At least two items on display at this year's American International Toy Fair seem designed to ensure that young boys need never set foot on a real playing field ever again.
Play TV Football 2, due out this summer, is an updated version of the virtual football game marketed under Mattel's Radica brand. A pressure-sensitive mat allows kids to move animated football players around on a standard TV screen; by stomping on oversized arrow buttons, they can run right and run left without actually running at all. And by jerking around a small motion-sensitive football, they can launch a virtual pigskin without ever breaking a sweat.
Play TV MLB Baseball features a similarly equipped bat and ball, but employs actual major league baseball footage.
"It gives them some exercise," a Mattel PR rep explained.
Maybe making a bunch of characters run about onscreen really is a form of exercise. And maybe surfing porn sites is the same as having sex. But if you don't need to shower afterwards, does either one really count?
