'Family Trainer' is more Power Pad than Balance Board

by James Ransom-Wiley { May 14th 2008 at 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]

Tags: active-life, atari, family-trainer, namco-bandai, power-pad

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shagittarius @ May 14th 2008 10:28PM

I'd knock the stuffin out that egg McMuffin.

SoulBlade @ May 14th 2008 11:00PM

Oh sigh.

Kye @ May 15th 2008 4:56AM

LMAO!

Kye @ May 15th 2008 4:57AM

Damnit, I replied to the wrong person. The laughter was for thew replies to blue falcon. A back-handed compliment. lol.

Blue_Falcon @ May 14th 2008 11:06PM

Just what the Wii needs, another peripheral. The controllers were enough, but now we're getting into floormats and everything.

I'm seriously wondering how much longer until every game gets its own additional piece of plastic of some kind.

(Before the NDF gets all in a tizzy, I'd like to say I LOVE my Wii, but enough is enough with all these games with gimmicky one-off items like this)