Just Dance 3

In the beginning there was DDR. Video game “dancing” consisted of mashing your feet to certain patterns. It was fun, it was a great workout, but at the end of the day it wasn’t really dancing.

Then along came Just Dance, which introduced the world to dancing to popular music using “real dance move”, the kind that you could practice at home and then wow everyone with on the dance floor. It was slightly annoying that the controller accuracy was a bit off, but the dance moves were so fun we didn’t care. Just Dance 2 introduced much better motion control accuracy. Plus, it introduced the concept of “duets”, where people could dance cool choreographed routines together. And it was another winner. Because of the popularity of Just Dance, this spawned a lot of “copycat” titles from Ubisoft to cash in. Dance on Broadway. Michael Jackson The Experience, Just Dance for Kids. Even Just Dance with Smurfs. They were fun, but at a certain point they started to get a bit tiring, as they were all variations of the same theme.

And so, we’ve all been waiting to see what Ubisoft would do for an encore with Just Dance 3? Could they push the genre forward, even as copycat titles on other platforms like Dance Central on the Xbox and Everybody Dance on the PS3 encroached on their turf? I’m happy to say that Just Dance 3 pushes the platform even further and does it with great success.

When you start up Just Dance, the first thing it asks is if you’ll connect Just Dance to the Internet so that “Ubisoft can learn more about the way you play to make Just Dance even more groovy”. I wasn’t sure quite how to answer the question, but I figure since Just Dance doesn’t use a video camera like those other systems, there wasn’t too much harm in it.

The opening menu, like in Just Dance 1 and 2, is delightfully simple. There are only a couple choices:

1) Dance!

As with the previous versions, you just right into the dancing. What I love about Just Dance 3 is that getting started is extremely simple. No silly things to take up your time like creating avatars. No adjusting of cameras or calibrating of equipment. You just shake your remote to see what “color” you are on the screen, and get started.

You can create a profile at any time; your name is limited to 5 characters. If you don’t create a profile you’ll be dancing by default as “Happy” (as opposed to “Sunny”).

As with previous version, your job is to dance the “mirror image” of a colorful silhouetted on-screen figure showing you the dance moves. I’m happy to say that the motion controls are better and more accurate than ever. Granted, it still only detects the movement of one arm holding the Wii remote, so technically you could still just hurl your arm the right way to build up points. But of course the fun of the game is to get into the dance with your full body (and in fact, if you follow the choreographed moves perfectly with your whole body, your score will be better than ever). One other subtle improvement over previous versions is that the audio cues coming through the Wii remote (for example, when you hit a milestone while dancing) are much louder and clearer than before.

The choreography and backgrounds are as fun and in some cases as quirky as ever. For example, in Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances” you’re following a dancing alligator in a fancy suit dancing in a schoolroom. And yes, you “do the alligator” If you dance well on some songs, you can see the background animate and change.

As with Just Dance 1 and 2, each song has a “technical difficulty” indicator from one to three gears, and a “workout intensity” indicate from one to three drops of sweat. There are over 45 great tracks to suit everyone’s tastes, and most of the songs are popular and familiar.

Multiplayer is where this game really shines. There’s “Dance Crew Mode” which is like Duet Mode, except that up to 4 players has their own independent choreography (and a chance to shine with a solo performance). There’s also a “Dance Til Dawn” party mode where you can just start the game up and it’ll cycle through songs all night, without the need to go back through menus again.

2) Just Sweat

As someone who follows Wii exercise titles very closely, this option was the one I was most excited about. You can choose from a “Free Session” (an instant fitness session for up to 4 players) or the “7-Day Challenge” (A selection of challenges to boost your fitness during 7 days).

