New Products Jun. 13, 2009 - 04:01AM JST ( 7 )

How’s this for an extra incentive to pound the streets? Bandai’s Yuhokei pedometers do everything you’d expect a pedometer to do, but liven things up by adding a story mode based on popular anime and manga series. The more you walk, the more progress you make in the narrative, which unfurls on a tiny screen with a resolution so low it makes a GameBoy look like an HD TV (users can also chart their progress online, which is less squint-inducing).

After tie-ins with ’70s hits “Space Battleship Yamamoto” and “3,000 Leagues in Search of Mother,” the latest is based around Kenshi Hirokane’s salaryman saga “Kacho Shima Kosaku” (Section Chief Kosaku Shima). Can you get promoted to company boss within the 90-day time limit? Start working those legs, boy.

Yuhokei Kacho Shima Kosaku Pedometer, 4,725 yen. Available at major toy and department stores.

Metropolis magazine