Worth Playing:
Active Life: Extreme Challenge kicks Active Life into high gear, featuring extreme themed sports such as base jumping, street luge, and rock climbing. Whether you want to swoosh down the hills of San Francisco in a street luge, scale the cliffs of the Grand Canyon, or kite-surf in the crystal blue waters of the Pacific, this game will get your heart pumping!
If there is one thing the Wii is good for, it's reminding me how I need to be in better shape. Look at the lineup of titles that dropped this year, and a major slice of the titles are fitness titles. In fact, you likely remember the older brother of this series, Active Life: Outdoor Challenge. Active Life: Extreme Challenge gets added to the mix, and it's actually pretty fun. The old and busted included balancing on logs and hang gliding, whereas the new hotness is all about "extreme" challenges, hence the title. See what they did there?
Players can incorporate their Miis into game, but, without stronger graphics, this feature losses its luster. The appealing settings and large scope surrounding the player action needed stronger visual support. The missing balance board option is yet another missed opportunity in this entertaining, yet unpolished experience.
GreenPixels writes: "There are lots of Wii games that promote living a more active life. There's Wii Fit, My Fitness Coach, Jillian Miachaels' Fitness Ultimatum, EA Sports Active, and more. These are all family-friendly titles to be sure, but most of these are so overtly about getting fit that they're sure to entice the typical kid about as much as math homework and broccoli. And that's where this compilation of sports-based mini-games is different: Active Life: Extreme Challenge is a kids' game at its core. This isn't to say that adults wouldn't enjoy playing too, but from the Wii menu intro screen with an audio clip of a group of kids screaming "Active Life: Extreme Challenge," it's obvious that this title is for a short crowd."
Active Life: Extreme Challenge contains a variety of mini-game activities, most of which have different difficulty levels and variations. Activities include rock climbing, wake-boarding, in-line skating, kite surfing, jump roping, BMX biking, and more. The main mode is the Extreme Tournament, where players have to meet a certain objective in anywhere from three to five different activities to unlock a new or more difficult set. There's also a Challenge mode, which offers a variation on each activity, such as a longer course or different objective to meet. And finally there's Free Play, which is just as it sounds -- pick what you want to do. Kids can play alone or with friends: Extreme Tournament and Challenge mode have multiplayer options, and there's also a mode for friends to face off in activities designed specifically for multiple players.
