When you go to a party on campus or a nightclub, and get on the dance floor, what exactly are you supposed to do with your hands?
I’ve been to clubs with hip hop/rap/reggae music and the girls are pumping their palms at the air while they gyrate their boodies against the guys – who in turn have their hands all over the girls backsides. Those who are dancing alone are typically holding a drink.
I’ve been to night clubs with rock, techno and electronica… the dancers usually are waving their hands in the air, clapping, waving lit cigarette lighters or…holding a drink.
NINTENDO seems to have decided that if your gonna’ do something with your hands, it might as well be holding a Wiimote. If your gonna’ be dancing and moving your feet to a rhythm, there is no reason your hand movements shouldn’t be measured to.
I’ll admit that I am a newcomer to the world of Dance Dance Revolution. Until actually buying a game, I used to just sit back and watch my sister (a professional dancer since age 12) step all over the mat – getting high scores in
Expert Mode on DDR Supernova. My first game was DDR Universe for XBOX360.
http://www.epinions.com/content_400034598532
After a great experience with it, recently purchased the sequel to DDR: Universe 2 and am still in process of unlocking bonus features.
http://www.epinions.com/content_410471140996
I was interested in the Wii’s DDR: Ultimate Party simply because I wanted to see how this version would separate itself from the rest of the pack using the Wii’s signature motion controllers. I wanted to see how Wii would separate itself from the other fitness minded games being released – such as Wii Fit (Japanese version) that I played in an import shop.
It turns out…
not very well.
GRAPHICS, SOUND and CONTROLS
The graphics of DDR:UP are one of the game’s high points. DDR was never really a series that pushed the envelopes of game console graphics. The colors are bright, vibrant and pretty – much of the animation is typical Japanese anime and the characters are all cell shaded caricatures. Unlike the previous games, DDR:UP features dance models and characters that resemble Bratz dolls.
Regardless how many boys play DDR, it seems that this game targets females. The pinks, purples, brightly hued screen contrasts and the constant bombardment of lipstick, hairstyles and upper-thigh and colored shoes is proof of that.
The SOUND in any DDR game comes down specifically to the tracklist. DDR:UP like the other DDR’s does not disappoint in terms of content and sound variation but where it does disappoint is in the number of tracks and the lack of upgradeability. The XBOX 360 version of DDR allows you to download song packs and gain bonus tracks through play. Once you finish unlocking unlockables, you will have well over 90 tracks. The Wii version doesn’t have nearly as many and it isn’t fun to repeat the “better” songs over and over even if it is Will Smith’s
Summertime, of Chris Brown’s
“Yo”.
_ "1,2 Step" by LADY-S (made famous by Ciara)
_ "99 Red Balloons" by M-CREW project (made famous by Nena)
_ "Always (Microbots Trance Dance Mix)" by MAN'S COOL (made famous by Erasure)
_ "Blue Monday" by wg (made famous by New Order)
_ "Buried A Lie" by COOLS K (made famous by Senses Fail)
_ "Call On Me" by 2000's STARS (made famous by Nelly and Janet Jackson)
_ "Caught Up" by Stopped Cold (made famous by Usher)
_ "Clocks" by T.R.MASTER MC (made famous by Coldplay)
_ "Disco Inferno" by OK.OK.OK (made famous by The Trammps)
_ "Far Away" by Traveler (made famous by Nickelback)
_ "Finally" by CLUB 90's (made famous by CeCe Peniston)
_ "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by Rave Attackers (made famous by C+C Music Factory)
_ "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" by neo GRUV (made famous by Crystal Waters)
_ "Hot Stuff" by DISCO QUEEN (made famous by Donna Summer)
_ "I Don't Feel Like Dancin' by Life Aloud (made famous by Scissor Sisters)
_ "Karma Chameleon" by happy happy cores (made famous by Culture Club)
_ "Lips of an Angel" by Jet Rockers (made famous by Hinder)
_ "Little L" by Single Funk (made famous by Jamiroquai)
_ "Nothing But You" by TRANCE JACK (made famous by Paul Van Dyk)
_ "Rhythm is a Dancer" by SPOTS (made famous by Snap!)
_ "Summertime" by Eazin' (made famous by Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff)
_ "The Sign" by Honey Sweet (made famous by Ace of Base)
_ "Too Little Too Late" by Okokoro (made famous by JoJo)
_ "Unappreciated" by Wrapped Up (made famous by Cherish)
_ "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" by Smooth-1 (made famous by Chris Brown)
_ "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by M.A.N (made famous by Dead or Alive)
[song list taken from Wikipedia]
Unlockable Songs are
_ "Lesson by DJ" - U.T.D & Friends
_ "Touchin'" - The Lonely Hearts
_ "Let it Out" - True Dreamer
_ "Here I Go Again" - NM feat. Malaya
_ "Will" - NAOKI
_ "Beautiful Inside (Cube::Hard Mix)" - NM feat. Alison Wade
_ "Heavens and the Earth" - The Lonely Hearts
_ "B4U (The Acolyte Mix)" - J-RAVERS
_ "Such a Feeling" - U1
_ "Confession" - trance star
_ "The Reason" - Black Rose Garden
_ "Hold Tight" - 800 slopes
_ "Mess with my Emotions" - Latenighter
_ "Little Steps" - Freeman
_ "The Beat" - Sparky
_ "BRE_KDOWN! (World Version)" - ELE ROCKS
_ "CANDY (UFO Mix)" - The Sweetest
_ "We Will Live Together" - Happy CoreMAN
_ "1998 (Sparky 2006)" - J-RAVERS
_ "I'm Flying Away" - Stepper
_ "LOVE SHINE (Body Grooverz 2006 Mix)" - W.W.S
_ "Moving On" - J.J. Pops
CONTROLS for DDR Ultimate Party, are the game’s low point. I had high expectations for the Wii after having played Mario Galaxy using the nunchuku and the Wiimote.
