Active Life: Extreme Challenge Review

A challenge to like.

Note from GR's Big Kahuna, Duke Ferris: For years we've been plagued with the problem of what to do with the kids games we get sent. There is no way on earth I can properly evaluate Barbie's Horse Adventures. So in the past, we've done the obvious - sell them back to GameStop for heroin money.

However, a better answer has been staring us in the face: child labor. How do you review a game meant for a 12-year old girl? Give it to a 12-year old girl. GR is proud to present Monsoon's review of Active Life: Extreme Challenge in her own words.

Once you get the game completely set up and ready to play, you expect something just as fun as Dance Dance Revolution, but no more than 10 minutes in, you realize you have been most definitely let down. Active Life Extreme Challenge consists of 15 mini-games that vary in 'extremeness' from double dutch to base jumping.

The controls are pretty straight-forward. For double dutch you jump like you would in an actual game of double dutch. In street luge you sit on the mat and lean from side to side. In base jumping you have so many frantic moves that it even got our dog to jump up and down. But my favorite game is rock climbing, where you're kneeling on the mat, Spiderman-style. You might not break a sweat playing this game, but it is a 'work out' compared to many other video games.

The difficulty levels go from Easy to Normal to Hard to Expert. It's a challenge to unlock the three harder levels. You might even call it an extreme challenge (haha get it?)

Only 4 of the 15 mini-games require you to use the remote and it can really become annoying when in the middle of the game you get the pop up about communication errors. It's not that big of a deal to hold the remote, but it would have been easier if there was no remote in the games or if the remote was just a part of every game.

There are three multi-player options. Two require you to share a crowded mat of 8 buttons, and one requires you to take turns on a much more spacious mat. If you're going to play this game, you are definitely going to want to have a partner, because playing alone won't keep you entertained for more than one round of games.

The look of the game is very colorful and upbeat. None of the areas look the same at all. In rock climbing you have to dodge falling rocks. It's kind of ridiculous how much they fall. In wakeboarding you have to catch gusts of wind to pick up speed. If you're not careful you could tip over trying to catch a gust.

All in all, they try to make each mini-game have a realistic feel to it, even though the look is of a cartoon. But the music wasn't so extreme. It was more like elevator music with a couple of generic sounds thrown in. If anything, it was a challenge to listen to (haha get it?).