Review Reimu Reviews: Games for Girls #1 - Dancing With the Stars: We Dance&a

[reimu]

» Welcome to the very first review of "Reimu Reviews: Games for Girls" dedicated to weeding out the overwhelming amount of shovelware produced for girls and note the games that are worthy of attention. I will try to review more recent games but if you have any requests for a review, let me know!
» View the spoilers for screenshots and game play videos.

Gameplay

Pros
- 30 Songs
- Varied dances
- Options
- 3 Difficulty Levels
- Pick up and play
- Follows the show

Cons
- Timing can be a bit off
- Very short "season mode"

I am actually quite impressed with the game play, much better than I expected. The gameplay is typical of rhythm game and closely resembles that of Elite Beat Agents. Stars come from the dancers feet as they dance around the stage and "fall" onto the bottom screen where the stars must be tapped, flicked or dragged around the screen following the beat. You can play this game in two modes with essentially the same game play. There is a "practice mode" and a "season mode". In practice mode you can pick up and play any song (out of 30) that you have unlocked in season mode. In season mode you choose a team of celebrity dancer and professional dancer to play through all the different songs and types of dances in the game. You can play any difficulty level to unlock all of the songs and you can quite quickly breeze through all 30. The game also offers a useful and simple tutorial although the game isn't really that hard to figure out without any instruction. The stars can be hard to read if they come up fast and the numbers can be a little distracting but I found I got used to this pretty quick and didn't end up taking away much from the game.

Spoiler

Graphics

Pros
- Dances are varied and interesting
- You can watch your replay
- Change Dancer Outfit

Cons
- Collision in dances (namely when the female has a big dress)
- Realistic faces are poorly rendered
- Judges look very strange

If you can get over the strange looking faces and shoulders of the characters up close the dancing from afar during the game is really quite interesting. The steps are realistic and fun to watch. The ability to view your replay is fun, especially if you are into ballroom dancing. Maybe you could even learn a thing or two? Unfortunately the character design is quite poor. The DS is just not powerful enough to render any kind of realistic face and the judges and "real life" characters just end up looking very, very silly.

Spoiler

Very, very strange looking characters

Sound

The game features 30 songs of all types but are not full length and all are covers. These songs are generally more pop or contemporary but this can be a nice change of pace from all of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games. The game gives you the option to turn off sound effects which is really nice if you are sick of the "popping" sound every time you hit a star. Unfortunately, if you turn off the sound effects the game turns off all the sound effects, including the celebrity judges voices (not that I'm complaining much about that). Song list inside spoiler tag.

Spoiler

Song List
Push It
Gimme The Light
She's On My Side
Take Me to the Moon
Mony Mony
Joker And The Thief
Lady Marmelade
Little Brown Jug
Say It Again
She Bangs
Walking On The Sun
Be Gone
Black Horse & The Cherry Tree
Bootylicious
Easy Street
Free Your Mind
Personal Jesus
The Way
What Can I Do
Cha Cha Mambo
Colombia Cumbia
Hold On I'm Coming
Let It Go
Right Now
Swan Lake
Swing Down Hound
Waltz Of The Flowers
FNF4
Don't Stop Moving
The Rhythm In Me

Conclusion/Lasting Appeal

Fun. Although the game itself is quite short it is something I keep coming back to when I can't sleep or am bored on the bus. The game play is entertaining and classic and the songs are a nice change from the bouncy techno DDR or the hard rock Guitar Hero. I would especially recommend to older women or people who are interested in ballroom dance and classic music. I even found myself learning a step or two. If you can get over the silly characters and occasional graphic glitch Dancing With the Stars: We Dance is an entertaining "pick up and play" rhythm game for all ages.


Reimu Says

7/10

Good

 

[Maikel Steneker]

Haha, nice, but I'm not a girl

I guess I'll use this to find games for my sister then.

 

[Hadrian]

I'm glad you went ahead and did this, this thread is:

Replace any H with a L...for now.

Very nice written, pretty much gives me a decent enough impression of the game.

 

[Osaka]

I actually had an idea to do this a while ago

maybe we can team up or something? XD