Hightower Lowdown

From football to beach volleyball, competitive games can get your juices going.

But the ultimate game, the one that'll give you the greatest rush, is...what? Why, it's war, of course. Yeah, you literally get to kill the other team! How great is that?

Such thinking (if it can be called thinking) is behind the latest leap in marketing by the U.S. Army. In its constant effort to lure young people into the killing business, military recruitment has come up with "Army Experience Centers," the first of which has opened right across from the Dave & Busters food-and-fun outlet in a mall in northeast Philadelphia.

With more than 14,000 square feet of prime mall space, the army center is bigger than three basketball courts and is filled with nearly 80 video, gaming stations, a replica command-and-control center, and--best of all--simulators that let the kids get a feel for the military action of, say, a Black Hawk helicopter.

The simulators are way cool. For example, youngsters can sit in a model chopper with a simulator that makes it seem as though they're ripping right over a mountain village, and --get this--they get the thrill of shooting at enemies in the village! Yes, the virtual thrill of the kill coming to a mall near you. And the army says it hopes to replicate the experience all across the country.

One enthusiastic army general says that the center is "a learning laboratory." Yeah, but...do we really want youngsters learning that stuff? Not to worry, say the recruiters, for the army does have rules--for example, while the "laboratory" is open to all ages, kids can't play the video games until they're 13. No toddlers allowed.