Dancing with the Stars Review

Platform: Wii
Genre: Rhythm
ESRB: E10+
Number of Players: 1-2
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: 10-31-2007
OfficialWebsite
Writer: Trina

Rating : 8.5
Buy

Dancing in my living room, Oh what a feeling!
I love watching Dancing with the Stars on ABC. I love watching the celebrities put in the effort and work so hard every week in order to achieve greatness. As a former dancer myself, I know how much hard work goes into learning a routine and how sore your body gets from training.
Activision recently released the Dancing with the Stars video game for the Nintendo Wii, making use of the Wii motion control, to get you to dance.

Graphics:
Any game on the Wii is going to be limited in its graphics ability. The dancers look okay. You can’t see a high level of definition in facial expressions until after the dance, when you are awaiting your scores. The dresses on the female dancers all move incredibly smoothly – no choppiness here! What surprised me is how great the judges looked and moved. Activision was able to really nail down Carrie Ann, Bruno and Len’s facial expressions and movements. I found myself still watching their comments even if they were scolding me.

Controls:
Before I get to the actual controls, my biggest problem with this game is that there is no tutorial system. You pretty much just have to jump right in. Before dances, there are screens that show you how to do individual moves, but a tutorial mode would allow players to be more successful right from the start. It took me about four songs before I understood how to do some of the standard moves. Moves like the hand jive, mashed potato, locomotion and the twist are all fun to do, but take some figuring out.
The game tells you where to move either the Wii Remote or the Nunchuk. You can’t tell it which hand you favor, so get used to holding the Nunchuk in the left hand and Wii Remote in the right. The arrows will indicate if you move your remote to the right, left, up or down. Sometimes you will have to hold the motion, indicated by a longer color bar.
The controls are very responsive and once you get them down, the moves are so much fun. Get ready to burn some calories! After a few songs, I was sweating.

Sounds:
The songs are very similar to the songs they use on Dancing with the Stars. Some songs were tough to find the right beat to, but I think that’s because I’m not used to trying to do the tango or a rumba. There is a great variety of songs for you to dance to.

Flow:
The game flows really nicely. You play a certain number of songs with your dance partner and after you have mastered those, you get a trophy and move on to the next couple. All the couples are from different seasons of Dancing with the Stars. It is easy to loose track of time when playing especially if you are competitive like me.

Fun Factor:
Other than looking a bit silly, this game is so much fun. You can play in single player, quickplay, multiplayer or practice mode. You’ll find yourself grooving to the music and moving all around. Carrie Ann still seems to be a bit harsh on the women like she is on the show, but you have the option of skipping the comments and just getting your scores.

Female Aspect:
There are plenty of females in this game. You can choose to play either the male or female dance partner, and Carrie Ann is there to tell you how you did.

Replay Value:
The game has a high replay value because of the different game modes. For a couple of weeks, I added it to my workout every day. Yes, you do work up a sweat. It would be interesting to play it in multiplayer mode, but you definitely want to give each other space. It/s definitely a fun game that anyone can pick up and try. Which is what the Wii is all about, right?

Noting on Rating: While there is a practice mode, if there was a tutorial mode, I would have given it a 9.