Review: Boogie

I really wanted this game to be good, but I was unfortunately short changed on this one.

Boogie is a dancing and singing game where you get to show off your talents and gain points for it. Using the wiimote and nunchuck, players move their hands around in time with the beat of the music to move their chosen character on screen. Players can also choose to sing along with the song using the included microphone.

Players can choose the background, music and characters for their music performance, and can even record and edit your performance. As you dance or sing, the game judges your performance and gives you points for a excellent moves and singing. You can even strike a pose with the nunchuck to gain more points or use boogie power to follow a set of moves for more points too.

The points earn you coins and the coins can be used to buy new songs, backgrounds and costume pieces for your characters.

The basic idea of the game is great, but poorly done. The beat is hard to follow and most songs you have to follow the clicking noise coming from the wiimote rather than the song beat to get points. Your moves never seem to change and even if you try to move differently like up and down, rather than side to side, the game responds badly and you lose.

The singing portion of the game is fun with lots of different songs to try like Don't Cha and Walking on Sunshine. Best of all, you can suck at singing and still do well on hard. Just move your voice up and down with the song at the appropriate time and you win. No talent required. I sing like a drunk cat and I still did well. Tone deaf people need not apply though.

The video editor feature allows you to edit your performances and add cuts, special effects and such, but it wasn't that much fun unless your ten and want to show your parents how cool you are singing to Brittany Spears songs.

The storyline mode allows you to follow the rise of the characters to super stardom as they sing and dance to the top. You can skip the singing part if you wish. You can choose from about five different characters - four guys and a girl. Some are weird looking creatures but there are two normal people to play as too. The dialog in the storyline was gibberish and annoying gibberish at that.



[Bonus points for the game: The above trailer plays on the Wii promo TV at work and I dance and sing along with it everytime I hear it. I do it just during the dead times though, so no one hears me sing.]

The graphics are cartoonish and I like them. I especially like the goofy looking characters you dance with. The one girl character was a like weird and vacant looking in her eyes. Kind of like a teenage girl at the mall after a long day of not thinking.

I really wanted to dance like an idiot with this game in my living room, while my boyfriend was at work and unable to hear my bad singing, but this game really wasn't made to play that way. I could have turned on my stereo and dancing around without the game and had more fun.

I really had high hopes for this game concept but EA needs to go back to the drawing board and rework this game for the sequel. I highly suggest everyone skip this title and try picking up Sing Star for the PS2 instead for karaoke sessions and just dancing around in their underwear for their lovers to gain real points.

Rating: 3 out of 10