A novel video game that will enable patients recovering from a stroke to engage and play as a form of rehabilitation has been developed. The video game called Balloon Buddies is designed to level the playing field by allowing healthy participants to support the less abled player.
The findings showed that the performance of the patient was boosted when they played with a healthy volunteer, compared to if they were playing the game on their own.
In addition, they found that the poorer a patient’s single player performance was, the greater the improvement seen when they played with another during dual-player mode. This type of collaboration makes it more rewarding for the less-abled partner, more challenging for the better partner, and overall more fun for both, as they have to continuously work together to score points, the researchers said.