With all the extra holiday goodies we enjoy during this time of year, I want to be sure we are counteracting that a bit by moving our bodies. As soon as I learned about Active Arcade, I had to try it.

I’m not a big fan of exercise in general, but I do understand the need for daily activity and I’m always looking for creative ways to fit it into my life.

Recently, I was introduced to an app called Active Arcade and at first I wasn’t sure it was for me. My kids definitely love gaming, but I’m not really much of a gamer myself.

I decided to check it out and I am so glad I did! Active Arcade is the perfect little app for staying active on the road or at home. I lives right on your phone or tablet and you can use it anywhere. No extra consoles or controllers!

As a family who likes to travel, it’s great for us because we can easily bring it along and it takes up no extra space, which is highly important on our RV trips!

What is Active Arcade?

In a nutshell, Active Arcade is an app that uses your device’s camera to put you in the game. It’s a little bit exersize combined with a little augmented reality.

You either use your phone screen or connect to your television to play and you don’t even need to be connected to Wi-Fi.

Graphics appear on the screen and you play by doing whatever action the game calls for whether it’s jumping, swiping, kicking or punching. It’s really fun!

One of my biggest issues with gaming is that I tend to forget which buttons I need to push. I love that I am simply using my own body movement to play these games; I can do this!

Get the Whole Family Involved

Games can be played alone, but I love that there are also multi-player options. It was so fun jumping around the room with my kids.

Now that they are older, we don’t often play together like we did when they were little. I have to admit, after playing a few of the games in the app and listening to all our laughs, I realized I had really missed that playtime and togetherness.

Your camera will also record video of your game play so you can play it back or download it if you want to, which definitely adds to the laughs.

What are the Games Like?

If you are a child of the 80s, you will enjoy some familiar themes.

Games like Whack-a-Mole, High Kicks, Galaxy Jumpers, and Space Pong will feel very familiar. Only this time, your whole body is in thee game.

Need a 5 minute activity break? Set your phone on your desk and play a couple rounds once an hour. It’s a fun way to move a little bit throughout the workday.

How to Get Started with Active Arcade

Y’all, this app is entirely free to download and use. There is no advertising or upsell or in-app purchasing, just fun! I really can’t see a downside.

All you have to do is download it on Apple or Android devices and start playing.

If you want to connect to your television, you can cast it to the TV or use an HDMI connection. We used screen mirroring through my iPhone and it worked like a charm.

I’m definitely a fan of this new app, especially on rainy days when getting outside isn’t an option.

Check it out and let me know what you think!