Diamonds are the new symbols which accompany the trademark arrows. While you must step on arrow prompts corresponding to timing brackets, you now must move your left hand (nunchuku) to hit the left diamonds and your Wii mote to hit the right diamonds. Unfortunately, it becomes obvious early on that the hand motion scoring is extremely limited simply because the Wii’s controllers only have so many motion accelerometers. Its not as if you have a high hand – low hand motion check, you get credit simply for moving the hand.
Boring
The
Gameplay of DDR ultimate Party is where it takes the greatest hit. This is due to the technological weakness of the hardware.
#1 The WII lacks a hard disk drive which automatically means you won’t be downloading song upgrades. You are limited to saving games on those crumby SD cards.
#2 Because game content stays primarily on the game disk, DDR:UP has been shortened to just 3 main game modes (Groove Circuit, Workout and Freestyle) rather than the usual 5 modes of the 360 and PS3: (Challenge, Game, Online, Party, Workout, Relay,etc)
DDR: UP’s highlight is its party modes which allow people to play together.
Freestyle Mode includes
Synch Mode in which allows 4 players to play simultaneously – sharing the same arrows – forced to dance simultaneously as a group for a score. The person who is the worst dancer will be the one scored so everyone must stick closely together. Of course, your gonna’ need 4 pads, a huge television and a lot of space in the room. There is also
Friendship mode which is the exact opposite of Synch Mode – the player who dances best will be the one scored.
Battle Mode allows two players to battle each other to see who gets more points stepping perfectly.
Multi Mode allows up to 4 players to use the same screen simultaneously, dancing to the same music, while performing to their own difficulty. If my sister danced in expert while I was in basic I think I’d die of humiliation.
The major game mode is
GROOVE CIRCUIT which is a combination of challenges taken from previous DDR games, followed by an opponent battle. A typical challenge might be
“get an B rating in 2 songs”. You are allowed to pick any 2 songs from the entire list. This gives you a sense of freedom, but that freedom makes me wish the game was more strict and forced you to perform certain challenges in a specific order.
Quest Mode in DDR:Universe was a perfect example of how Groove Circuit should have been. The only problem there was that the challenges were poorly thought out for the 360’s environment.
The artificial intelligence of the Boss Battles is a disappointment because it reminded me of those old race car games where the computer’s car always finishes laps with the same time. The bosses always dance the exact same way and always hit or miss the exact same number of steps. The most challenge you’ll get is from flesh&blood humans.
The final mode,
Workout Mode is where this game will compete with Wii Fit.
http://www.epinions.com/content_432766291588
You can enter some details about yourself such as your weight (kilograms/pounds) and then enter the number of calories you’d like to burn. The songs stop once you reached your limit, but because of the short track list, you’ll end up hoping that time comes quickly. The Workout modes in DDR aren’t as fleshed out as the other modes. While I enjoy the calorie meter, I would like to see game unlockables count on them. We should get an unlockable for every 3500 calories we burn for example – 3500 calories is about 1 pound. There should also be timeouts that tell you to
”go get a drink of water” .
Wii Fit’s balance board limits the number of exercises you may do because scoring is limited to the balance board which currently only supports a max of 300 pounds. This was the Japanese version of the board and I assume the American version should support up to 350 (really should be 400 pounds cause Americans are
fat ! We need this game badly!) DDR Dance mat’s have no weight limit at all so even if you weighed 500 pounds you won’t be left out.
What DDR: Ultimate Party needs is more songs. Unlike the PS3 and 360 which have HDD’s, Wii can’t be expected to be a game environment where you should be able to upload your own songs and create your own steps so it was most important that DDR:UP be a great game to just pick up and play. The Freestyle modes offer great replay value so long as you have friends. Unfortunately you can’t use DDR with Nintendo Wii-Fii connection so you’ll be stuck using it for a while at home alone or with friends. And even if you could hop right online, I feel that Wii owners are going to be flocking the direction of WiiFit because of its “fresh” appeal so you wouldn’t likely find any serious players online anyway. I have full XBOX-Live service and when I went online with DDR:U2 last night, the leaderboards had 2 people on it.
In the entire world.
And stupidly, this version of DDR doesn't offer support for the Wii's Mii character creator.
Why didn't Wii treat Mii characters as player profiles like Xbox live does?
Its strange that DDR:UP doesn't support Mii because DDR Universe 2 has an add-on feature which allows you to customize characters with songs, clothes and other items.
OVERALL DDR Ultimate Party is actually a decent party game if you happen to have enough hardware to play with friends. It even works with the older DDR mat from the Gamecube. Its an ambitious title to get on shelves for this Christmas – when Wii consoles are in perpetual shortage – but, lack of online modes and lack of diverse singleplayer modes hurt it immensely.
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