Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Active Life: Extreme Challenge is a fitness title from the folks at Bandai-Namco. You and a living room full of people can play 15 activities based on real life extreme sports. You can base jump, street luge, rock climb and BMX among other sports that are of the extreme persuasion.

What's Hot
Most mini-game compilations are a boring fare. You swing the Wii-mote this way, you waggle it that way and all the games boil down to the same experience. Not true with Active Life. There is a mat that comes with the game that looks like a cross between an old NES Power Pad and a DDR Dance Mat that separates Active Life from the rest of the crowd. Throughout the course of gameplay, you'll be sitting down on it, hopping on it, stomping on it and using it in conjunction with the Wii-mote for a few games. The tag team approach style of the mat is nice so you don't clutter up your living room with yet another peripheral when more than one person plays.

The cell-shaded visuals are very appealing on the Wii. Years down the road this game will retain its unique visual style. You can import your Mii so you can have a virtual you playing the games. The target audience for the game is on the front of the box. For that generation, there is plenty to enjoy but don't let that spoil the fun for older games, sitting on the floor pounding the buttons to make the street luge turn was admittedly fun.



What's Not
Active Life forces you to be active. There aren't ways to cheat out of it either. That is bound to turn off some people right there. What isn't readily apparent is the repetition in the mini-games. Unlike the kings of all mini-games, Wii Sports and Wii Resort, Active Life doesn't have the same built in level of variability. There is that and the fact there are a couple of duds in the bunch that aren't that fun or responsive.

This is also the type of game that needs to be played in a multiplayer setting. Solo modes are present but the game is vastly more fun and is proportional to the amount of people (or beer for the older crowd) you have in the vicinity of the Wii. The Active Life mat puts competitors close together so you can try and muscle a win if you can't win by normal conventions.

Final Word
Active Life is yet another mini-game compilation on the Wii but a good one. The mat separates it from the rest of the pack and has you do some interesting maneuvers with the floor buttons. If you are looking for a fitness game, this is a good bet since there are plenty of diverse options and different games to play even if Active Life is best suited for multiplayer.