Boogie review

Game developers have already seen the potential of the Wii, whose motion controls seem perfect for rhythm games. Both Rayman Raving Rabbids and Warioware: Smooth Moves included mini-games that involved moving the Wii Remote in time with the beat of the music to control the action, and a fully-fledged rhythm game was a certainty. EAs Boogie has now arrived, not only boasting motion-controlled dancing, but also the ability to put your karaoke skills to the test with the bundled microphone. On a console that is trying to push fun and simplicity, Boogie should be a hit, but the difficulty and lack of any challenge means that its a game that youll want to miss.Boogie is a game that has so much potential, and it is disappointing that it never manages to come close to fulfilling it. The game looks fantastic, with some great cell-shaded characters and stages. The music is excellent, with a large track list including cover versions of songs by the Jackson 5, Britney Spears, The Pussy Cat Dolls, and from Grease, sure to cater for a wide range of tastes. The two different ways to play the game (singing and dancing) mean that there is some variety to the game. The control and execution of both these modes, however, is over simplistic and makes playing Boogie a shallow and boring experience. Its not that the controls are bad, with the Wii Remote picking up the movement gestures well, and the microphone is very responsive, but in a game which promotes fun for all the family, anyone over the age of five will struggle to remain interested after their first track. The dancing element of Boogie makes up the bulk of the game. Your goal on each track is to earn points by dancing in time with the music, and if you earn over a certain amount of points you will be rewarded with a medal. The Wii Remotes speaker beeps on the beat like a metronome, helping you move in time, and there is a bar on the screen if you need a visual aid. You must flick the Remote in one of four directions (up, down, left, and right) on the beat, and the closer you are to it, the more points you will get. If you manage to do this on successive occasions you will earn multipliers, and a string of in-time swishes of the Remote can lead to a huge point tally. As an added incentive, your Boogie Meter fills up as you dance to the beat, and you can use this to carry out combos. Holding down the B button brings up a list of arrows, and if you move the Wii Remote in the correct order, your character will perform an outlandish dance move, and you will receive bonus points. The problem is that this is far too easy to do. Moving the Remote on the beat is not hard, and even the most musically challenged player will manage it. Its almost effortless to accrue multipliers, and even when you fail to hit the beat, it wont take long to build the multiplier up again. Due to the fact that you only get points for moving the Wii Remote on the beat, you get penalised for attempting fancy moves, like syncopated rhythms. This makes the game feel very restrictive.The Boogie Meter combo system is good in theory, and should be a more integral part of the game, as the ability to score points by just waving the remote in any direction takes any challenge from the game. In practice, however, it interrupts the flow of the game as you have to stop moving the Remote when you open up the combo menu to ensure that you make the correct movement for the first arrow. There are a number of different combos for each of the five characters, and you never know which one will appear, and therefore how each will start. Although the motion recognition is generally good, there are occasions when Boogie misinterprets your movement, and to get the best results, a flick of the wrist is required. This can be frustrating when attempting the combos, and its worth bearing in mind.In addition to the Wii Remote waggling, you can also score points using the Nunchuk. It seems that EA are determined to disrupt the flow of the dance, and by holding down the Z button, your character will begin to strike a pose. In order to get bonus points, you have to manoeuvre your character into a set pose by tilting the Nunchuk from side to side. The amount of points this yields is minimal in comparison to performing combos, and it adds nothing to the game. You can also move your character around the stage using the thumb stick, which is useful as bonus items can be picked up during each track. Its not hard to keep moving to the beat whilst walking about the stage, but the animation is jerky and again, its more effort than its worth. Its so easy to get a gold medal on even the hardest level without the bonus points from the tokens, that there is no point in trying to collect the tokens, except that it does break the monotony of the game.The singing section of Boogie doesnt feel like a main feature of the game, and is more of a bonus game. You can disable the singing portions, which is good if youre particularly self conscious or bad at singing. It actually doesnt really matter if you can sing or not, as the game just registers the change in pitch, and the annunciation of the words. You are guided by bars on the screen, which indicated whether the next note should be higher or lower than the last. As long as you say the correct word at the right time, and are vaguely in tune you will score points. You never feel confident in the games ability to judge your singing, and the point allocation can often seem to be very random. Its probably the hardest part of Boogie to score points due to this, but its still not difficult to complete each track.If youre playing Boogie by yourself, you can either attempt to complete the Story Mode (which wont take long), or try each track with the view of beating the best scores that the computer and other players can muster. In the Story Mode, you select one of the five characters, and embark on a bizarre quest that manages to include the premise of performing on a stage. You have to complete a number of different tunes by obtaining a certain amount of points by either dancing or singing. You will be rewarded with a medal depending on how well you performed, and the next tune is unlocked. Each of the characters stories are dull, and dont make a lot of sense. This isnt helped by the text-based progression of the story, and the strange noises that are in place of voices. Completing each characters story unlocks a new track to use in other parts of the game, and no effort is required to finish this section of the game. You can use the points obtained during the game to purchase bonus items to enhance your enjoyment of the game, including new costumes for the characters, stages for them to perform on, and songs for them to sing and dance too. There is quite a few items on offer, so it will take some time to obtain them all, but its doubtful thatll youll be able to play the game long enough to do so.The best feature of Boogie is the multiplayer mode, in which you can compete with another player in a dance-off, where the person who scores the most points on a tune takes the spoils. Its only slightly better than the single-player mode because there is some competition to make the experience more rewarding. There are tokens to collect during the game that will adversely affect your opponents ability to score points, or assist you. These include momentarily freezing your opponent, reversing their controls, or filling your Boogie Meter. Its so awkward to collect the tokens, however, that whilst youre trying to move toward it, your opponent can build up a healthy lead. The game only comes with one microphone, and so singing competitions with two players are not possible. The game boasts a co-operative mode, but as far as Gamestyle can see, this just refers to the fact that during the singing section, if the Wii Remote is moved, the character will dance. This doesnt get any extra points, and so is really rather pointless.Boogie deserves to be a much better game. The excellent presentation hides a restrictive and basic control system that destroys any fun that might have been had while playing it. The game is far too easy to have any long-lasting appeal. It is fun in short bursts, and the great track list will make this game a hit at parties, but thats not enough to make this game worth buying.