When your main hobby revolves around exercising thumbs more than legs and arms, carrying a few extra pounds is a hazard.
Of course there's Wii Fit, which is great for improving balance, strength and telling us we're technically obese, but may not provide as heavy a cardio workout as we'd like. Thankfully a trip to Tokyo could help us lose weight while playing as one of gaming's most iconic heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog — Sonic Athletics is coming to a three-story amusement arcade in Japan's capital, the rather aptly named Joypolis.
Sonic Athletics has eight treadmills lined up alongside each other, and players compete over three events — the 100 meter dash, long jump, and 110 meter hurdles. All of those have running-as-fast-as-possible in common, but there'll apparently be a button to push to make your hero jump when required. It looks like each treadmill and screen will have its own character, so we imagine there'll be queues for Sonic, while others such as Amy may not enjoy quite the same level of demand.
If our experiences of arcades and similar environments — like expos — are anything to go by, what they don't need are more people crammed in while profusely sweating. Still, we have little doubt that this will be a popular attraction at Joypolis.
[source siliconera.com]
Comments 30
Cool idea, now if only one of the cabs was a Big the Cat one where you could walk along leisurely occasionally stopping to enjoy some basic fishing then I'd be interested... Don't hold much truck with this running malarky
I really want a go at this. I imagine I would die long before I got to the long jump pit, but I'd least I'd die doing something that I loved.
^ Funniest post I've seen in a while.
Sounds awesome
Sounds like a theme park related injury waiting to happen...
Who needs to go to the gym.
@Banker-Style Yeah, forget the gym! If I'm going to exercise, I'm gonna do it Sonic's way...
Would like it of you somehow connect to an existing treadmill and run on a Wii U. That seems a little more probable and lucrative.
If I ever go to Japan I'm going to make visiting this a priority...
I want a Wii U, balance board enabled version...
@Hunter-D Thanks, i aim to please.
"we imagine there'll be queues for Sonic, while others such as Amy may not enjoy quite the same level of demand."
Well, I would go for Tails or Metal Sonic!!!!
I don't think the Silver treadmill will be very popular. No matter how hard they try to sell him, its no use...
"Everybody's Super-Sonic Racing . . ." yea, I'll just thy to leave with some shred of dignity.
I love that tagline: "Run fatty, run"
I laughed the first time I saw it.
Hahaha, weird. Probably a lot of kids will go here, majority being the ones who don't really need exercise.
The thing that scares me is how SEGA seemed to come up with their urinal games before this idea.
Does Sega realize that most hardcore video game fans can't even run a mile without stopping to catch a breath. Though I do enjoy playing tennis and going to the gym to build some muscle tone, I fail to see who could possibly find something like this to be popular among many individuals.
I don't really see how this could work unless each individual treadmill can change speed. I can do these events in real life, and I feel as though the track field would be a better place to do this sort of thing... The track field is free BTW. I'm guessing there's a fee for this.
@TheRavingTimes It's just an arcade game in a Japanese amusement park - the target audience isn't hardcore gamers, just random people going to an amusement park that would like to try out the game.
@Captin_Balko I think he's saying that since hardcore gamers game way too much then they can't run a mile without catching their breath,
For the first time in Sonic's recent history, boost button makes the game harder.
i want to try this out for some reason
@TheRavingTimes What Captain_Balko said plus it's in Japan where everyone's super-fit.
Saw this on Sonic Stadium a few days ago. Looks pretty cool. Also, I love that "Run fatty, run" tagline! XD
Hahahaha, I actually like the idea!
This is the funniest thing I've seen.
I wanna race as Knuckles!!!! This is such a great idea!
I'll gladly take #4 any day.
...and when a person trips, it says "you're too slow" XD
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