'Family Trainer' is more Power Pad than Balance Board
by James Ransom-Wiley 
on May 14th 2008 10:15PM
Little known fact: Bandai's NES "Power Pad" was known as "Family Trainer" in Japan. And so old is new again, as Atari has announced the European release of Namco Bandai's thoughtfully named
Family Trainer for September (it's called
Active Life in the US and hasn't been dated). These days, names like
Family Trainer and
Active Life certainly conjure a connection to
Wii Fit, a "knockoff" if you will, though the new
Family Trainer is more a resurrection of that mat from the 80s than another way to
get weighed on your Wii.
This "new" Power Pad is bundled with zany feats, forgoing the track and field games that were packaged with the original peripheral for things like log jumping and mine karting in jungles and haunted mansions. Missing the mark? We think so. Price this pad at half the cost of
Wii Fit, toss in a Pilates program, and
Family Trainer will go platinum, like day one.
[Via
Engadget]
