
	Platform Wii Genre Rhythm Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA Montreal ESRB E +10 (Everyone) Released August 7, 2007

- Using the Wiimote and Nunchuk while shaking your boogie thing is a blast - The perfect party game for those who think Dance, Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero are too difficult but want to play a fun rhythm game

- Can get boogied out quickly, as it is too easy to complete the Boogs stories - Don’t have to dance or sing particularly well, just have to keep a shaking beat or hold a note long enough

Review: PaRappa the Rapper 2 (PS2) Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Wii) Review: Mario Party 8 (Wii)
Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Boogie

Score: 8.0 / 10

The rhythm genre has become terrifically popular, especially those that get you physically involved, such as Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero. But those two franchises can be a bit daunting to those that don’t want to spend hours practicing their dance steps and axe strumming to attain success in those respective games. For those that want to just jump right in and shake their groove thing without spending any time on rehearsal, there’s Electronic Arts’ Boogie for the Wii.

Boogie dances to a new beat in the rhythm genre, and you won’t need a dance mat à la Dance, Dance Revolution to get down to boogie town. Where DDR is all about following the rhythm by matching corresponding dance steps on the dance mat, Boogie takes a freestyle dancing approach. You do need to stay with the rhythm, but the dancing moves are up to you. That’s because you’ll be using the Wiimote and Nunchuk to kick it freestyle. The Boogie beat throbs through the Wiimote, and you must basically move the Wiimote in synchronicity to that beat for each respective song.

Do it enough times on cue, and the Boogie Meter fills up so you can pull a combo move, when you’ll have to match the four or five directional arrows on-screen

Advertisement

- Rhythm Game Reviews
- Games Published by Electronic Arts

either up, down, left or right. If Boogie gamers get these basics of rhythmic movement down pat, the easy-to-attain high scores will soon follow. You can also Strike a Pose, where you’ll have to direct the Nunchuk to a target on-screen. Sounds easy, but the Nunchuk targeting reticule moves extremely slow, boosting the challenge

Advertisement

of being able to “hit” each target and strike that partying pose. Boogie’s too easy to breeze through, though, as you can effortlessly finish the entire game and unlock every unlockable item in no time at all. But if you’re willing to take Boogie for what it is, a great party game that gets everybody moving and grooving, then you’ll get a lot of great fun from Boogie.

Unfortunately, a large part of the potential problem gamers may find with Boogie is that one could literally just sit on the couch, shake the Wiimote, and have as much success as someone actually up and dancing better than anybody this side of Saturday Night Fever. There has to be an understanding here: Boogie is an entertaining party-style game that can be a lot of laughs and fun, but only if you’re willing to get off that couch and make a dancing fool of yourself.

This is true for the karaoke aspect of Boogie, too. If you get up and actually sing with the provided microphone, really sing the songs in your best karaoke voice in typical karaoke fashion, then laughs and fun will ensue. But you could again just actually progress through the songs by simply vocalizing “la, la, la, la, la” all the way through the entire song, as long as you hold notes for the required period of time.

So anybody that’s a party pooper should be kept away from Boogie, because if nobody’s dancing and singing, Boogie’s about as entertaining as a party without a DJ.

There’s a backstory for Boogie, relating to the five playable characters known as the Boogs. It really serves no purpose to have a “story” mode other than having a reason for gamers to play through Boogie with somewhat of a familiarity with the colorfully cartoonish avatars dancing and singing on-screen. It also allows you to collect enough tokens to buy outfits and stages while also unlocking Boogie’s soundtrack of songs. The Boogie soundtrack does feature a bunch of grooving and dancing tunes both old and new, including the Jackson 5, the Commodores, Dee-Lite, Fergi, Pink, the Village People and M.C. Hammer, among others.

Much like any good party, Boogie ends much too soon while the fun’s still going on. You don’t have to be exceptionally good at either dancing or singing to “beat” Boogie, which brings its challenge down to a minimal level, especially for solo dancers ands singers. But while the Wii and microphone’s on, as long as you’ve got a mini-dance floor, Boogie’s a great partying time if you’ve got a few dancing and singing friends to play Boogie with.

- Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(August 28, 2007)