 |
Just Dance 4 (Wii)
by louisechackett
I have bought every just dance game so far for the wii and so when I saw just dance 4 was going to be released in October of this year I knew it was a game that I would want to buy. I had every intention of waiting to order it for Christmas as we love to play these kinds of games over the Christmas period but in the end I couldn't wait ... as I was dying to give it a go and so I ordered it from amazon the day it was released!
For those who are not aware just dance is a game that is made by ubisoft and you basically have dance routines to follow whilst holding your wii remote. They are a great way to make sure you are doing a little exercise but they are also brilliant fun to play and great for get togethers at home when you have had a few drinks! What is great about these games is the fact that they cover a good range of music from pop to rock, new music to classic old tunes and so there is always going to be something for everybody to want to have a go at!
I bought just dance four from amazon for around £25 but it is currently selling for £23.99 so a slightly reduced price. I think the price of the game is more than fair to be honest considering the price of games such as fifa or black ops which the boys seem to love! My just dance four comes in a wii box which features a fancy looking cover where the dancers move depending on how you move the box. The game looks funky in terms of its packaging and I have to say that the whole look of the game has come a long way since the first just dance game I bought back in 2009.
What made me want to buy this game immediately rather than wait for Christmas was the fact that the track list was really good for me! The game includes forty four songs and many of these are chart topping songs but with some classics thrown in there too. This edition of the game features one directions what makes you beautiful, call me maybe by Carly Rae Jepson and Flo Rida's good feeling but there are also things like I've had the time of my life, the final countdown and everybody needs somebody to love and so there are plenty of good choices on the game. I have to say with this one more than any other edition of the game I was familiar with the bulk of the songs and there were only a few which I didn't know. I think it helps to know many of the songs as you are more willing to have a go at dancing to them if you have an idea of the beat and things!
From the moment I inserted the disc in to the wii and the game began to load I was able to tell that the graphics of the game had gone up a notch. This has been something that has happened with each edition of the game and when I compare the graphics of just dance one with these in just dance four they are actually worlds apart. The graphics in just dance one was never an issue for me but in number four everything is so much sharper. The colours used in just dance four are bright and eye catching and as you do a dance you are able to appreciate everything that is going on in the background as well in my opinion.
With this game the start menu is similar to that of just dance three really but does look much sharper. You are able to create yourself a little account where you input data such as your screen name and age which I think is handy for my son especially as he is only seven and the game is able to make allowances for a younger dancer presumably and so a child feels less disillusioned playing the game especially if playing against a competitive adult such as myself! This also stores your data and will tell you how long you have played the game for as a total and your average star rating which is nice to see. You have the option to either play just dance mode or just sweat mode and I will firstly talk about the just dance mode.
In the just dance mode you are basically going to choose a song which you want to dance to and then follow the choreography trying to get as high a score as possible. In this mode there are some songs which are all one routine but multi player can still be played as you both follow the same dance but there are also multi player dances in which up to four people can dance and have slightly different choreography at points in the dance.
As always you are rated as you do each move and can either achieve a cross, an ok, good or perfect rating depending on how well you time and execute the move. At certain points in the dance you will be shown a gold move and if you get this one spot on then you get more points and more of a reward. You will also get a star rating for the dance you are doing and I like how there is a bar along the side of the screen showing how you are progressing towards each one of the five stars as you can see if you are close to getting a five star for example. New for this game is the awarding of a style name when you have finished dancing. There are eleven different options for the way you danced and these can range from energetic to cute, great finisher to poser and so it is quite nice to see what you are going to be rewarded I think. As I often get all the gold moves right I am quite regularly called a poser!
As you dance and earn stars you are also able to add to the mojo gauge which when complete will take you to the wheel of gifts which again is something new for this game. As you dance more and more the mojo gauge is harder to fill and so you need to do more dances or earn more stars to unlock a go on the wheel of gifts but obviously this is so you don't unlock all of the gifts in a short space of time. Gifts that can be won include dance mash ups, alternative choreography or new dancer card avatars. When you unlock a new dance for a certain song you will be able to use your wii remote to scroll downwards on the actual song to see the alternatives. I like that you can unlock new choreography and dance mash ups and you will find that in some songs there are dancers and moves from previous versions of just dance which is nice to see as you get the chance to do those moves again!
