He collapsed on the bed, his 6-foot-3 frame too long for the extra-long twin. His feet hung over the wooden bedposts. His chest heaved as he allowed his long arms to succumb to gravity and dangle over the mattress.
Dance music blared from the TV in the tiny dorm room. His right hand loosely clutched the white controller.
Bruno Sinibaldi, a lifelong runner, soccer player and all-around athlete, just got his ass whooped by a video game.
"Just Dance 3" had that effect on several that evening including the aforementioned 19-year-old mechanical engineering sophomore.
Friends Nick Sholl, a 19-year-old mechanical and aerospace engineering freshman, and Brittany Willis, a 19-year-old nursing freshman, felt the burn the newly released game has to offer as we gathered in my dorm room one Thursday evening.
And rightfully so.
Based on a study where a 20-year-old female weighing approximately 130 pounds wore a device called the bodybugg (which most-accurately measures caloric expenditure regarding motion, internal body temperature, skin conductivity and changing skin temperature), 30 minutes of constant Just Dance use burnt 190 calories.
That is to say, weighing more than 130 pounds or being male would increase the calories burnt.
The average song on "Just Dance 3" is three-and-a-half minutes long.
"I'm really freaking tired," Sinibaldi said, hunched over and still breathing heavily as he chugged a glass of water. "I didn't give the game enough credit."
The latest edition to the Just Dance line features not only new songs but also new moves.
An avid Just Dance player, I've found that the third installment's choreography allows for much less cheating - a good move on Ubisoft's part, as they advertise "Just Dance 3" as a "good workout."
The game features a Just Sweat It Out mode in which you can accumulate sweat points and, well, sweat a lot. This installment also features brand new Mash-Ups, some of which feature a more workout-video style of dancing.
A favorite of that Thursday evening was the song "Barbra Streisand" by Duck Sauce (the "ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh" song made popular by "Glee" in its second season that has since made anyone watching the Vitamin Water Revive commercial stop everything and dance), and it was during that song that a Sholl-Willis showdown occurred.
While Willis was the victor, it was the video taken on Sinibaldi's iPhone that proved Sholl the true winner for his effortless grace and style.
It may be roaming YouTube this very second. I can neither confirm nor deny.
Try "Just Dance 3," out for the Wii and Xbox 360 platforms, for $39.99. The game was released Oct. 7.
