Dance Magic Review

If nothing else, rhythm games are good for a laugh. For parties, there's probably little better than breaking out Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution, as they provide quick fix gaming backed by a recognisable soundtrack. They're fantastic for casual gaming but also provide fevered competition for those who want to compete for top scores and full combos – see games like StepMania. As a result, rhythm games have a wide-reaching audience base, making them a fairly safe bet for devs. Dance Magic is one of the latest rhythm games to surface, and it must be asked: does Dance Magic hit the right notes or is it completely flat?

Dance Magic differs from the aforementioned games in that there are no pre-made stepfiles; there are no predetermined notes or steps for you to get in the right order in time to the music. Instead, the game revolves around you finding your own dance moves by pressing random directions on the joypad in step with the beat of the music as you battle an opponent. Keeping rhythm earns points, completing combo sequences (for example, an attack move, a left-right-left-right manoeuvre) even more so. If you key in certain combos, you can even delay and disrupt your opponent, which initially seems like a solid foundation for gameplay.

This is a neat approach and certainly distinguishes it from the DDR series, but that's not to say the idea isn't confusing. It's hard to tell if you're actually winning: I played a few games and thought I had done very well, keeping in relatively good rhythm and launching a plethora of attacks on the opponent. Turns out I had been roundly thrashed every time, suffering losses where the AI beat me by triple what I had. What results is a game where you find yourself bitterly deflated after thinking you've had a good run. To give an example, I had ended a game with 40 perfect combos versus my opponent's 8, 30-something versus my opponent's 3 great combos, and about the same amount of misses, but I still lost the way I did. It left me questioning: am I rhythmically challenged, or is the game shockingly harsh to newcomers? What results is an experience where it becomes hard to work out exactly what you did wrong, leaving you feeling absolutely disconnected to the game.

Still, the presentation values are very impressive, employing sharp yet cartoon-like 3D visuals to support the dancing action. Dance Magic looks fresh and vibrant, employing loud colours and great modern design in its characters and stages. The only problem with this is that it feels like a bit of a wasted effort; while it's definitely eye-catching, your eyes will only ever be drawn to the lower half of the screen, where the arrows appear and where the rhythm is punctuated. A shame, as the visuals are pretty enough to be admired.

The setlist is made up of musical unknowns, but this doesn't mean that the tracks are no good. What we have is an array of pop, dance, and pop-rock (everything chart-friendly, basically) music from lesser-known artists such as Chicks With Hits, Twirl, and Sarah Ozelle. While using artists with some name recognition may have helped the game, the developers have done tremendously well with the songs they could get, and as such, the soundtrack is a solid collection of could-be pop hits. However, if the list of songs don't appeal to you in the slightest, your own songs can be imported in; this adds tremendous replay value, especially if your taste veers towards, say, 90s west coast rap rather than off-brand pop.

However, if the game has a glaring fault, even worse than the incomprehensible gameplay, it's the absolutely excruciating announcer who narrates the dance-offs. I have now discovered that there are few less annoying sounds in gaming than this idiot chiming in whenever he feels like it, and he'll chime in almost at every occasion. Considering how highly annoying this berk is, it takes the game to even deeper points of frustration. Happily, he can be completely silenced, but his inclusion in the game was in no way a stellar idea.

Playing Dance Magic is odd, as it is in no way a bad game at all, but playing it is a deeply frustrating act as it's never clear how to win. There are tutorials that explain how to deploy hard-hitting combos, yes, but winning will elude you unless you're a genius. I still haven't worked out how even after the time I've put it, yet I still find myself oddly mesmerised by this game, and its hypnotic beat.