DDR Is A-OK

My husband and I were slow to bring the PlayStation 2 into the house. The girls never asked for it, but our son...well, he begged. We were very wary of buying yet another thing to give our sports-loving boy a reason to stay inside and play fake sports rather than go outside and play the real deal with his friends.

Eventually, I figured if he was logging lots of time playing computer games, what was the difference if he played games on the TV screen with a PlayStation 2 controller instead? As long as we limited it, of course. And besides, he's such a great kid and this was the only thing he really, really wanted....

We gave in Christmas 2004 (me more than their dad). Nana and Pop-Pop gave all three kids the hot-at-the-time new PS 2. Knowing it wasn't high on the girls' list, I wanted to find something fun for them to do with it, too. I knew they had had fun playing Dance Dance Revolution, the music and dance video game series by Konami, at friends' homes, so I bought Dance Dance Revolution Extreme and two dance pads to hook into the PS2. (I'd heard from other parents that wireless pads seemed to break more often.)

Here's how it works: The dancers press their feet on the arrows that coincide with the arrows on the TV screen, synchronized to the beat of the chosen song. The player who hits the most arrows at the right times wins.

DDR has been the best thing about PS2 at our house.

The kids play it a lot. The boys play it, too, usually because the PS2 is involved but also because it's fun. It's a great way to get some indoor exercise, and it's really social. When one or more girls are over, a contest begins. They are laughing and moving, and we love it.

Of course, we don't limit the PS2 like we said we would. There are many cloudy, cold days when I realize Madden 2006 has been on the screen for three hours. But the PS2 has not compromised our 10-year-old boy's ability to work the phones and assemble a group of friends to play snow football in our side yard in record time.