Dancestar Party (PS3) > Reviews (1)

I find that games for the Playstation Move can be very hit and miss. When I bought this one it was really on the strength of the demo (downloadable from the playstation store) which contains 4 songs, as at the time of purchase I couldn't find a single review for it anywhere on the web. It has turned out that this is a pretty good game that has we have really enjoyed playing and which has surprising longevity and gets the whole family dancing.

Dancestar Party makes good use of the capability of the Move controller and camera as this dance game sees you able to watch the original music video or flip to a video of yourself (using triangle on the move controller) on screen. The manufacturer hasn't included the track listing here, so I've included it below, it's a pretty varied mix from the right up to date to classic tracks. For each track you see a discrete grayscale dancer on the screen next to a block which shows the original video - or in the case of the Barry White song pictures of him (presumably the song was released before videos).

You need to mirror dance following the dancer, we've mainly play at beginner level so far as none of us are particularly gifted dancers and, even given our limited dance ability, it's pretty intuitive and fun from the start. The game has an age guideline of 12 on it, presumably as some of the lyrics are not appropriate, but I've found an 8 and 5 year old fully able to play - we just choose the songs carefully. You can play at various difficulty levels and make up your own routines as well as being able to play with two or more players. We actually ended up buying another controller to make use of the multiplayer feature, and it does add to the fun as you can compete with another person and add as many dancers as you have space in your living room and available controllers. We haven't, however, been tempted to tweet/facebook the videos of ourselves, an option available as you finish each routine as let's face it no one really looks their best waving a ball on a stick around! You can watch back and save your video if you want to. Another feature is that you can use a microphone or activate the one on the camera if you wish in order to increase your score further, though having two left feet it's enough for me to concentrate on dancing rather than trying to follow the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. Play also sees you unlocking various trophies along the way, though all the songs are available right from the start.

This game is pretty well done in my opinion, they've made the dance moves just the right level of difficulty (perhaps I'm saying this as I can manage to get 5 stars at beginner level after a fair bit of practice). There's a fair bit of waving your arms up and down and wiggling. You can, to a degree cheat slightly by just waving the ball in the right places - this isn't the kinnect so your whole body moves aren't tracked - but where's the fun in that?! There is a good range of music with different tempos and styles.

The developers have also tried to make the dancers blend into the original look of the artist, the graphics manage to avoid being naff - just, though in all honesty it's not the greatest example of HD graphics you will ever see. It's a good selling point that the music is actually the original rather than an imitation, though the promised "more tracks to buy" just didn't exist in the playstation store at launch and have turned out to be rather expensive with some additional songs now being available (rick astley anyone?) at £5.49 for 4 songs on the playstation store, there are 2 mixes available - this strikes me as expensive, and part of a new and annoying trend in gaming of releasing a game and then expecting you to pay extra for add ons you didn't know you were going to need. On the positive side I have seen this game priced as lowly as £5.75 - its price seems to fluctuate wildly on amazon, so despite being linked to the better known Singstar (which I haven't played), it is an affordable game.

The game itself is great fun to play once you get past feeling slightly silly - there are "energy level" guides to each song which don't necessarily equate to difficulty, for that it's trial and error you will need to play to find out, we've found "kung fu fighting" sees us easily getting 5 stars and being encouraged with lots of "flawless!" and "awesome!" on screen, where other songs are more challenging and take a while to pick up. They certainly get the players moving, and it's good that you can choose a long or shorter version of each song as you play. There are enough tracks and variety to ensure the game doesn't get repetitive too quickly. Though you don't have the level of tracking that I assume you would have if playing on the kinnect platform, the move does work pretty well here in my opinion and this is an enjoyable family game and, at the right place, definitely one to consider having in your collection if you have a move controller. It's not the best PS3 game I've ever played, but it's far from being the worst and the kids love it!

Track listing as not included in the product description:

1. Amerie - 1 Thing 2. Barry White - You're The First, The Last, My Everything 3. Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At? 4. Billy Idol With Generation X - Dancing with Myself 5. Bodyrockers - I Like The Way You Move 6. Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting 7. CeCe Peniston - Finally 8. Chemical Bros - Hey Boy Hey Girl 9. Chromeo - Night By Night 10. Deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire - Ghosts `N' Stuff 11. Diana Ross - Upside Down 12. Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand
13. Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed 14. Elton John - I'm Still Standing 15. Example - Kickstarts 16. Groove Armada (Fatboy Slim remix) - I See You Baby 17. Ida Corr vs Fedde Le Grand - Let Me Think About It 18. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life 19. Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne - Down 20. Jessie J - Do It Like A Dude 21. Kool & the Gang - Get Down On It 22. Lady Gaga - Born This Way 23. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem 24. Los Del Rio - Macarena 25.

Miami Sound Machine - Dr Beat 26. New Kids On The Block - You've Got The Right Stuff 27. Nicole Scherzinger - Don't Hold Your Breath 28. Ok Go - Here It Goes Again 29. Outkast - The Way You Move 30. Republica - Ready To Go 31. Rihanna - Rude Boy 32. Snap! - The Power 33. Tavares - Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel 34. Tiesto vs Diplo ft Busta - C'Mon (Catch Them By Surprise) 35. Tinie Tempah - Pass Out 36. Usher ft. Pitbull - DJ Got Us Falling In Love 37. Usher ft. will.i.am - OMG 38. Venga Boys - We like to Party 39. Willow Smith - Whip My Hair 40. Yolanda Be Cool - We No Speak Americano