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Wii

North America

Boogie

by Steven Rodriguez - July 16, 2007, 10:24 pm EDT
Total comments: 3

You can dance if you want to, but don't leave your friends behind.

EA finally let the general media get some hands-on time with its much ballyhooed Wii music game, Boogie. Those expecting a rhythm game along the lines of DDR or Ouendan are going to be slightly disappointed at its lack of a genuine challenge. However, if taken for what it was designed to be, which is a party game for the casual sector, it looks like it'll be a load of fun.

I got the chance to take a look at three different modes during my time with it at EA's hotel suite. First up was the main dancing game. The EA rep demoing the game first showed me how the game worked. After picking a song and a difficulty level, the game began. The selected character was plopped down into a Route 66 setting, complete with a gas station in the background. When the music started playing, the character started moving with the beat a bit. The premise of the game is to shake the Wii remote or move the analog stick in one of four directions, in beat with the music, to perform a different dance move. The more on-beat the actions are performed and the more varied they are, the better the score values for each. The A Button on the Wii remote can change the dance style on the fly, giving you a different set of moves with which to waggle. Once the Boogie meter is filled, holding the B Trigger will begin a bonus string in which you need to flick the Wii remote in the indicated directions. This will set off a super-cool dance move which is worth loads of points.

This looked really fun—and really easy—so when it was my turn to Boogie, I cranked up the difficulty to the maximum to get a taste of what the game would be like for music game veterans like me. I was disappointed to find out that the harder difficulty levels don't really affect the gameplay, since the motions the player can perform are not predetermined. Except for the bonus moves, the entire game is freestyle, so performing the same moves at a harder setting doesn't really change the fact that you're not really being challenged. From what I could gather, increasing the difficulty just makes it more difficult to fill your Boogie meter. Someone playing can be horribly off-beat, but the game will still give you some points and see you through to the end of the song. Just about every music game before this has been more absolute; you either passed the song or you failed it. There is no pass or fail in Boogie; you just play the song and see how many points you got.

For someone raised on the likes of Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania, Guitar Hero, Ouendan, et cetera, this is a crushing disappointment. Working to improve and ultimately beat a new song is one of the driving forces behind the genre. However, while this style of play might turn off music game pros, it's just what the casual crowd might be looking for. The thing that delights veterans is usually the same thing the frustrates novices, but by taking out the penalties for doing poorly, EA has essentially created the first music game for the casual audience.

Looking at the game in this light, the design makes perfect sense. People can be as spastic as they want with the controller and still make their character dance around like a fool. It's got a party game vibe to it, too, because you can watch as other people try to rack up high scores and out-do each other. Going it alone may not be so satisfying, but if you've got someone else to play with it looks as if it'll be a blast.

Karaoke mode helps this theory along. Using the included USB microphone, one player can sing the words to a song while another dances in the background as if he or she were playing in single player. Only the singer gets points; the dancer is just there to keep the action lively. One of the neat features of karaoke is the ability to change the type of voice that gets outputted through the speakers. If you're a terrible singer, you can set the slider to make the voice of the game's singer be loud. Most people will be happy with a mix, but only the best voices should dare to turn off the original voice entirely.

The coolest thing about Boogie is the music video editor. You can take a dance performance from the main game and save the replay to your Wii. Once that's done, you can head into the editor and apply a bunch of different camera angles and effects. The mode supports four different camera angles with up to 100 different camera cuts over the course of a song. Available effects include text overlay, funky lighting and a 3D mode that requires the red-blue glasses to make the picture pop out at you. There were around 15 or so total effects, all of which can be applied in a simple-yet-powerful video editor.

After getting some quality time with Boogie, I came to understand the direction EA was going in with the game. It's kind of like the music/dancing off-shoot of Wii Sports instead of something that will be competing with Guitar Hero III or DDR Hottest Party. Part of me is bummed out by this. However, I still had a great time trying out Boogie, and it will probably succeed in bringing its own brand of fun to the Wii library.

Talkback

I'm really sad that you can't mii mail your music videos to other people. That would basically complete the concept.

IceColdJuly 16, 2007

Those would be pretty big, wouldn't they?

Not really,... well... they'd have to disable your own voice bit, but you could at least send the markers from which the recipient would be able to recreate your music video.

But yeah... /sad

Also, /extrasad since Numa Numa won't be in this game.

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Boogie Box Art

Genre Rhythm
Developer Electronic Arts
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Boogie
Release Aug 07, 2007
PublisherElectronic Arts
RatingEveryone 10+
eu: Boogie
Release Aug 31, 2007
PublisherElectronic Arts
Rating3+
aus: Boogie
Release Aug 30, 2007
PublisherElectronic Arts
RatingParental Guidance
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