Post by thegamerfan on Jul 16, 2005 18:18:50 GMT -5
Have you been dying to see if bright flashing lights cause you to go into epileptic seizures? Or have you merely wanted to look as if you did? RedOctane’s home version of the Dance Dance Revolution rip-off, In the Groove, will adequately serve both purposes. Although clearly lower budget than Konami’s juggernaut of fat burning dance craziness, this near spastic abuse of both your body and your dance pad is a frenetic journey into dance club techno-filled gaming.
Without the considerable marketing and financial power that backs Konami, In the Groove is instantly at a disadvantage. The production values and presentation aren’t as polished, and the lack of licensed songs means that you have over 70 tunes of middling to decent, yet generic techno rave beats. What this dancing game does do right, however, is give expert gamers something to do in between DDR iterations.
Dancing Variety
In the Groove loves to load you up with all manner of play options. Aside from having five difficulty levels, you can alter the speed and variation of almost everything. Scrolling speed, arrow directions, even pitfalls like mines that hurt your score, and an array of options for the background imagery are all here. The real kick, however, is the inclusion of modifiers. Here, arrows spin and change direction, the aforementioned mines appear on the screen to confuse you, and arrows can shrink, in addition to other zany options. Some of the moves even require the use of your hands as well as both feet. Yes, we’re entering hardcore dance territory now, and while there is a lot of leeway in the span of difficulty levels, it’s hard to imagine anyone but the most diehard dancers really getting into the option intricacies of ITG.
The game is broken up into six modes. Dance mode is the standard arcade game. Pick one or two players, your song, difficulty level, and menu settings, and then get ready to jam like a chimp on speed. The battle mode is a two-player (or one player vs. the computer) game, where doing well will cause modifiers to appear on your opponent’s board, thus screwing them up. The fitness mode counts up burned calories, and can be used by one or two players simultaneously, for the fitness couples out there. Marathon mode plays up to five songs non-stop for an even more vigorous workout session. Finally, there's a tutorial mode for anyone who doesn’t know how to play.
Put Foot to Pad
Much like DDR, you can use the controller, but why would you want to? In the Groove is being released by a company known for its dance pads, and there’s simply no joy playing without one. Thankfully, any dance pad will do. The game does play just like other dance games, except everything has been taken up a notch. The barrage of arrows to follow during just the lower or normal difficulty levels is intense, and the addition of modifiers, and having to use your hands and feet on the pad at once really makes Groove an expert-level dance factory.
This hardcore approach is the big sell here, though. Visually, the game is mediocre (not that you need stunning visuals with a game like this). The backgrounds all tend to look like weird, flashing screensavers, and the only other point of interest is the scrolling shiny arrows. Admittedly, players will only be watching the arrows, and bystanders will likely be too busy making fun of your seizure-like attempts to keep up with the music.
The generally unknown song selection, though large, is not much of a selling point. All the music here is beat-per-second-focused techno, and it seems likely that after years of stepping to rave music, some players would like something less electronic in their dancing diet. Worse though, most of these songs aren’t even remakes of popular techno tunes; instead, we have generic dance beats and vocals.
Dance, Mailman, Dance!
Thankfully, 70 songs still provide plenty of life, but In the Groove is definitely a niche market game. If DDR has become too stale and predictable, this is the dancing game for you. The huge array of options, jacked-up challenge level, and variations on otherwise familiar, tried-and-true gameplay help make this a worthy addition to the music game genre. Novice dancers, however, are still better served sticking with Konami’s offerings.
landing it a 3 out of 5
Without the considerable marketing and financial power that backs Konami, In the Groove is instantly at a disadvantage. The production values and presentation aren’t as polished, and the lack of licensed songs means that you have over 70 tunes of middling to decent, yet generic techno rave beats. What this dancing game does do right, however, is give expert gamers something to do in between DDR iterations.
Dancing Variety
In the Groove loves to load you up with all manner of play options. Aside from having five difficulty levels, you can alter the speed and variation of almost everything. Scrolling speed, arrow directions, even pitfalls like mines that hurt your score, and an array of options for the background imagery are all here. The real kick, however, is the inclusion of modifiers. Here, arrows spin and change direction, the aforementioned mines appear on the screen to confuse you, and arrows can shrink, in addition to other zany options. Some of the moves even require the use of your hands as well as both feet. Yes, we’re entering hardcore dance territory now, and while there is a lot of leeway in the span of difficulty levels, it’s hard to imagine anyone but the most diehard dancers really getting into the option intricacies of ITG.
The game is broken up into six modes. Dance mode is the standard arcade game. Pick one or two players, your song, difficulty level, and menu settings, and then get ready to jam like a chimp on speed. The battle mode is a two-player (or one player vs. the computer) game, where doing well will cause modifiers to appear on your opponent’s board, thus screwing them up. The fitness mode counts up burned calories, and can be used by one or two players simultaneously, for the fitness couples out there. Marathon mode plays up to five songs non-stop for an even more vigorous workout session. Finally, there's a tutorial mode for anyone who doesn’t know how to play.
Put Foot to Pad
Much like DDR, you can use the controller, but why would you want to? In the Groove is being released by a company known for its dance pads, and there’s simply no joy playing without one. Thankfully, any dance pad will do. The game does play just like other dance games, except everything has been taken up a notch. The barrage of arrows to follow during just the lower or normal difficulty levels is intense, and the addition of modifiers, and having to use your hands and feet on the pad at once really makes Groove an expert-level dance factory.
This hardcore approach is the big sell here, though. Visually, the game is mediocre (not that you need stunning visuals with a game like this). The backgrounds all tend to look like weird, flashing screensavers, and the only other point of interest is the scrolling shiny arrows. Admittedly, players will only be watching the arrows, and bystanders will likely be too busy making fun of your seizure-like attempts to keep up with the music.
The generally unknown song selection, though large, is not much of a selling point. All the music here is beat-per-second-focused techno, and it seems likely that after years of stepping to rave music, some players would like something less electronic in their dancing diet. Worse though, most of these songs aren’t even remakes of popular techno tunes; instead, we have generic dance beats and vocals.
Dance, Mailman, Dance!
Thankfully, 70 songs still provide plenty of life, but In the Groove is definitely a niche market game. If DDR has become too stale and predictable, this is the dancing game for you. The huge array of options, jacked-up challenge level, and variations on otherwise familiar, tried-and-true gameplay help make this a worthy addition to the music game genre. Novice dancers, however, are still better served sticking with Konami’s offerings.
landing it a 3 out of 5