What I have to say about this game is that all of the dances are so much more energetic than on any of the other just dance games and I think this has been progressively occurring with each new edition of the game to be honest. In this game for the final countdown for example you are bouncing around jumping and things and then you need to roll across the floor whilst your dancing partner does an almost star jump over you! In what makes you beautiful you are jumping around a lot too and it is such great fun but also very tiring! I love how I feel as though I am working out as I play this game and I do think it is a great way to exercise at home for people who maybe don't want to or are struggling to go to the gym. I think you need to be quite strict with yourself as you play this game though because obviously using the wii remote with your hands does mean that you could be a bit lazy with your legs and not follow the moves properly but I don't like doing this because I don't see the point in just dancing with your arms. I like to throw myself in to the dances and give it all I have got.
New for this game is battle mode which is basically a way in which you can challenge another player or the computer to a dance off for five songs. The winner of the most songs wins the battle! This isn't a feature I have played on much but I think it is a great addition to the game and perfect for when you have people round for a few drinks or something!
In just sweat mode you are able to select a sweat class which is designed to make your heart rate rise and so you are burning fat as you dance. In just dance three I played sweat mode a lot as I could choose dances I knew were going to make me work quite hard but ones which I would enjoy too. With this game you have more of an aerobic style work out to start off with and you may have a couple of songs thrown in there too. I have to say I do prefer the just dancing to a song for sweat mode but I do quite like this version too as you can choose the length of time you want to work out for and it will just work with you which is a good thing. The game will tell you how many calories you have lost as you dance and whilst I don't think this is ever going to be totally accurate it is quite nice as a guide to see if you have burned off anything substantial!
This game also has a pay and play shop in which you can use your wifi connection if you have your wii set up to do this to go to the just dance shop and purchase new songs for your game should you wish to. You do need to have some pre purchased wii points to do this and each song costs around 300 points so you are looking at getting around three songs for ten pounds which is in no way good value in my opinion. I won't be buying any of the songs in this way as I think there is enough to be unlocked on the game itself for you to get bored with it and want new songs.
I would totally recommend just dance four, especially as it is coming up to Christmas as I think it makes a perfect party game to play when you have family or friends round. Even when you are on your own though this game is great because it is fun and energetic and gets you moving so you are working out but not really thinking about it in that way because you are having fun. My son loves to play on this game too so I think even younger members of the family can have a go! Personally I can't wait for my sister to get home from Uni early in December because we love to play the just dance games and I have the upper hand in that I know some of the dances now!
Thank you for reading my review!
Read the complete review |
 |
Just Dance (Wii)
by ntg13
I bought just dance for my daughter's birthday not long after it come out after seeing lots of adverts on the TV for it. We are a little over run with games consoles in our house and the Wii isn't one of my favorites as the technology is a little lacking compared to other things on the market but it's good for parties and my daughter ... loves it and Just Dance is one of her favorite games to play on it.
Although there are now many more titles available in the just dance series, this first game seems to be quite popular still and is easy to come by new or pre-owned.
I paid around £17 on Amazon when I bought this, you can now buy it from there for £13.99 with £1.99 postage and packing, which works out about the same price still! It was cheaper a little while back, the price seems to rise and fall every now and then.
Game also sell Just Dance at £7.99 for a pre-owned copy and if you buy from their website the postage is free, for some reason the w new copy from there is currently cheaper at just £6.99. Game have Just Dance in their offers quite often, which is worth looking out for.
Game station sells the game at £7.99 and seem to have only pre-owned available. They also have free delivery from their website.
The price is ok, about average for a Wii game that has been out for a good few years like this one has, it's not a bad price for a successful Wii game. I paid more as it was a newer game and I was happy to do so, if buying it now I'd have gone for a pre owned one to cut costs though.
As the title would suggest the game involves lots of dancing. To play you hold onto your Wii remote and follow the Dace moves on the screen, you then score points for getting the dance moves correct and in time with what is shown on the screen.
