Wild Planet Gets Kids Moving

I am always on the lookout for tech games that get kids moving. And since the Nintendo Wii gets plenty of ink on that count, it's nice to write about something else. Wild Planet's newest offerings: Hyper Dash, Animal Scramble, and Hyper Jump.

Wild Planet showed off Hyper Dash at the CES Sandbox Summit. It uses RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to create a kind of scavenger hunt game for kids ages 6 and up. There's an electronic taggers and five different-colored targets number 1 through 5. The tagger plays music and calls out which targets need to be found first. They can spread out the length of football fields. It keeps track of how long it takes to find each target. There are are four levels, which get more challenging as they go. It works as a one-on-one game, or for teams.

The price is nice, too: $25. A good birthday gift. 

Look for two more toys that combine tech with exercise to come this year from Wild Planet: Animal Scramble, a Hyper Dash for the ages 3 - 6 set. And Hyper Jump (pictured), a 3-D floor game with a central pod with four numbered pods extending from it. A microchip and a speaker in the center pod allows commands to be called out, directing kids to jump to a certain pod. The commands start out easy, with colors and numbers, then become increasingly more challenging by asking kids to add or subract and then jump to the pod that reveals the answer.