In the name of promoting healthy lifestyles in children, Subway has teamed with Konami in order to include DanceDanceRevolution toys in every Fresh Fit for Kids meal at participating locations through March. Sure to be a big hit at raves, the premium items include an Action Armband, Water Bottle, Disco Revolution, Pencil Pal, Dancemania and Break-it-Down. Other than the armband, which is pretty self-explanatory, and the water bottle to help rehydrate your children before they collapse to the ground and have to be hauled off by security, I have no idea what any of that stuff is. Included with whatever you wind up with will be a $10 off coupon good on the latest DDR games, currently stacked five high at your local game store.

Haven't they done this before? I could have sworn I'd gone into a Subway back when I was concerned about my health and laughed at the silly DDR merchandise sometime in the past. Oh well.

SUBWAY® RESTAURANTS, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT, INC, WILL HAVE KIDS DANCING AT THEIR TABLES WITH DANCEDANCEREVOLUTION® PREMIUM

Thru March 29, 2009, Subway Restaurants To Offer DanceDanceRevolution® Premiums With Each Purchase Of A Fresh Fit For Kids Meal

WHAT:
Kids can dance into the New Year at SUWBAY® restaurants with the all-new DanceDanceRevolution® promotion. Konami and SUBWAY® restaurants today announced a partnership that will help promote a healthy lifestyle for children by delivering the fun and excitement of Konami's best-selling get-up-and-move video game to children everywhere. From December 29, 2008 thru March 29, 2009, participating SUBWAY® restaurants will offer one of six exclusive, high quality DanceDanceRevolution® branded premium toy accessories along with a $10 coupon good on any of the newest DanceDanceRevolution games with each purchase of a SUBWAY FRESH FIT FOR KIDS™ meal.

Available for a limited time while supplies last, the SUBWAY FRESH FIT FOR KIDS™ meal premiums include, DanceDanceRevolution® branded Action Armband, Water Bottle, Disco Revolution, Pencil Pal, Dancemania and Break-it-Down. The kids meal and each premium will come in four color DanceDanceRevolution® kid's meal bags that feature DanceDanceRevolution® images on one side and details about the SUBWAY FRESH FIT FOR KIDS™ meal program on the other.

The SUBWAY® promotion is the latest in a series of initiatives that has made the DanceDanceRevolution® franchise a fitness phenomenon that has received a tremendous amount of recognition for helping people of all ages lose weight and achieve better health. DanceDanceRevolution® has truly pioneered the latest trend in gaming that takes players off of the couch and away from the joystick. Each version of the game has a Workout Mode that allows users to track calories burned and monitor their own fitness regiment. Additionally, DanceDanceRevolution® has been an official part of the physical fitness curriculum in multiple school districts throughout the United States including every school in the State of West Virginia. The game has also been a valuable tool used in numerous research studies on fighting childhood obesity and has been a mainstay in health clubs and libraries across the nation as organizations look for new and innovative ways to fight childhood obesity.

TV is so much better in my head.

This commercial is exactly why I decided against creating a series of intricate moving platforms that lead to my pantry. That and my general gaming laziness, which leads me to sit in front of the television munching on sugary snacks while playing...oh hey! I see what they did there. Gaming makes you fat! Michael Fahey

Subway video game commercial [YouTube - Thanks Jamie![

There's others, too. Reader Jan sent along this neat trend chart that riffs on the Tokyo subway. Created by Japan-based design agency Information Architects, it's a mash-up of the most used websites from last year and what to expect from next. As the agency's site says, "It's totally unscientific and almost useless, but definitely fun to look at." To find us, Kotaku's the last stop on the enfeebled and underfed brown (yummy) "Blogs" line. Fitting. Brian Ashcraft

The Kotaku Subway [iA, Thanks Jan!]

Not Nintendo licensed software, but DIY and amazing nonetheless. It's a map of the Tokyo Subway system, and the program looks incredibly easy to use. Just look how it scrolls! Brian Ashcraft

SD Card Goodness [Electrosphere]

In light of Intel's recent investment in IGA, a firm primarily known for paying Counter-Strikelike advertising in games:

Basically, the gaming industry wants users to buy their products at retail and then watch constantly updated in-game ads. Unlike the TV model, which offers consumers a compelling free product in return for the advertising, the gaming industry offers nothing, not even a discount (though one could argue that games would be even more expensive without this extra revenue; whether this is true or not is a question for another day). Perhaps when the novelty of the practice wears off, gamers will be less tolerant of having their attention sold to advertisers. Or perhaps not; big-name ads lend a certain legitimacy to gaming that players seem to enjoy, which is good news to companies like IGA and to financial backers like Intel.

I've mentioned before the shadiness of inserting ads into luxury products while not reducing the cost, but this is the first time I've read that gamers actually like these ads, and I have to wonder why. Does corporate sponsorship give gamers a feeling of cultural legitimacy which gamers feel their hobby otherwise lacks? I wouldn't be surprised if that were it: gamer insecurity seems to lead to a lot of foolishness, from persecution complexes to endless pseudo-intellectual diatribes about games as art. Florian Eckhardt

Intel Wants Your Eyeballs [Ars Technica]

The PSP Nation decided to hold their latest weekly meet-up in the bowels of New York City. The group gathered at the Manhattan Mall and then descended to the subways where they caught a ride to Coney Island. On the way the group of gamers played some hot PSP-on-PSP action.

It sounds like it was a lot of fun. This sort of mass commuter game action is what I think Sony envisioned when they released the Playstation Portable. Too bad it never happens without a plan. I'm going to start taking the Lite Rail to my work in downtown Denver starting in August. Hopefully, I can find someone to play with during the ride.Brian Crecente

PSP Gamers Take Over NYC Subway System [The PSP Nation]

1UP links to a story in the Columbia Tribune where the once-rotund Subway spokesdude Jared Fogle blames his love of Nintendo's NES and the marriage between that NES and junk food for his weight expansion to a blimpie 425 lbs. Lucky for Fogle he was able to chow down on the Cold Cut Trio and trek off that tonnage.

Subway Spokesman's Six Inches of Nintendo Hate [1UP]
Jared Chews the Fat at MU [Columbia Tribune]