High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance! Review
By Gaetano Prestia
The High School Musical phenomenon has taken the world by storm. With three movies and millions of fans around the world, it was only a matter of time before we started to see an influx of games based on the franchise. It’s no surprise that these games all seem to have come out between the second and third movies, considering High School Musical 3 was the first movie in the series to be shown in theatres. High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance!, which is available on pretty much every single video-game platform you can think of, takes all of the songs from the first three movies to provide gamers with a seriously lacking rhythm title. Put simply, the only award High School Musical 3 Senior Year Dance is going to win is the award for longest video-game title…ever!
Dance! features probably one of the smallest ever track lists for a music game, at a disappointing 29. That’s the exact number of all of the songs across all three movies, so they’ve left nothing out and added nothing extra. If you’re hoping for some of those newer songs from the actors who have gone on to recording contracts, you’ll be disappointed. There’s nothing in this title beyond what was in the movies, and while 8-10 songs for a 2 hour movie might seem sufficient, 29 songs for a game that is solely a rhythm game with no storyline is deeply insufficient.
Dance! - while it appears on the 360, PS3 and PC - appears to have been built from the ground up on the Wii. The dance gameplay takes advantage of the Wii-mote, having you wave the nunchuck and controller in the direction of colourful balls that move outward from the centre of the screen. As they hit the bars that surround the characters, you move the controller to successfully perform the dance move. Think Samba de Amigo.
If you’re expecting a challenging dance rhythm game, you won’t get it with Dance! The controls are basic and the dance moves don’t move a blistering pace. When dance games were first developed a few years ago, they were considered innovative and enjoyable. With the Wii, everyone expected that the genre would expand and evolve. It hasn’t and Dance! is a perfect example of this. What you get with this title is a small tracklist with dance moves that are easy and not necessarily bad, but unoriginal. The controls are accessible and can be fun for a while, but if you’re familiar with dance games, it’ll be a case of “been there, done that” when you play Dance!
The highest difficulty setting adds a bit more challenge and enjoyment to the title, but you have to play right through the easier difficulties. Because the songs really aren’t that quick, there are a limited number of notes for each track, so by the 5th song you’ll just be going through the motions and it’s tough to find incentive to complete the mode, even if you do get a chance to play the far more enjoyable harder difficulty.
At its core, Dance! is a music game for kids, so it’s hard to totally disregard the game in that sense. There’s no doubt that the developers wanted it to be super easy, but in terms of it being a rhythm based music title, it fails. Kids will find enjoyment in this, especially if they’re fans of HSM, but older, more mature gamers won’t. The controls are incredibly accessible so in that sense, they’ll work for a younger audience who need a simple layout.
In terms of the HSM licence, the game does a good job of recreating popular scenes from the movies and allows you to create your own character, allowing you to put a character with your likeness into the action. The creation mode isn’t incredibly deep, but it adds a bit more to the experience and HSM die-hards might find some enjoyment in being virtually part of the scenes.
The Final Verdict
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance is a very basic dance rhythm-based music title. The songs are generally slow meaning completing the title isn’t that hard. The game doesn’t dictate your full attention because it’s so easy. However, the game will appeal to HSM die-hard fans and a younger audience that need a simple and highly accessible music game to keep them entertained over the summer.
Gameplay
5.5/10
Simple, unoriginal and easy. The hard difficulty is far more enjoyable as the challenge increase quite a bit, but you have to play through the incredibly easy difficulty to get to it. Bah!
Graphics
7.2/10
The character design is very solid and looks really good for a Wii game. The character movements and onscreen colours and visuals are pretty impressive for a dancing title.
Sound
7.5/10
There are 29 songs from across all three movies and while the songs themselves are great to listen to and dance along to, the number is severely limited. There should be more.
Value
5.5/10
It’s incredibly easy from the get-go and there are only 29 songs. Once you get to the more enjoyable and challenging hard difficulty, you’ve already completed the game.
Overall
6.4/10