For “Free Session” You can choose from a variety of options for the kind of music to work out to, including:

Speed Shuffle
Non-Stop Shuffle
Pop! Pop!
Rock Party
R&B Vibes
Electro Sounds
Just 80′s
Oldies but Goodies
Fancy Dress Ball
Around the World
Extreme
Sweat Attack

There are also fantastic options for working out in a group, including:

Duets
Dance Crew

I tried Sweat Attack, and sure enough I was sweating up a storm after just one song. The songs kept going and the more points I collected (in both Dance and Just Sweat modes), the more a “Mojo” meter filled up. Each time the “Mojo Meter” was full, it unlocked a “gift” of another game mode, song, or choreography (the first to be unlocked is Simon Says Mode). There are 27 “gifts” to unlock, which will definitely motivate you to keep coming back and building up those points. The songs in my case before I collapsed of exhaustion were Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You”, The Black Eyed Peas’ “Pump It”, Anja’s “Dance all Night”, Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances”, and appropriately, C&C Music Factory’s Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)..all very energetic and lively (and fun) songs.

As in the Dance mode, you rack up points when you hit the right dance moves. In addition, as with Just Dance 2, they don’t count calories for some reason, but rather, they count “sweat points”. With Just Dance 2, the consensus on the Web was that 4.2 sweat points = about 1 calorie burned, and it seems about the same with Just Dance 3. In all honesty, I’m not sure why they didn’t just use calories, which would have made things a lot easier. But still, as long as you do the math in your head, you can pretty much figure out how intensive a workout you’re getting (since each song earns you about 400-500 sweat points, it’ll take about 25-30 vigorous songs to reach 3500 calories, or 1 pound of fat lost). As you reach certain points, the system will give you an indication of how much exercise you’ve done (after completing 1000 sweat points, it told me “You’ve just walked across Central Park”; after 2000 points, it said “you’ve just run 10 rounds of the Wembley Stadium”).

For “7-Day Challenge” you’re presented with three options for the next 7 days: The Fresh Start (3500 sweat points a week, the equivalent of walking 30 minutes a day), The Healthy Choice (7000 sweat points a week, equivalent to running 30 minutes a day), and The Sweat Explosion (21000 sweat points a week, equivalent to swimming for 30 minutes a day).

Overall, I loved Just Sweat mode, but I would have liked to see the ability to chart my progress over days and weeks. Still, it’s a great improvement over previous versions and definitely one of the best workouts you can have on the Wii.

3) Store

This is where you can purchase downloadable content (DLC) if your Wii is connected to the Internet. As of this writing (October 8, 2011), the store contained only the following songs:

- Baby Don’t Stop Now (Anja)
- Jambo Mambo (Old Orquesta)
- Soul Searchin (Groove Century)
- Twist and Shake It (The Girly Team)

But a bunch of empty icons indicates that there are more coming soon. Each song costs 250 Wii Points, so if you buy a 2000 point card for about $20, this comes out to about $2.50 a song.

4) Extras

This is where you can adjust options, such as whether to display lyrics, display pictograms (the icons telling you what move to make), display help screens, and track usage. You can also view the medals you earned.

I think one of the questions most people will have on their mind is: is Just Dance 3 on the Wii still relevant when there are so many new “real dance move” games out for systems like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. My answer is a resounding “yes”. Not only does Just Dance 3 hold its own in terms of fun and accuracy–it actually has an advantage over those other systems. While those systems force players to squeeze into a camera view of 6 feet across, with Just Dance, players can stand anywhere in the room, and it doesn’t even matter if there are spectators or “dancers without controllers” standing among them.

Long story short, I think Ubisoft has taken a great franchise and moved it even further. Just Dance 3 for the Wii is another winner.

Reviewed by: Nutwiisystem, dated:  8 October 2011

Red Steel 2

I wasn’t really a fan of westerns as a kid. Well, that is until my brother made me watch A Few Dollars More. After that I loved them, the serious ones, and the sillier, campy funny ones. They’re all so delicious. Unfortunately, I’ve never been a big fan of shooters both first and third as far as video game genres go, and nothing I’ve tried has really changed that, so sadly I haven’t really been able to enjoy westerns in my games as all of them are shooters. I really like seeing the character I’m playing, the way they move, attack, run, and I don’t really get that with first person games. That and shooting in general just doesn’t particularly do it for me. Even in most movies I prefer hand to hand or sword combat, it just feels more dynamic and interesting to me, and it’s no different for me in my video games. Well, that is until I saw some game play footage of Red Steel 2.

