Sound off: mixing fitness and education, News from GamePro

With Namco Bandai releasing the first major game to mix fitness and brain-training games, we wanted to know if the gaming public could name a game that has aided them in either department.

It's a bold claim for a game to posit that it can positively affect your IQ or fitness level. While the recently-released (and reviewed)Body and Brain Connectionmakes a strong case for a game that achieves both, it ultimately has room for improvement in both departments. With that in mind, we asked our community for the best examples of both kinds of both self-help software:

We just reviewed this fitness/brain game:http://bit.ly/eyA8dl. Now we want to know-have games made you fitter/smarter? Best answers postedless than a minute agoviaTweetDeckGamePro
GamePro

The replies were not exactly glowing for either of the burgeoning genres. In fact, most were either dismissive or subversive. Here are those posts:

@GameProVideo games have always made me smarter. They taught me meat off the ground is healthy and that cutting grass makes money.less than a minute agovia webAlexander Scott
Fat_bot

@GameProbrain age 1 made me smarter in a way that I didn't buy brain age 2 nor any games of the sort...less than a minute agoviaTwitter for BlackBerry®aRTURO
aRT2MS

This reply, however, brings up the most general of video game benefits. While fitness and brain games aren't directly mentioned in the message below, it is the original mixture of athletic and quick-thinking ability:

@GameProIf anything, games probably made my reflexes better. I end up catching things that would make Spiderman jealous!less than a minute agoviaTweetDeckFabien
VofEscaflowne

It should be interesting to see if any other publishers try to tie the two popular casual genres together in the coming months. What say you? If you have an opinion you'd like to add, please continue the conversation by responding in the comment section below or by replying toGamePro on Twitter.

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