Boogie
Score: 83% ESRB: Everyone 10+ Publisher: EA Games Developer: EA Games Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Simulation/ Rhythm
Graphics & Sound: I'm no dancer, and not much of a singer either, but videogames based on these activities rarely judge your real world talents. Boogie is a game that allows you to sing and dance to your heart's content. It won't laugh at you or stare at you with a mixed look of embarrassment and frightened awe, but you can still invite your friends over for that. Boogie is essentially a karaoke game, so sound and music choice is of the utmost importance. The music selection contains a pretty decent mix of old and new hits. Jamiroquai, Michael Jackson and The B-52's make appearances right along with Britney Spears, Fergie, and Kelis. Unfortunately, the original artists seem to be absent from some of the songs (or perhaps all of them, but some of the imitating artists are very good at least.) The original performing artists aren't listed next to the track names or anywhere for that matter, and that may make it difficult to recognize that certain favorite song. What will probably irk many fans is the fact that the songs have been altered. Some editing is understandable, but many of the songs have been trimmed and redone in a fairly obvious matter. Parents may be happy to find out that some of the more questionable lyrics have been omitted from the songs in Boogie's line up. Fans of the songs probably won't agree with the tweaking, though. Boogie uses a cel-shaded style to portray its myriad cast of dancer/singers. It works well, and all the movements are animated quite fluidly. What really shouldn't exist here is the load time. There are load waits for anything that refreshes or changes your character during the customization and character select Menus. I mean anything: changing shoes, changing characters, switching Menus. It seems like you're playing an online flash game over a slow connection. It's not a problem in the main parts of the game, so it can be overlooked once you get used to it. It's just really hard to comprehend why you're waiting 3 seconds for shoes to load on your character.
Gameplay: Boogie has a story, though it doesn't make much sense. There's a group of aliens who want to see Earthlings perform to fufill some prophecy. So for one reason or another, a group of characters gets drawn into performing for them. It's amusing enough, but story isn't going to be your main draw in Boogie anyway. Singing and dancing in Boogie earns you points to unlock songs and purchase new outfits for your character. It won't take long to unlock all the songs in the game, so you can have fun with the full selection of songs. However, much of the clothing you get to buy is just an alternate color of some existing clothing. Boogie has a two-player mode that will allow you to compete with a second person in Dance Mode. Why is there no "sing-off" mode, I don't know. For what seems like a party game, dancing is all Boogie offers as far as multiplayer modes. Of course, you can have a ball just passing the mic around during Karaoke mode, and you can have one person dance while the other sings, etc. It's just not a "supported" mode of multiplayer.
Difficulty: Boogie is forgiving enough in Karaoke mode that you should be able to get through it if you focus on the visual cues and not so much on being a star singer. The dancing may be tricky to get used to, but it is likewise forgiving. On Easy, it's fairly easy to get through the Story Mode for each character and unlock songs, though it may take a few tries on some of the difficult songs. If you have a Nunchuk to play with (and you should have at least one unless a particularly ornery pet ran off with it), then you can utilize Strike A Pose Mode. Basically you tilt the nunchuk and try to hit targets. It's an easy way to rack up points if you're struggling with the basic dance moves.
Game Mechanics: Boogie comes with a Logitech USB microphone, which is what you sing into, of course. It's a pretty nice mic with a solid, heavy feel and good sensitivity. The bonus is, you can use it as a microphone on your PC when you're not playing the game. Your singing seems to be judged on timing and pitch alone. It seems you can get away with a bit of flourish now and then, but when you're trying to score points, keeping things simple is what wins. It's probably because of this that I found myself scoring higher in the songs that required less of a singing voice, and more pure rhythm. The book and the game don't really explain how to do better in the singing portion of the game, so you'll just have to do some trial and error until you figure out how to produce what it wants. This can be frustrating if you're playing "to win." Maybe that is why there is no competitive singing mode after all. Dance mode, however, couldn't be more straightforward. Flick the Wii-mote up, down, left or right on the beat. You're allowed to go freestyle unless you want to perform a special move. Then you flick the Wii-mote in a certain pre-defined sequence. As mentioned before, Strike A Pose Mode is available in the solo game to help pile on the points. That being said, even though dancing is freestyle, I longed for a little more creative control with it. There is one move that is sort of a rolling move where you twist the remote slightly and the character follows along with a matching slight movement. It changes depending on the dance style you've chosen. It made for some funny dance moves, but it doesn't count for points. More "hidden" little control options like this would have extended the fun factor further beyond the end of the game. One last thing to mention is the Video Maker Mode. When you're done singing and dancing, you can take a recording of that performance and edit it. This is not a full-fledged video editor by far, as you can't forward or rewind. You have to watch the performance all the way through and make cuts as you go. That being said, it's still an interesting little extra. Boogie can be beaten in a matter of hours. Chances are you'll go back to sing along with your favorites. Boogie won't entertain everyone, but for Karaoke lovers who own the Wii, it's not a bad start. It's definitely a staple to keep on hand for parties. But as with most games like this, if you like it, you'll probably be wishing there were just a few more songs and dance moves to keep you going.
-Fights with Fire, GameVortex Communications AKA Christin Deville
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