I hadn’t heard of the original before this, as I didn’t own a Wii at launch. But when I saw footage of a character that looks like Clint Eastwood meets Vash the Stampede meets Samurai Jack going through mobs using a combination of both swordplay and gun slinging, I was intrigued. Then I actually played it, and I was blown away. I just beat the game this morning, and I absolutely love it. I started on easy, go the hang of it then switched up to medium a little bit into the game. I plan to go back and beat it on Ninja.

As far as presentation goes, this is easily one of the most stylish games on the Wii, and one of if not the most graphically impressive. I’m biased about this however, as I love the Wild West, I love samurais, I love schizo tech, and I really love Cel Shading. The game has an absolutely killer sound track as well, with a love of really fast paced western themes. The story seems okay I guess, you play a nameless protagonist, returning to your hometown after being banished years before. You come to find it taken over by a gang called The Jackals, and their leader knocks you out and ties you to the back of his bike. While originally thought to be a random gang raid, it beginning to look as though this is more of a war against your clan. The voice acting is okay I guess. It’s nothing to impressive or memorable, but nothing painful either. Kind of unrelated, but I bought the game bundled with the Wii+ as I didn’t own one at the time of purchased, and I love the box it came with. I love boxes. There should be more of them.

A lot of people are going to complain about the fact that this game doesn’t exactly have 1:1, but it just wouldn’t work if it did. Most players aren’t exactly expert swordsmen, so trying to make it an over realistic sword fighting simulator would be a waste of time. Making it 1:1 would completely ruin it as an action game. I absolutely love the combat system. I mean it. I love how involved and intuitive it is. Its fast paced, exhilarating, and fun. Its undoubtedly my favorite combat system to come out this generation and possibly ever. I really believe this is the next evolution in motion control, and a new gold standard for Wii action games.

That said, the game isn’t perfect however. There are a few complaints but they are overshadowed by just how fun and unique the game is. My first complaint is how standard the missions themselves are, there needs to be more variety and uniqueness to go along with a game like this. This one annoys me, but its an out of combat thing. The game works because of the automatic mob targeting in combat, so you can swing your sword without your camera flying around all the place. This is not true when out of combat, so when you want to bash in crates that contain money, your camera swings around like an elastic flail and not all of the breakable objects have the option to Z target them. I’ve resorted to just using the spin attack to deal with crates, a button to fix the camera still outside of combat would have been nice, the “C” would have worked well, and then the “Check Objectives” menu could have just been included into the pause menu.

In addition, this game is absolutely 100% about the combat and showing what the Wiimotion+ can do. If you’re expecting something particularly deep, you aren’t really going to get it here either. That and while the environments look amazing, and the game also has a Metroid Prime feel to it, but the game world itself is very shallow. Most areas are corridors and moderately sized rooms with little variation in it. This game isn’t particularly deep, but the combat in this game is unlike anything I’ve ever really seen. How involved you get with the sword fighting is really unique, and the way the special attacks are built are very intuitive and dare I say, revolutionary. So if you’re getting this game, expect combat like you’ve never seen before in a video game. Its exhausting actually! I actually enjoy that aspect, it just feel so involved.

I would give this game a 8/10 ish or a 9/10, with 1 being bad and 5 being average. I already adore this game. It ripped the title of “My favorite 3rd party Wii title” right out of No More Heroes 2′s hands, and this is coming from someone who isn’t a fan of FPSs at all really.

TL:DR
Pros:
Absolutely amazing combat system.
Great visuals, music, and world.
Good challenge.

Cons:
World layout could be improved.
More mission variety.

Closing comments:
I adore Red Steel 2. Its an absolutely amazing game and could go down as the most improved sequel in video game history.

