Boogie (Wii)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.5 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Aaron Thomas
• Reviewed on: 08/10/2007
• Released on: 08/07/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Boogie (Wii) Review

The Wii has already seen its share of unique games, and this trend is certain to continue as developers start creating more games specifically designed to take advantage of the system's motion controls. One such game is Boogie, EA's first game built from the ground up for the Wii. The game's premise, which has you sing, dance, and even create your own music videos is an interesting one. However, an interesting premise does not necessarily make for a great game. Such is the case with Boogie. Using the Wii Remote to "dance" isn't that interesting, the karaoke doesn't work very well, and the tracklist isn't likely to appeal to the younger audience the game is geared toward.

There are five playable characters in Boogie, each with five playable chapters and a nonsensical storyline. While the characters may look interesting, their stories certainly aren't, thanks in no small part to the cutscenes, which aren't animated and have no voice acting. Some chapters will have you sing, but most of them are dance only. If for whatever reason you don't want to sing, you can play without a microphone and the karaoke chapters will have you dancing instead. Other than earning credits to unlock a few songs and some new clothing accessories, there's no point in playing the story mode. Once you've unlocked the songs, you can choose to either sing or dance to them from the main menu. With the game's music video feature, you can record a singing or dancing performance, as well as spice it up with camera cuts and a limited number of effects. The editing tools are simple and easy to use, but you can still get some nice results with minimal effort.

Boogie starts off with a tutorial that gives you the basics on getting down. You move your character around the level with the Nunchuk's analog stick or the remote's D pad. All you have to do to dance is move the Wii Remote left, right, up, or down in time to the music. What happens onscreen loosely correlates to the movement of the remote, so if you move it down, your character will usually do a move that involves crouching or spinning on the floor. If you shake the remote to the right, your character will move to the right of the screen. You'll want to avoid repeating the same moves too many times in a row because if you do, your score will go down. But this isn't much of a problem because you can string together combos with ease by performing consecutive moves on the beat. The speaker on the Wii Remote acts as a metronome, and there's also a visual indicator on the screen to help you stay in time to the music. The more moves you time properly in a row, the higher your score. As your score increases, so does your boost meter. Once you've obtained a bit of boost, you can hold down the B button to trigger a series of arrows at the bottom of the screen. If you follow the pattern correctly, your character will perform a special dance move that will net you big points. You can play the game with only the Wii Remote if you like, but if you're using the Nunchuk, the boost meter will also let you perform poses. All you've got to do to strike a pose is hold down the C button and move the Nunchuk to line up the onscreen cursor with the target.

That long explanation can be boiled down to this: Wave the remote around and you'll win. You'll have much more fun if you get out of your chair and really dance while you move the controller, but it's not necessary in the least. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, the game is absurdly easy and requires minimal skill or rhythm. There's a party mode where you can have a dance-off with a friend, but the addition of freezing and reversing icons doesn't do much to make it any better than the single-player game.

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Boogie (Wii): $28.99 - $29.99

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	$28.99	No
	$29.99	Yes

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• 4.5 stars

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  "Very fun and exciting game!!"

  by melissa7119 on September 21, 2007

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  "Boogie woogie woogie!!!"

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