"Get on up, off the floor! 'Cause we're gonna Boogie!"

''Get on up, off the floor! 'Cause we're gonna Boogie!''

Hello! This is a review for Boogie for the Nintendo Wii. This game is also available for the Nintendo DS, and the PlayStation 2.

This is a music / rhythm video game, meaning you can sing and/or dance to it. The object of Boogie is to sing and dance your way to stardom, gaining points in order to buy new outfits and songs in order to become a mega star. Boogie lacks as a single player game, but gains so much as a multiplayer game.

Now lets get on with the review!

------

Story - 5/10

It's pretty straight forward to be quite honest. You play as one of five different characters (Julius, Bubba, Jet, Kato, and Lea) and have to go through 5 different challenges through singing and dancing in order to beat the story mode for that character; so there are 25 challenges all together. While it is nice to see some sort of story mode being used for a music / rhythm based video game, other music / rhythm based video games have done better with their story line(s) than Boogie has. This isn't a bad thing for Boogie, because Boogie is more of a multiplayer game than anything else. But it would have been nice to see something more with the story.


Graphics - 9/10

The graphics are very nice! Everything from the various stages that you can perform on (such as Lost Jungle Of Funk) is bright and cel-shaded, and very lively. The characters themselves are bursting with personality and not one of them is the same as the other. Each one of those characters has their own dance moves, and you can even dress them up in different clothes by using points you've earned from singing and dancing and spending them at the shop. You can also purchase songs and dance moves here. Very customizable, lots of variety in the stages and characters, no complaints here.


Song List - 10/10 This is where the game sold me. There are 39 different songs in this game, and many different genres are represented in this video game, such as Disco, 80s, Ballad, Pop, Spanish, etc... There is something in this video game for everyone, and that is why this game makes such a fun multiplayer experience.

Some of the bands and singers in this video game are A Taste Of Honey, Cyndi Lauper, Jamiroquai, Lou Bega, M, Rihanna, Simply Red, Thalia, The Gipsy Kings, and many more!

All of the songs themselves are cover songs, meaning they are not sung by the original person and/or band. This isn't a bad thing, because the covers in this game are actually pretty good. I personally love the cover of Baila Me originally from The Gipsy Kings. And it is just as fun to sing it with all your family and friends!


Music - 8/10 As you could tell from the song list, there is a lot of different genres covered in this video game, so you'll never get bored of trying out different genres of music to sing and dance to. And the music itself is revised for the cover singers, so everything is new. Which is a great thing, but...

It kind of confuses me that for some of the songs, they took out some parts of the song so it would be shorter. I do not know why they could not make a ''short song'' and ''full song'' option like in previous Karaoke games in the past. On top of that, some of the songs are made shorter because of questionable lyrics or maybe even a word. It's not that hard to replace a certain word with another word, so it's just kind of surprising that EA would put these songs in this game, only to have part of the song taken out. It just does not make any sense. (I'm referring to Milkshake by Kelis, and if you had played Karaoke Revolution Vol. 2 for the PlayStation 2 and sang ''I'm With You'' by Avril Lavigne, you would know exactly what I am talking about.)


Gameplay - 8/10 This game plays very similar to other Karaoke games, such as the SingStar series and Karaoke Revolution series. The bundle pack of Boogie comes in a box with a Nintendo Wii Microphone with a USB hook-up. In order to score points, you must sing the lyrics that appear on the bottom of the screen (just like the SingStar series) while using the Wii Remote to dance around. The Nunchuck may also be used with the Wii Remote for extra dancing and movement, but it's not required. Repeating the same dance moves over and over again will result in a lower score, so the best thing to do is keep dancing in different directions and styles with your Wii Mote while you sing along with the lyrics. When you do this, your ''Boogie Meter' will fill up, granting you access to attempt a special dance move by holding down any button on the Wii Remote and following the order of steps that come up on the screen. If you do this successfully with the music, the move will be executed and you'll earn more points from this!

And if you use the Nunchuck, you can control your character's facial expressions throughout the course of the song, and you'll be able to enter a ''Strike a Pose!'' mode, where you have to guide your character to point at a target that may appear on the screen, granting you more points. It sounds complicated, but it all flows well once you see this all together.


Replay Value - ?/10

The fact of the matter is, everything is very easy to unlock. As far as the actual gameplay, you have to really enjoy singing in order to find replay value in this. Even if you are not a great singer, or you do not like singing, you can still have a great time singing with family and friends. It's up to you if you want to do single player or multiplayer, but the game is best enjoyed if you play it on multiplayer, in my humble opinion. So don't be shy, bring some of your friends over and have a sing-off!


FINAL RATING - 8/10

This video game would have been a lot better if some of the songs were not cut up, and it would have also helped if it had a longer story mode. That being said, this isn't a bad video game. It's actually quite good! It just lacks in some things, but it's still a fun past time.

So should you rent this, or buy this? I would rent it first to see what you really think about it. But if you have a lot of family and friends that like singing titles as well, I would definitely pick up this title. I personally would wait until it drops down in price, because $60 is really pushing it for a video game like this. $30 or $40 sounds pretty reasonable, so try to pick it up used if possible, since it's a fairly recent video game.

So come on! Get your groove on!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/08

Game Release: Boogie (bundle) (US, 08/07/07)