Reviewed by : R. Fietzek-DeVries,   Mar 25, 2010

Just Dance

I admit, I wasn’t expecting much when I first heard about Just Dance a few months ago. I figured it’d be just like another one of those games like Dancing with the Stars and High School Musical where you see characters on screen dancing, but all you’re doing is waving your remote to match the visual cues on the screen. Ho Hum.

The first thing that struck me when I popped the game into the Wii was that these were fun songs from every era. They’re all family-friendly, and there’s something in the track list for everyone, from baby boomers to Gen X’ers to Gen Y’ers. Here’s the entire track list. Most of the songs are not covers, but original tracks from the original singers.

Girl Just Want to Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
Ring My Bell – Anita Ward
A Little Less Conversation (JXL Radio Edit Remix) – Elvis vs. JXL
Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex
Surfin’ Bird – The Trashmen
Heart of Glass – Blondie
Womanizer – The Gym All-Stars
Groove Is in the Heart – Deee-Lite
Jerk It Out – Caesars
I Live to Move It (Radio Mix) – Reel 2 Real feat. The Mad Stuntman
Not N Cold (Chick Version) – Katy Perry
Mashed Potato Time – Dee Dee Sharp
Girls and Boys – Blur
Fame – In the style of Irene Cara
Lump – The Presidents of the United States of America
Kids in America – Kim Wilde
Pump Up the Jam – Technotronic
I Get Around – The Beach Boys
Le Freak – Chic
That’s the Way (I Like It) – KC and the Sunshine Band
Louie Louie – Iggy Pop
Funplex (CSS Remix) – The B-52s
Jin Go Lo Ba – Fatboy Slim
DARE – Gorillaz
Bebe – Divine Brown
Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
Can’t Get You Out of My Head – Kylie Minogue
Acceptable in the 80s – Calvin Harris
Who Let the Dogs Out – Baha Men
Wanna Be – Spice Girls
Step By Step – New Kids on the Block
U Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer

The second thing that impressed me was that this game features actual dance moves to the songs. In other words, not only are you playing the game, you’re learning actual dance steps. You’ll learn the “Mashed Potato” that was all the rage in the 1960′s to Dee Dee Sharp’s “Mashed Potato Time”. You’ll learn the best disco moves of the 70′s with songs like “That’s the Way I Like It”. And my personal dream come true–you can dance like MC Hammer with “U Can’t Touch This”.

For the controller, they went for a decidedly simpler approach, and they hit a home run. For using one Wii remote, the controls are remarkably accurate as far as detecting whether you’re dancing correctly or not. For each move, you’ll be given a grade of “Great”, “Okay” and “X”. Now, I won’t lie and say the controls are the most precise in the world. There’ll be plenty of times you’ll be doing the moves precisely, but the Wii will tell you you’re not. But where this game triumphs is that even though the controls may be off, the game is so fun that you really don’t care.

And you also find that the more you practice the moves and “feel the music”, the better your scores become. If you’ve gotten to the point where you’ve memorized the dance and are just doing the moves to the music, your score will be great.

The game is simple. You choose a song, and then after a countdown from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, you’ll see a silhouetted character on your screen doing the dance moves. The character is generally dressed appropriately for the song: a disco dude will lead you through “That’s the Way I Like It”, a cowgirl will do a two-step to “Cotton Eye Joe”, and a dog (yes, a dog) will dance to “Who Let the Dogs Out”. You basically just have to do the mirror image of the character’s moves.

They also have multiplayer games. In the first game (Challenge), you can basically have a dance-off between you and up to three other friends to see who’ll get the high score. Again, you don’t mind in this case if the controls are not completely precise because you’re all on the same playing field. In the second game (Strike a Pose), it’s like a game of Red Light / Green Light where you have to freeze in your tracks when the music stops. The third game (Last one standing) is an elimination game where the person who makes the least mistakes wins the game.

As fpr the exercise value, with virtually every song, I ended it panting because I was out of breath, and even though I was out of breath I wanted to try it again and again until I got it right. To me, that’s the sign of a great exercise game.

Reviewed by: Nutwiisystem.com,   Jan 12, 2010