The screen shows you a black background with neon dancers. You see the more of the shape rather than the dancers features. You also have a thing to keep score for each player, these scores look rather like colored bars on a bar chart and each one has it's own color and a shaped marker picked out by the player at the start of the game.
The game can be played single player or multi-player and you have the option of choosing from different songs or allowing the Wii to choose for you. You can also choose between short versions or long versions of the song, or even a mix of a few different songs! If playing multi-player you can have up to four people playing. This means the adverts for this game that had been shown on TV were a bit misleading as they seemed to have a whole room full of people dancing!
When dancing, as well as having an eye wateringly bright person on the screen (and you do have a different person for every different song) you have some stick figures at the bottom of the screen to show you what dance moves are coming up, I found this a bit hard to follow though as you can't really tell what these little stick figures are trying to tell you.
As you only use the Wii remote (no nun-chuck, no dance mat or any other equipment) the game is quick and easy to set up but not very easy to play. When you dance, you dance with your whole body and Just Dance is only picking up what is going on with your right hand, even then it seems to tell me I'm dancing excellently when I'm not doing the right thing or not registering when I'm doing something right. The controls for this game could be much better and sadly can't compete with games on Xbox kinect and the like.
The Wii itself doesn't have the most amazing graphics when compared to other games machines, so it's no surprise that this game isn't the most stunning to look at. The graphics are ok, nothing spectacular and quite basic, but to be honest with this kind of game you're too busy jumping around having fun to care too much about the graphics on the screen anyway.
Fun, amusement and working out
This game is fun to play in a group, my daughter often gets me to play with her, I sometimes get this out when people are over and me and my partner have even been known to stick this on for a giggle on a Friday night when the kids have gone to bed. The fact that the controls aren't the best at registering the moves sometimes actually makes it more fun as it seems to level out slightly the better and worse players taking part in the game.
In single player mode this is easy to get bored of quickly, but it is good for a work out. Some of the dances are very energetic and you do find yourself really jumping about quite a lot, well I do anyway! The way that you are following someone on the screen makes this very similar to a work out video and it would be quite good for this purpose although a lot of the moves are sillier than you'd ever find in a work out DVD.
The game states on the packaging that it is suitable for ages 3 and up. Although a three year old could play this it's probably better for older kids (I'd say probably five or six and up) as it can be quite tricky to pull off some of the moves which could lead to little ones being frustrated. This is the sort of game that will get all of the family joining in and it is suitable for most ages.
The songs on Just Dance are mainly 80's pop hits such as Cindi Lauper's Girls Just Want To Have Fun and New Kids on the Block's Step by Step but there is a bit of a range to choose from. The full song list can easily be found using google.
Since this game came out there have been other Just Dance games released. There is not much difference between the games other than new songs. I would say you're better off buying the cheaper first one rather than a newer release unless you have preference over songs.
I've also seen a Just Dance Kids for sale but I have not played this one.
This is a fun game and not a bad price, but although the graphics can be overlooked the controls are pretty bad. Overall I would recommend this as a good, active, fun game for the Wii, but only if you don't have access to an Xbox kinect as the dance games on there blow this right out of the water!
Read the complete review |
 |
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Wii)
by autumnleaf
Warioware Smooth Moves is a game that works excellently on the Wii. Not only is it a great family friendly game, ideal for party situations, it also makes great use of the Wiimote and encourages participants to think in lots of diverse ways to solve the puzzles.
The main-game here is essentially a series of micro games, each ... lasting only a matter of seconds, within which time, the player must work out what they need to do in order to successfully complete the game. These things can range from drinking a glass of water (tip the wiimote backwards as if holding a glass) making someone sneeze (tickle their nose) to diverting men and women to the appropriate toilets. These games can be played in turn with the players required to pass the wiimotes back and forth between each other in order to finish each series of micro games.
The difficulty curve is finely tuned to allow users to learn from their previous experiences but to apply their skills to new challenges. There are also some other fun game modes that can be played, my favourite being where you and an opponent have to both hold either the wiimote or attached nunchuck, and jump at appropriate times to avoid traps.
I would recommend this game for anyone with a wii that is likely to have friends or family over, it can make for a really good fun hour or so's entertainment on each play.
Read the complete review |
