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Once it became clear that the Wii was going to be a runaway success, Electronic Arts, who initially appeared more interested in the 360 and PS3 quickly offered a mea culpa and promised increased support for Nintendo’s console.  After several mostly uninspired ports of last gen games, EA has the gall to release Boogie, an original title that’s seven shades of suck.   Really guys, if this is your way of supporting the system, do us all a favor and stop making games for it immediately.

Boogie Ugly Ugly

Boogie is a rhythm and singing game that is a great example of game design without a focus.  Players pick from a pool of quirky characters, choose a song, and attempt to keep the beat by rhythmically waving the Wii Remote up and down or side to side.  Doing this builds up “Boogie Power” that you can use to pull off special dance move or to strike a pose.

And that's about it for the dancing portion of the game.  Seriously.  After playing through the mandatory tutorial at the beginning of the game you’ll be left wondering, “That can’t be all, can it?”  But yeah, that’s about all Boogie has to offer in the gameplay department.

I’ve got Rhythm (why doesn’t this game)

Even the severely limited gameplay in Boogie might be enough to hold one’s interest if there’s some kind of challenge.  But there is none.  In fact, it doesn’t matter what song you choose to dance to, the game is exactly the same.  Dancing Machine plays exactly the same as Love Shack.  Just keep a steady beat and you’re all set.

In fact, the songs have no bearing on the gameplay at all, not even the rhythm.  You see, the beat you have to keep is often completely different from the one in the song.  Yes, you read that right.  This is a rhythm game without any rhythm.  During a song, the speaker in the Wii Remote produces a metronomic click that is usually out of synch with the beat of the song.  So which beat are you supposed to follow?  It doesn’t really matter.  Just wave the Wii Remote around like a jackass and you’ll do fine.

Singing the Blues

The other half of Boogie is a karaoke game.  Using the USB mic that comes with the game, you can choose to sing along to any of the songs.  You can still use the Wii Remote to make your character dance while you’re singing, but it doesn’t affect your score.  It essentially plays like Karaoke Revolution, but for some reason it doesn’t really matter how on-pitch your singing is.  You’ll still rack up the points.  It’s possible to get a decent score by rubbing the microphone against your groin instead of actually singing.  And it’s also probably more fun.

Panic at the Disco

All of this makes you wonder why anyone would spend more than 5 minutes with this game.  The developers tried to add longevity to the title by adding some extra modes.  Story mode asks you to sing and dance to specific tunes in order to progressively unlock horribly ill-conceived tales about each playable character in the game.  It’s tedious and boring (much like the regular game), but it’s the only way to get some of the unlockable songs and clothing options for the characters.

There’s also the obligatory “Party” mode.  It’s a Wii game, after all.  So that means it has to have some kind of social aspect.  In this case it’s merely two players waving their Wii Remotes around like idiots instead of one.

The Video Maker is really the only interesting thing about Boogie.  It lets players record and edit their performances with a simplistic, but fun editor.  There are several camera choices and lots of cheesy effects.  Of course, the downside it that you still have to play the stupid game to get any use out of the Video Maker.

Booger

If it’s not yet abundantly clear, I think Boogie is a horrible game.  It’s so bad; I’m nearly offended that I even had to play it.  Sure it’s aimed squarely at the casual market, but casual gamers aren’t necessarily stupid gamers. They certainly deserve to play well produced games.  Boogie barely qualifies as a game, let alone a good one.

Review by: Greg Bemis
Video Produced by: Eric Acasio