Dancing Stage - Hottest Party - 7/10
Dance Dance Revolution (Dancing Stage in English PAL territories) has been around since before the turn of the century, which almost makes it a senior citizen in gaming terms (well, perhaps more middle aged?). However, with a new innovative console in the Wii, the potential existed to expand the game beyond the original foot-stomping techno concept into something truly exceptional. Did it succeed? Well, the only real response can be a hearty “Meh.”
I’m writing this review from the point of view of a newbie, so I can’t tell you how it plays in comparison to earlier PS2 or Xbox versions. What I can tell you is how it plays for the Wii, so here’s a peek…
Basics:
The game allows you to play in various modes: Groove Circuit (the equivalent of a career mode), Free Play (well, duh), and Workout Mode. The Groove Circuit throws up challenges that allow you to unlock additional songs, outfits and, well, more dance venues. The Workout mode lets you set a specific amount of time for you to dance, or a specific number of calories to burn. Helpful if you’re too scared to join a gym, but it can potentially spoil your day by asking you how much you weigh. So if you just want a bit of fun, go for Free Play or Groove Circuit.
Hardware:
The game comes with the DDR standard dance mat, unfortunately drained of any colour except the Nintendo white and blue. While it’s nice that they’re trying to blend in, it does look a little, well, … white. The mat plugs in to the expansion ports on the top of the Wii (when it’s standing up, of course). You’ll need a mat, remote, and nunchuk for each player.
Gameplay:
For the most part, the gameplay of DDR: Hottest Party is your standard fare, with a few extras thrown in. You gain points by stomping on the arrows that correspond with the rising arrows on the screen, avoiding “gimmicks” that blow down your dance score. You have to be very precise. I noticed a lot less flexibility in timing compared to, say, Guitar Hero III. But that’s ok. You soon get used to timing your stomps properly. Unlike previous additions of DDR, you now have the addition of hand movements. But unlike the sometimes graceful movements of your character on screen, they just consist of a quick shake of the wiimote or nunchuk, depending on whether the icon appears at the right or left arrows. This was a bit disappointing at first, but once the arrows started flying, I was grateful that you didn’t have to master anything more complex! For those of you who prefer the old style DDR, you can turn off the hand movements and just stomp your feet, but as this option isn’t saved, you’ve got to do it every time you start playing the game.
As you work through the Groove Circuit, you’re given dance requests that can challenge you to beat a certain score, or battle another character. There are four levels of difficulty, and a reasonable menu of songs to choose from. You can sort the songs by speed or foot rate, so when facing a difficult challenge you could choose something a little slower. Or, if you’re up for a challenge, you can get the game to randomly pick a song for you, and see where you end up.
Overall, the game was easy to get into, but hard to master. As you complete songs, you’re given “grades” from A to E. If you’re uncoordinated or have two left feet, the beginner level will be fine. Those who have more skill or four feet can go for the challenge of Expert. And it really IS a challenge.
While most of the game was enjoyable, there were certain things about the gameplay that were annoying. Accidentally standing on one of the mat arrows makes menus go nuts, and can lead to accidental changes in song, level of difficulty, play mode or a host of other things. Another problem was that if you also select a song without realizing it, there’s nothing you can do except dance the whole song – there’s no “Back” or “Cancel” option. And after playing for a while you might also want to strangle the annoying DJ voice-over. It’s not uncommon when you’re still learning that you don’t get a very good score, and you might hear a combination like: “Nobody can beat you!!!” “This is not good.” It feels a bit weird to be praised and insulted at the same time.
Edit: As you go through the game further, you notice that the difficulty level of some of the songs is pretty inconsistent. There's no clear gradient of difficulty, and some songs should have been given higher difficulty ratings. Some of the challenges are inconsistent, too.
Graphics:
The graphics weren’t anything special, though there were some nice backgrounds to dance around. The movement of the characters was fairly smooth, but I did notice that there were the occasional blips as the “camera” panned around at the beginning of each song. Some of the menu choices were a bit unclear and frustrating, and the writing could be almost too small at times. Those with plasma screens and LCD tv’s might not notice. For those of us without HD tvs, it could be a bit of a challenge. It took me a while to work out that the small blob at the base of the screen was actually telling me to use the “+” button to sort songs (yes, I would have worked that out earlier if I’d read the manual).
Sound:
The sound is quite good, and there’s a variety of music styles to choose from. You can go for 70’s disco, 90’s pop/dance, R&B ballad or even Evanescence-like distorted guitar rock, among others. They’re all covers, as far as I could see. The DJ’s soothing (i.e. reeeeeally annoying) voice pops out at you through the Wiimote speaker, too.
Replay Value:
The music is the main kicker with the replay value. From a fun point of view, it’s great to come and test your skill at jumping on arrows. It’s certainly a great party game, and I can see that a huge amount of fun could be had with the addition of extra dance mats. There are at least three more modes of playing available in multiplayer, where you can be friendly and cooperative, or try and dance each others’ legs off. There’s also a fair bit of replay value in learning the moves and pushing yourself to the higher difficulty levels. But the question is how long it will take you to be bored with the small-ish list of songs.
Overall:
This game will definitely be a great party game with the addition of extra mats. It’s a fun stomp, and potentially a challenging physical exercise. If you’re new to the Dancing Stage/DDR franchise, it’s worth a go. If you’ve already got an older version, however, I’d wait for the bargain bin prices after the release of WiiFit.
Submitted by biinkii
21/04/2008
892
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Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party
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