Dance on Broadway Wii review

So this is my first ever attempt at a game review, I don’t even know where to start. I suppose first of all I should thank Ubisoft for sending me Dance on Broadway to review.

Not having played a dance game on the Wii before I thought I best play through the tutorial first. Looks like it’s a similar concept to Guitar Hero (performing the required action at the specific time) and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works in practice.

The tutorial is just a quick explanation of the controls and onscreen notifications, would possibly have been nice to have a brief trial go, but no looks like I’ll have to go into the main game and give it a go.

The songs/dances included in the game (not sure if that’s in entirety or whether there are any unlockable ones yet) are:

All That Jazz - Chicago
Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In – Hair
Bend And Snap – Legally Blonde
Cabaret – Cabaret
Dreamgirls – Dreamgirls
Fame – Fame: The Musical
Good Morning, Baltimore – Hairspray
I Just Can’t Wait To Be King – Lion King
Luck Be A Lady – Guys and Dolls
Little Shop Of Horrors – Little Shop Of Horrors
Lullaby of Broadway – 42nd Street
Money, Money – Cabaret
My Favourite Things – The Sound of Music
One Night Only – Dreamgirls
Roxie – Chicago
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – Mary Poppins
Thoroughly Modern Millie – Thoroughly Modern Millie
Time Warp – Rocky Horror Picture Show
We’re In The Money – 42nd Street
You Can’t Stop The Beat – Hairspray

Hopefully I’ve got all the correct musicals but let me know if I’ve got any wrong!

Well I may as well start at the beginning with All That Jazz…first of all you’re asked to pick a character though to be honest they all look the same except for slightly different poses and colour dresses.

Suddenly it occurs to me, how can the Wii pick up both my arm movements with only one controller? Couldn’t they have utilised the nunchuk and Wii board to make it a more immersive experience?

Thirty seconds into the game and it seems pointless to do anything with my left hand or feet, though I think what the hell and try and do all the movements onscreen – much to the hilarity of my wife and sister-in-law.

However I soon get bored of trying the movements and discover that unfortunately I can play sitting down, which kind of defeats the object of the game.

I ask my wife if she wants to have a go but she doesn’t show any interest at all, not a good sign in a game that I would imagine is aimed more at the female and casual gamer.

Wanting to give it another chance I decide to try a dance I might actually know (well the only dance here that I know) and attempt the Time Warp from Rocky Horror.

And so we come to the main problem of the game. You’re not really given enough warning about the moves, and whether you should keep doing the moves in between moves, and which way you should be facing etc. I found that I would be exactly copying the moves onscreen yet constantly getting ‘X’ to indicate I had failed to do the movement.

Unfortunately this game just doesn’t excite me or make me want to play it again, and both my wife and sister-in-law said they can’t see the point of standing and ‘waving a stick around’.

Whilst I’ll find this useful for when I have to choreograph numbers from musicals, or run a hen party session, I doubt we’ll pick it up to play it again.

It’s a shame as I feel the game had a lot of potential, I know I’ll use it in the future as a reference point but I can’t see what is going to make the average gamer come back for more.

There’s definitely potential there Ubisoft but I don’t think you’ve quite hit the jackpot yet. I look forward to seeing what comes with Just Dance 2.