Dancing with the Stars video game for the Wii
I’m not really certain what the appeal of the Dancing with the Stars television show is, and I found it odd that a show that was originally designed as summer rerun filler became a sensation that is almost as big as American Idol. Well, not that big, but you can at least make the comparison.
In all honesty, I cannot see the appeal of this show. I suppose women enjoy the drama of these actors and athletes who act like the fish-out-of-water in order to win a dance contest, of all things. As far as I know, no men watch this show, but they might enjoy the ladies in those tiny little outfits.
I guess someone figured out that Dancing with the Stars is hot, and they capitalized on it by making a game out of it. At first I was thinking the game would be like the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) game, and that you would need the pad from the DDR kit in order to play.
Fortunately and unfortunately, no dance pad is required. I say fortunately because the absence of a pad brings the cost of the game down. I say unfortunately because the pad could have added a more realistic dimension to the game. I don’t see why Activision wouldn’t incorporate it, but I’m sure their team of research and development had a good reason.
In lieu of the dance pad, the interface for Dancing with the Stars is all done with the Wiimote and Nunchuk. The gameplay is a lot like DDR as a player must match moves. The difference is that instead of moving your feet, you have to move the Nunchuk or Wiimote up, down, left, and right at precise times.
In between all the directional moves are these “special moves”. These are moves that require both the Wiimote and Nunchuk together, such as the Locomotion. That’s right, you move the controls like a locomotion until the game says stop. This would be a very fun feature, but the cord between the Wiimote and Nunchuk gets caught in between this and other special moves. I might recommend the Nyko wireless remote for this game.
Matching all these moves will increase the judges’ score, who will rate you at the end. If you get higher than twenty, you go onto the next round. I can only assume the judge’s footage is either taken from the show or they actually went out of their way to make new audio footage with graphics. The graphics of the judges and dancers is very wooden.
You can represent several contestants from multiple seasons from the show, but sadly, there is no way to make Marie Osmond pass out. The Dancing with the Stars video game for the Wii is available at the ABC TV store for $49.99.