Bust A Groove 2

"A lot better than the first game"

Parappa made the whole world dance to his music game. Since then, games based on music came out, but they followed Parappa's formula. Some companies have also tried dancing games. Among them all, Bust-A-Move (Bust-A-Groove in the US shores) was the most famous and fun. It featured a smooth frame rate, great motion-captured dances and excellent sounds. Now that Enix, Metro, and all the dancers have released a sequel to their phenomenal game, did it do as good as it's predecessor? Or did it do worse? Or is it just another rehash? If you've read my One-Line Synopsis, you'll know that I'm very happy for it.

-- STORY -- 10 --
The story of this game is... sorry, McDuff, what story? Just like the first game, you just dance against weirdo dancers and you end up fighting a giant dancing robot called Robo-Z. The first game's endings tell you what happens after your character fights the boss; in Bust-A-Move 2, you learn about his or her past. You will see a simple variety show with the host telling the past of the character. Of course, it's twisted with humor, but it's fitting for that certain character. Even the host, called James Suneoka, gets pummeled by the character you chose. He either gets stepped on, shot by a bazooka, beaten black and blue, set on fire, chewed on, struck on the head w/ an axe, or even turned into an eggplant! Just call the whole game weird if you want.

-- GAMEPLAY AND CONTROLS -- 10 --
Gameplay is also changed in this sequel. The character dances, however, are still varied from each dancer. As for the gameplay mechanics, you'll still press the D-Pad and some buttons to make your dance to the beat of the song, but the change that really showed out was the commands that you do. Now, you can only do the one they give you instead of having a choice. It's welcome with me, since the first game was terribly easy. You can even choose what command type to use; that is, you can use only the D-Pad, the D-Pad and the X and Circle, or the whole controller. The simple meter-based battles were changed in to point-based ones. Naturally, the one with higher points win. Another award-winning feature in the Bust-A-Move genre was the Fever Time: a dance solo that your character will execute if you do well in your fight. You need a full meter and an interacting background to execute a Fever Time in part one; in Part 2, you need 23,000 points and the meter should be equal to or below the middle one. You're probably asking "What meter?" by now, eh? There's a special meter added in this sequel which will determine if you do a Fever Time or not. It's reprised of 9 squares: 3 for you, 3 in the middle and 3 for your foe. The middle one is the bar you have to copy. If the middle bar has 2 squares, then to get a Fever Time, you've gotta have 2 squares or just 1 and 23,000 points, too. Sounds complicated? It's not that complicated. Really. Also, everyone loved the attack function in the first game. Each character has 2 chances to attack and bring down the opponent's meter. Attacking is still present, but now, you can reflect that attack back to the attacker instead of just evading it. Overall, the changes are all good ones.

-- GRAPHICS -- 9 --
Graphic power doesn't affect gameplay, fortunately. They're all at a smooth 30 frames per second, so you won't find a bit of slowdown here. You're also going to like the motion-captured moves, so you won't find annoying footwork or stiff moves anywhere. The backgrounds are also interactive and colorful. Of course, nothing's perfect. The background sometimes hinders the game itself, since they're sometimes TOO colorful. You won't see the command bar in all the colors flying in the screen. Aside from that, there's no problem, even though the dancers don't have fingers. ^_^

-- SOUNDS -- 9 --
The sounds are the strongest assets of this game. Each song just makes you sing along and dance wildly. Even if some songs are in Japanese, their music is not to be ignored, even for those who don't understand the language. Most of all, there's a huge variety of songs. There's rap, pop, J-Pop, techno, R&B, house, dance and even African. No ballads here, thankfully, since I hate non-lively songs, like Pinky's song back in Bust-A-Groove. I was definitely yawning. Aside from the music, the sound effects are pretty much average. You'll hear the usual comments, whooshes, claps and even ka-booms, but with the quick pace of this game, you'll notice that they're all executed at the right time. If you ask me, this is the best part of the whole game. I guess that's why it's a music game =P.

-- RENT OR BUY? ---
A decision you have to make is if you'll just rent it, rent first then buy later, or buy it right away. I suggest you rent it for a few days, then go spend your dough on this game. It's definitely worth the money. There are some people who think this game's for geekwads. That's not true, folks. Actually, the one who told me that is a 12-year-old who feels like a matured teenager, so feel free to play this one.

-- OVERALL -- 10 --
It's funny how games with a different theme get a 10 rating. For me, it's a game worth the money. You'll definitely be singing and dancing to the cool tunes of Bust-A-Move 2!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 07/09/03