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Boogie
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Graphics & Sound:
Boogie has somehow made its rounds through the Nintendo Wii and DS systems and found itself stumbling back to the PS2. Ok, it's not really fair to knock a game just because it's making an offering on the last gen of game systems, but you should know you have your options here. I'll try not to repeat too much here from the Wii version, but to be honest, not much has changed.
Once again, Boogie is a karaoke game. Now, I unfortunately can't compare it to the other karaoke games on the PS2, but there's a much bigger selection on this system than compared to the Wii. Let me correct that: compared to the non-existent karaoke library on the Wii.
The graphics here are identical to the Wii offering for the most part. Cel-shaded cartoon characters make up the cast of the game, and everything has a colorful feel to it. Everything is, however, a bit muddier looking here, with facial expressions a bit harder to make out and a slightly more jagged look to the shading. Other than that, characters and backgrounds are pretty much identical. One thing in particular that's missing here are the special effects such as the sparkly effect on some character's clothing. If you're only purchasing this version of Boogie, however, you'll probably be satisfied with the colorful characters and their (often strange) repertoire of dance moves as well as the varied backgrounds. The focus, after all, is mainly on the music anyway.
Since Boogie is at heart a karaoke game, the music is what counts. Once again, the same mix of contemporary and modern artists hit this game. Everything seems to remain unchanged from the Wii version, with artists like Britney Spears, Fergie, and Kelis making the list here. The problem remains the same: the original artists don't seem to be performing most of the songs. Some of the imitating artists do a good job, but you can definitely tell the difference on some songs. You can't even find the names of the original artists next to the track names, so it can be hard to recognize a song you like sometimes. Most songs have been edited in very noticeable ways, regardless. It's a bit disappointing to sing what amounts to a chopped up and rearranged cover of the song. On top of that, they seem to make you repeat the same lyrics way too often, for the point of making it more "game" friendly, I suppose.
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Gameplay:
Boogie once again has the same story about aliens who try to manipulate people and make them dance and sing for them. It's silly stuff, and amusing at points, but chances are you're not playing this for the story anyway. You'll probably skim over most of it while you try to unlock more songs.
So if it isn't obvious by now, you'll be asked to sing into a microphone, and dance using the controller. The singing is as much fun as you make it, of course, but the dancing can be a bit repetitive. Both singing and dancing will earn you points which you can use to purchase new outfits and songs. You'll be able to beat the game and collect most of what you want in a pretty short amount of time.
You get a video editor to play around with as a little bonus. Boogie will record your singing performance and dancing. Afterwards, you can take the recorded video and add video effects to it or change camera angles. This is a very linear video editor, lacking even the ability to skip ahead. So overall, you probably won't spend much time here, but it is something to play around with.
With the single-player game being so short, you'd expect this game to make up for it in multiplayer. That doesn't really happen, as there is only a dance-off available in Boogie and nothing else, not even a singing contest. It's a shame, especially since you probably expect a bit of a party game here.
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Difficulty:
This version of Boogie seems a lot easier to master, at least for me. With the Wii version, you may run into the problem of not knowing what the game is counting as a "hit" on the beat. With a traditional controller like you have on the PS2, pressing a button on the beat is pretty straightforward. This doesn't mean the entire game is easier, as I'll get into later in game mechanics.
Overall, give a song a good effort and try to keep a good rhythm (if you're shy, you may want to wait 'til your judgmental peers leave the room) and you should be able to pass every level. You can try each song for a better rank if you like, but that's where this game breaks down into the grey areas of "did it hear me?" and "what does it want me to sound like?" Again, the same situation as on the Wii, but this doesn't mean you can't have fun with the game. It just means you may not want to use the scores as an indicator of how well you sing. |
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Game Mechanics:
Boogie has somehow figured out its problems with load times in one area, but forgotten about them in others. While changing clothes no longer has a horrendous load time associated with it, load times between levels seem to be unchanged, if not worse.
This version of Boogie gives you a USB microphone once again, which appears to be identical to the Wii version. Sensitivity is once again good, picking up even the shyest singers. There is a learning curve, but this is more of trying to figure out how to produce what the game wants to hear. You'll probably be able to breeze through the game anyway, but if you're trying to achieve a higher score, it can be frustrating.
Dancing here is just a matter of hitting a particular button to a beat, and remembering to cycle through dance styles every so often to achieve higher scores. This is one area where you'll probably find the PS2 version easier. On the Wii, you ran into problems when you tried to switch from hitting a down motion with the Wii-mote to a left or right motion, for example. Here, you've only got buttons to hit, and they aren't moving anywhere. What gets difficult is when you're asked to hold down the left or right trigger buttons while doing other actions: during the extra Boogie mode for example. It makes sense for this to be a little more difficult since it is a bonus, so it's forgivable. Moving around the stage really feels like it messes up your rhythm more than it did on the Wii, since you have to take your thumb away from its normal job of staying on the beat to do so, but it's nothing that will take you out of the game for long.
Again, you can basically dance in a freestyle manner. It's just not that much fun because you can't "build" an interesting dance out of it. You can once again extend dance moves out by pushing the analog stick gradually. This creates controlled, slower movements that can be a lot of fun to play with. But of course if you spend too much time extending one move out, you're missing out on major points, so it's inherently discouraged.
I'm on the fence, but I'm leaning toward the Wii version being more fun, at least in the controls department. You're swinging a remote to the beat, rather than pressing a button, and doing combination actions is a bit easier. Between the two, just for graphics, you should go with the Wii version. Either way, you'll be stuck with a pretty short game. Looking back, I probably should have expected more from the Wii version of this game. But with no improvements or real changes over the Wii version, Boogie for the PS2 probably shouldn't be your first choice for karaoke fun on the PS2.
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-Fights with Fire, GameVortex Communications AKA Christin Deville |
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