Dance Factory

"A good game that made some bad choices."

I'm an avid gamer and have been using dance games to get some exercise in while I enjoy the hobby. When I heard about a game I could play using my own music I had to try it.

Game play: 8

There isn't anything that's ground breaking about the game play in Dance Factory, If you've played DDR this is basically the same idea. Yes, as other reviews said the up and down arrows are reversed compared to how they're positioned in DDR, but this game isn't DDR. Yes, it takes a little adjusting to get used to but within three songs I had more or less adjusted. There's a few different modes, but they more or less all play the same. For what the game sets out to do, it does it well. Endurance mode was really fun, with a fair and progressive difficulty increase as time goes on.

Music: n/a

Since you pick the music, Hopefully you have good enough tastes to enjoy what you're listening to. Since I tried the game using The Cure Greatest Hits (an album I really enjoy) I thought the music was great. When the game initially scans the music and generates the steps it does take a while but nothing too crazy. It managed to convert all 18 tracks in about 20 minutes and as long as you save the data to your memory card, the next time you play using the same cd it takes about 5 seconds to load the data.

The dance steps for some songs were better then others. Songs with strange tempos and odd beats like "A Forest" felt a bit disjointed stepwise, but more pop sounding songs with steadier beat like "Close To Me" felt natural and played great.

Visuals: 5

Honestly this isn't the kind of game I really play to be blown away by visuals. The backgrounds are ok, but nothing spectacular. Also you can pick to have the game generate a character to dance on screen, but I found they were a bit too cute and generic. If neither are appealing there is also an option to shut off the background. Other then that it shows just the basics to be able to play the game.

Overall: 5

This is a pretty good game and if you don't mind making some slight adjustments to how you play dance games it may be better then some versions of DDR. So we have a good game, with quick load times, excellent music, that plays well....why did it get only a 5? Because of a really bad choice by someone on the design team.

I buy these kind of games to get exercise and relax. If you play the game in fitness mode, just like in every other dance game messages pop up on screen. In this mode, these are hands down the most demeaning messages I have ever seen in a dance game. If you hit the arrows correctly the message "super fit" comes on screen, however if you miss the message "pork out" is displayed. I'm a teacher and if one of my students made a comment like that they would find themselves writing an apology letter in detention. Anyone with any amount of empathy would realize that lack of coordination does not relate to health, and messages like that are only going to lead to increased self loathing and less motivation to get fit. If I really wanted to be insulted, I would rather just stay at work. In the end all the message of "pork out" did was give me something negative to consider next time I'm thinking of buying a product from codemasters.

Summary:
Buy it for endurance mode, Burn it for "fitness" mode.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/06