Bust A Groove 2

"Hehehe, I Still Love the Beat! But What's That Song?"

Story: 7/10
Actually there was characters' background story, which can be found after finishing the game. It is quite interesting and somewhat funny, but it is also too far to be called excellent. Luckily, the game tells the story in English speech, even the words in the text box are Japanese. So I don't think there's no problem to understand it unless you turn your TV volume off.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphic of the ancestor, Bust A Move is already great, as you can expect many unique characters design, colorful and various stage, cool arts and nice background. But here, in Bust A Move 2, they even gives you more!

The character's dance was still cool. With high frame rates, it looks very real and very nice to watch. And for more, you can see more dances that you cannot found in Bust A Move. Some old dance was still appears, though, but they've been mixed with the new ones.

The stage, my goodness, has taken my whole breath away. It has some sort of stories in it! With various kind of it, it was very creative and enhanced very greatly from the first series. You can dance in many unique places, such as in Bank Safe area (with the guard tied in front of it!), in a TV show with the cameramen and special effects, on a pirate ship, or even on a drifting-along-the-water board in some kind of zoo with huge dragons, bats or ghosts.

Talk about the stage's story, it is very fun and nice. Like in the Bank Zone. A little while before the dance ends, suddenly the Bank Safe was opened during an explosion or something and then you can see mountain of money and gold inside it and they're flowing out to the dance stage. Watch the tied guard jumping away like crazy when it happens. So funny!

The camera movement was still smart, and even smarter. With swift movement, you can expect a great show of a dance performance.

Sound: 7/10
I think the music wasn't incredibly advanced, even more, it is slightly worse. But I think it is still nice to hear. They're pretty catchy and you will sometimes coincidentally or not humming along the melody. Sadly it is not as creative as the first Bust A Move, if you asked me.

Talk about the sound effects, they're great. Just look, oops, hear the groan of Bi-O the zombie, the explosion in the bank, the chopper sound in the final boss stage etc. Nonetheless, they are great.

Controls: 8/10
The game control is just the same with the previous Bust A Move. They're pretty easy if you can just rhyme it right and press them at the right time. The only downside that is still unfixed from the previous one is that you cannot see nor adjust the controller. So we cannot know how and what is the use of each buttons until we tried it by ourselves. It can be somewhat confusing but we will eventually get it if we play it for enough time.

Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay itself is staying the same. You dance against your opponent and you must dance better in order to win. Thankfully they've added a score bar (which they 'forgot' to add in the first Bust) and it will helps to know did you win or not. And another one, the directional commands will turns gray after you press them, so it can helps avoid confusion and to know what to press next.

The game is actually simple. You will be shown a bar with some commands in it. You must press directional or O or X buttons just as it shown to you. After making some combos, the directional buttons commands will be a lot more in quantity or 'quality'. They became harder to do in less time, they became harder to remember, but nonetheless, the dance moves became more interesting too.

So the key is rhythm. Usually the rhythm of the command is slower than the music rhythm, so it can be a little confusing, but after you play it for a while you will finally be able to play it better.

For addition, you (and your opponent) will have two special moves that will knock down the opponent and thus, stop him/her to dance for a while and gives you a chance to make score while he/she didn't.

Replay Value: 8/10
Because there are many characters here, you may want to finish the game with them all. And there are more secret characters too, so you might want them to for addition and perfection and another reason. The Dance View is back too, it still available after finishing the game. You can use it to design your own dance for the character(s) that you've been use to finish the game. This Dance View feature is really nice, since you can view all the characters' dance, even the one that you cannot do in the past, and now you can design even longer dance sequence.

Overall: 8/10
A nice sequel of Enix's dance simulation game, Bust A Move, that will gives you even more wonderful graphic and dance moves, slightly worse music but easy gameplay and control. Just try it.

Buy or Rent
Just like the previous Bust A Move, you should rent it first dance sim is not everyone's favorite. The judgement is actually on you. I cannot say that you must buy it because I don’t even know who you are and what kinds of game do you like and more. I just hope this review gives you somewhat useful info and opinion.

That’s all, thank you very much for reading. (7)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/01, Updated 05/26/01