If you had an NES Power Pad back in the day, then you’ve played “World Class Track Meet.”

And if you were like me, you eventually cheated and played with your hands instead of your feet. I suddenly became a world-class, record-breaking athlete by pounding my hands onto the pad to do the 100m dash, 110m hurdles and the long and triple jump events.

Twenty-two years later, the Power Pad lives on with the release of “Active Life: Outdoor Challenge” and its “Active Life” mat for the Wii. But could I cheat the “Active Life” mat like I did the Power Pad in “Outdoor Challenge”?

Here’s how my experiment went:

Sprint Challenge
Unlike “World Class Track Meet,” there are a slew of events to choose from in “Outdoor Challenge.” The first one I did was the Sprint Challenge, where I had to simply run as fast as I could. Using my feet, I reached a speed of 100 mph in 13.30 seconds.

Then I did it with my hands. The first run-through, I tried slapping the pad as fast as I could. I went nowhere; it seemed that my hands were too fast and the pad didn’t even register what I was doing. After pounding a little slower, I finally got to the finish line, reaching a speed of only 30 mph, at 38.36 seconds. “Try Again” the game said, and my Mii buried her face in her hands.

However, I was determined. So I tried one more time using my hands, but this time, I leaned on my fists and got into a good rhythm. My time — 13.16, a new record. “Amazing!” the game said. Amazing, indeed.

Mole Stomper
Mole Stomper is a renamed Whac-a-Mole with your feet. It was definitely more difficult for me to do it with my feet — my foot-eye coordination isn’t the best — but I still got 35 moles. It was much easier with my hands; I got 43 moles. “Mole Stomper”? More like Mole Slapper!

Log Leaper
This is one of the endless events where players are challenged to go on as long as possible. Here, players must jump over logs violently tossed from the sky in different directions. As you get further, logs pop up from the ground and start spinning under your feet. With my feet, I did it in 2:00.86 minutes. It was tiring, and I almost fell over a few times. Then with my hands, I easily did it just as long; in fact, I got the exact same time. “A - Excellent!”

Stone Stepper
Like its name implies, here players must step from left to right to move from stone to stone without stepping onto a shaky stone and falling. With my feet, I finished in 28.10 seconds, and with my hands I got 23.03. Both scores earned me a “C - Not Bad,” but using my hands was easier because I could see where my limbs were going on the mat.

Jump Rope
Another endless event, here I had to jump up and down while avoiding a jump rope being held inexplicably by monkeys. With my feet I got a tiring 19 jumps in, but with my hands I got bored at 41 and stopped. Jumping rope with hands FTW.

Mountain Boarder
Mountain Boarder is another name for snowboarding. You have to jump up from the mat and place your feet in different positions to perform tricks. The more tricks the better, but you have to find your footing for the landing or you’ll eat snow. With my feet, I scored 5,043 points. “B - Well Done,” the game told me. With my hands, I scored 4,836 points. Both ways were essentially the same level of difficulty.

Lake-top Trampoline
Similar to Mountain Boarder, here players must jump from the mat to launch into the air but then place their feet on the mat’s various buttons to perform aerial tricks. With my feet, I scored 5,300 points (”B - Well Done”) for 17 jumps and 30 combos. With my hands, I scored 6,400 points and did 35 combos in 16 jumps.

Verdict:
I couldn’t try all the games with my hands since some of the events also required use of the Wiimote along with my feet. However, many of the events could be done with my hands instead of my feet. And though using my hands doesn’t make my score significantly better (or in some cases it didn’t matter either way), using my hands for most of the events was certainly easier than using my feet. Basically, “Active Life” is as active as you want to make it.

“Active Life: Outdoor Challenge” packed-in with the “Active Life” mat is in stores this week.

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