Get into the Groove!

Author's Rating:

Pros: A great party game with catchy tunes, excellent control, and beautifully rendered characters.

Cons: In my opinion, music in this one was not quite as good as the original.

The Bottom Line: 
An excellent sequel to one of the most addictive games of all time. This one'll have you humming "Get Into the Groove" for months to come.

Author's Review
Heat, Kitty-N, and the gang return in the excellent sequel to the immensely fun and highly addictive Bust a Groove. This is one of those titles released out of the "Other" category that you should definitely pick up.

The premise behind the game is incredibly simple. Similar to fighting games (Tekken, Street Fighter, etc.), the game is set up into one-on-one matches where the task is to out-dance the opponent. You control your dancer by immersing yourself into the music, pressing specified buttons on cue and in rhythm. Sequences such as right, right, left, X are expected to be completed within four beats, with X being pressed exactly on the fourth beat. The more accurate your combinations are, the longer and more difficult the sequences become. As the combinations increase in length and difficulty, so too do they increase in point value. In addition to the normal dancing in which the characters dance simultaneously, each dancer also performs solos throughout the match. Each match concludes at the song's end, and the player with the most points wins.

One of the most stunning aspects of this game is its graphics. The incredible attention to detail in the motion capture gives the effect that you are watching real professional dancers on the screen. Each dancer in the game has separate moves and dancing styles, and unlike the original Bust a Groove, each character also has his/her/its own button combinations throughout the entire dance. (Not only in their solo.) This adds a much-needed added dimension to the game. In addition, there are multiple hidden characters that can be accessed by beating the game in different ways.

The addition of new difficulty levels also enhances the game's replay value. The original Bust A Groove remained basically the same from Easy to Hard, but this game changes drastically. As opposed to the normal playing style(pushing the directional pad only until the fourth beat), the hardest difficulty introduces a new concept. Here, the O, X, square, and triangle buttons are used simultaneously with the directional arrows throughout the four beat sequences. Believe me, when the adrenaline gets going, sequences such as left, O, triangle, up, right, left, X can get pretty tough, especially in some of the tougher stages.

Finally we have the music. Although the tunes in this title are upbeat and downright catchy, they just don't have the same feel as the original. I personally liked the first game's songs better. This is strictly an opinion as I have spoken to many people who feel Bust a Groove 2's music is an improvement on the first.

This being said, I know this game is not for everybody. Hardcore action gamers probably won't fight over this one at the rental line. Yet, this is a great game for any age gamer, perfect for group situations or individual play. If nothing else, rent this game. Its worth a try. Hopefully, you too will enjoy it as much as I did. Bust a groove!!