Its cool

Reviewed by kngzmexican on October 03, 2007  |  report this review

IGNScore: 4.5
Gamefly 5.7
Boogie from Electronic Arts is the perfect example of a game concept that reads well on paper but whose ideas and ambitions simply don't translate to the finished product. The end result is a game filled with atmospheric backdrops and stylized characters, brought together with a slick interface and an energetic, if textbook selection of pop songs, but also one without a coherent gameplay mechanic. Half the time, as you attempt to mimic dances in Boogie, you will find the Wii remote implementation is shoddy and unsatisfying; you're not sure if the basic gestures you're making are really matching up to the on-screen action or if you could swing the Wii remote around frantically and still earn points. There's also a karaoke component - the game ships with a USB-powered microphone - so that you can take the lead in your favorite songs, but like its rhythm-based counterpart, it seems overly forgiving and lacking.

It's all very unfortunate because Boogie was a game we were really pulling for ever since EA unveiled the project. Not only did it seem well-suited for Nintendo's aggressive stab at the casual market, but it was a third party undertaking that went the extra mile to deliver users a clean, vibrant visual package that took advantage of Wii's extra horsepower. All the graphical bells and whistles remain in the finished game, of course. Specifically, we're referring to the wide variety of dancing stages, all surreal and out of this world (some, like the space station, literally), the fluidly animated (and untraditional) characters, the lighting and particle effects, and the fact that Boogie runs in both 16:9 widescreen and progressive-scan. The title even boasts a great menu interface that is typical of most EA games, but it also comes complete with a unique and gameplay-extending video editor, a feature that enables you to edit effects and text layers, change camera angles and more into your dance sequences in post. Unfortunately, Boogie doesn't take advantage of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, so it is impossible to send these videos to friends. There's even a story mode, although the cut-scenes for it are uncharacteristically poor.

Then there's the song list, which tops 35 tracks from yesterday and today's most popular hits. ABC from The Jackson Five, Don't Cha from the Pussycat Dolls, Girls Just Want to Have Fun from Cyndi Lauper, I'm a Slave 4 U by Britney Spears, and Kung Fu Fighting (featured in just about every ad for Boogie) by Carl Douglas are just a few examples of the songs in place. The selection by no means rivals some of the bigger DDR-style efforts, but it's no slouch, either.

All the glitz and glamour, though, is meaningless if the main gameplay mechanic isn't fun, and unfortunately there's no getting around Boogie's biggest shortcoming, which is that it just doesn't play very well. Perhaps it's because developer EA Montreal has strayed so dramatically from the tried-and-true videogame rhythm

Not Very Fun

Reviewed by Mike0005 on January 17, 2008  |  report this review

Boogie for the Wii is a game where you have to shake the Wii remote to dance around. While thats fine and sounds like a clever and fun game, it would probably be better if the rhythm you had to follow was actually the song's which was playing. There is a metronome beat that comes from the speaker on the Wii remote, appearently you have to follow that but its completely out of sync with the beat of the song. But really, you don't need to worry. Just flail your arms around, and you'll do fine.

The singing in this game is easy to do, mostly because it will accept anything, as long as it is somewhat close to the thing you are trying to sing. At least in pitch.

The game is easy, and while some people may thing Easy = Fun, well. This game just isn't fun to play. Don't waste your money and go ahead and get soemthing good. Like Warioware or Super Mario Galaxy, whatever you do.