Groove Fever (Mobile)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.4 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Michael Mearls
• Reviewed on: 03/30/2004
• Updated on: 04/28/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: Groove Fever (Mobile) Review

In Sony/Blue Lava's Groove Fever, you must press buttons on your phone to the beat of a generic MIDI score. Two tracks of numbers move up the screen. When a number reaches the top, you must press the corresponding button at just the right time. Get enough numbers right, and you can proceed to the next stage. A sprite dances to the music while you mash buttons, and, in theory, the patterns of numbers correspond to the music's beat. In practice, there doesn't seem to be much of a connection between them; the music's beat has a passing connection, at best, to the patterns of numbers, and the dancing sprite just goes through his or her motions, regardless of your success in the game.

Unless you're being chased by a rampaging zombie army, you usually don't need to punch in a number into your cell in under three seconds, but to keep up with Groove Fever's frenetic parade of numbers, you must use both thumbs to mash two separate rows of buttons. Admittedly, developers have to work with what they're given, but there's a fine line between ramming a design into an interface and using that interface to the best of its capabilities. Unfortunately, Groove Fever goes for the first option. It simply lacks the interface for anything other than a frustrating experience. Despite several attempts to vary how I held the phone, the basic gameplay was more of a test of my patience than a test of my skill.

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