Dance Factory
Dance Dance Devolution
Tags: Dance Factory Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Mark "MadMup" Zwolanek on Oct 19th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dance Factory (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Music/Rhythm | No | ||
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Dancing games are pretty much a one-trick pony: songs play, arrows scroll up, and players dance in time to the music. Most gamers, by this point, are pretty much “been there, done that” with the whole deal. At this point, each new dancing game pretty much offers new songs… and that’s about it. Once the new songs are mastered, there’s not much to do but wait for the next new release. This is where Dance Factory attempts to make a difference.
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Dance Factory’s biggest difference from other dancing games is that it allows players to use their own CDs to make as many dances as they’d like (which is good, since the game only comes with 5 licensed games on the disc). Once the main interface is loaded into memory, the players are prompted to insert a music CD and choose which tracks to use for dances. Dance Factory takes a few minutes to create a dance based on the song, and the dances can be saved to memory card. In this way, the game overcomes the main failing of every other dance game.
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…however. It isn’t immediately evident what sort of method Dance Factory uses to create dances, but what is evident is that the system needs work. The dance patterns created by the game don’t seem to match any rhythmic patterns of the songs. Random dance patterns to a person’s favorite tunes holds a certain amount of appeal, but it defeats the whole idea of dancing, which is normally done to some sort of rhythm. Luckily, the game allows players to make their own dances for their own music manually. The song plays and the player dances, setting the dance by however the player dances during the song. These dances can be saved to memory card as well. It, too, isn’t a perfect system, but at least the option is there.
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While it isn’t required, the EyeToy can also be used with Dance Factory. Hand icons move up the screen along with the arrows, and players wave their hands over the correct areas onscreen at the correct time. This is a nice addition to the game, though *ahem* older gamers might have a difficult time keeping track of all the movements needed. The dancing and hand-waving can get a bit confusing. It would have been nice to have a hands-only option to mix things up a bit, but it isn’t here.
There’s an exercise mode that uses dance specifically to help players burn calories. Players can track their progress and save it to the memory card. And here’s one more reason gamers can claim video games are good for them. Moms of gamers take notice!
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Dance Factory has a character creation mode that takes a Monster Rancher-like approach to the process. Any music CD placed in the drive generates a unique creature that can be used as a dancing onscreen avatar. It’s basically another background that can be displayed during dances. Dancing well earns points which can then be spent to unlock new backgrounds and new options for dressing up creatures.
Dance Factory adds several features to try to spice up the genre. It seems that the overall effect is a watered-down dancing game with extras that don’t really add much. The most intriguing idea – using any music CD for dances – doesn’t really work that well, and the rest of the extras don’t make up for the deficiency.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Dancing to any music CD is a great idea + The inclusion of the EyeToy is a welcome addition |
6.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- The created dances don't seem to fit any real rhythms - Only 5 licensed songs included - The extras don't add much |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Dance Factory has some great ideas that could lead to some really great gameplay... eventually. | |
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Tags: Dance Factory
Posted by Mark "MadMup" Zwolanek on Oct 19th, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
