Konami Digital Entertainment Partners with NASPE Stars Program

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced a partnership with the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) that will bring the benefits of the company’s widely renowned fitness video games to school kids throughout the nation. The partnership is in support of NASPEs STARS program, which honors physical education programs that model the essential elements for quality physical education and provide meaningful learning opportunities for all students.  Konami will provide awards and copies of its groundbreaking game series DanceDanceRevolution and its latest fitness-based title Walk It Out! to newly distinguished NASPE STARS schools during the 125th national convention of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 19th.

With titles such as DanceDanceRevolution and Walk It Out!, Konami has created fun and healthy ways for children to be more active and realize the benefits of physical activity.   DanceDanceRevolution has been lauded as the originator of the “exer-gaming” category as it gets players off the couch and moving to the beat, following the arrow combinations on the included mats.  Research has proven that the game can significantly help players lose weight and get fit so much so that the state of West Virginia had partnered with the interactive company, bringing DanceDanceRevolution into the physical education or health related curriculum based programs in all of the state’s 765 K-12 public schools.  The state will also be hosting the first ever statewide school competition where the students will compete to find the ultimate DanceDanceRevolution champion.

In Walk It Out! players embark on a low-impact and high energy walking simulation game where they walk along to a soundtrack containing over 100 songs from today’s hottest artists.  Players walk their way throughout an expansive world of fields, stadiums, parks, ocean sides, suburbs and other metropolitan areas and as they step to the beat, they will begin to watch the world evolve and expand in real-time. As players walk, progress is tracked with in-game charts, graphs and visuals to show calories burned, distance traveled, steps taken and more!

DanceDanceRevolution and Walk It Out! have been proven to be extremely effective ways of promoting weight loss among today’s young people and the games fit in perfectly as part of the physical education curriculum in our nation’s schools,” said Shinji Hirano, President of Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., “DanceDanceRevolution and Walk It Out! are not only innovative fitness games, but they are fun and entertaining ways for kids and adults to develop healthy habits and a fitness-oriented lifestyle.”

The NASPE STARS schools exemplify excellence in teaching students the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed for motor development to achieve movement competency, health-related fitness and promote lifelong physical activity.  According to NASPE President Steve Jefferies of Central Washington University, “NASPE STARS physical education programs are models for other schools to emulate.  There is growing evidence that supports the relationship between health-related fitness and academic achievement. Healthy children learn better and systematic movement activities facilitate cognitive development. A quality school physical education program is the foundation for helping ALL children develop the knowledge, skills and confidence that promotes lifelong physical activity.”

For more information on either Walk it Out! or DanceDanceRevolution video games, please visit: www.konami.com