The March 14 release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver brought more than just a new Pokémon game to the market. It brought a whole new peripheral to consumers: the Pokéwalker. You may have seen several students sporting the round, red and white devices in the halls. More than just an emblem of the wearers’ devotion to the series, the Pokéwalker serves a practical purpose. Where millions of fans have enjoyed training their Pokémon within their game systems, the Pokéwalker allows users to bring their Poké mon with them in their daily lives. This pedometer-like device records each step taken and awards experience points to the creature within accordingly. It’s a step beyond Pokémon Pikachu 2, if you can remember it from its release in 2000.

Personally, I think Nintendo has made a great attempt to integrate exercise into their products. This time, they’ve done it really naturally; it doesn’t seem like a forced addition. Incentives such as linking with friends for a free daily item and the ability to catch rare creatures on the device encourages users to utilize them and makes playing the game all the more worthwhile. Within the huge age bracket, I’ve found children the most enthusiastic about really taking advantage of the device. I suppose it’s the amount of free time they’ve got but I commend Nintendo for their ability to influence children to keep in shape.

I can think of at least eight people who are bringing theirs to school everyday but I know there are more out there. I encourage everyone who owns a Pokéwalker to use it regularly and definitely let me know in the comments so that we can link up sometime. Don’t be embarrassed. Pokémon is still awesome.