Format Nintendo Wii
Developer Electronic Arts
Publisher Electronic Arts
Genre Rhythm Action
Boogie
(Microphone Included) by Electronic Arts (Aug 7, 2007) (Nintendo Wii)
Buy new: $59.99 at
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We've never recorded a chart number one single before, so we're not sure exactly what would be going through your head as you're singing it. We're pretty sure though that when an 11 year old Michael Jackson recorded I Want You Back he wasn't thinking that three decades later he'd be the failed father of a chimpanzee, hang around mainly with 11 year olds - and that Nintendo Wii owners across the world would be tapping a button to make a pink starfish with an afro go 'mah mah mah' with its big mouth in time with the words.
Cheese on a waggling stick
It's undignified - although, to be fair, having just stood up in front of an office full of people to sing Pink's Get The Party Started (please note - party songs don't go down quite so well when you're not actually at a party, or indeed going to a party), we're in no position to judge. It's the only way to enjoy Boogie though - with your inhibitions left firmly in that school drama class where your teacher made you all 'shake it all out'. It takes a while (well, a bit less of a while if you've drunk a fortnight's worth of alcohol units in under an hour) - but with Boogie, you'll soon have progressed from fairly self-conscious remote waggling to belting out YMCA at the top of your voice.
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The Wii is already like gaming's Prozac - it's the console with the highest number of games that bring smiles to the slackest of faces. Little grinning Miis running after baseballs in Wii Sports, using the remote like an elephant's trunk to pick up peanuts in WarioWare - you'd have to be dead, or TV's chubby-chasing food nut Gillian McKeith, for it not to raise your spirits. But what it hasn't had up until now is karaoke to rival Sony's killer post-pub party game Singstar. Cue EA Vancouver - Wii's new best friends, the people behind Wii's excellent snow surfer SSX Blur - and their idea to combine a similar voice-judging sing-a-thon with a rhythm action game, and you've got Boogie. Forget Rayman and his mouth-frothing rabbits, and in the unlikely case you were thinking about Mario Party 8 then forget that too - this is the definitive party game.
Boogie cleverly blends rhythm with singing (into the specially-made Wii USB microphone) - but it also gives the player the option to do one or the other. So anyone who makes Jordan's voice sound like that of an angel (with auto-tune turned off) needn't write this off as a wasted exercise. There's a Karaoke and Dance mode, plus Story, which lets you play through the unique stories of the game's five characters doing a combination of both.
Karaoke mode will feel familiar to anyone who's ever played Singstar. It uses similar scrolling bars placed at different levels to indicate the pitch of each upcoming note. As the song plays and the lyrics start to scroll, so does this visual indicator of pitch. It continues after you've sung each note, whether you managed to hit it successfully or not.Karaoke is always funny - usually because someone's dad is trying to sing Eminem - but it can get tedious after the fourth group of girls has sung Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (yes, Lauper's laddette anthem makes it into Boogie). By adding in a competitive factor and high scores, there's a reason to keep on crooning.
On its own, the rhythm part of the game is enjoyable, but not as strong as the singing. You heard it here first - don't go scrimping and buying the game without the mic. Boogie can be played with both the remote and nunchuk or just the remote on its own. Playing with both offers up more dance moves, with the remote used for tapping out dance steps in time to the tunes and the nunchuk for striking poses.
Striking a pose is officially our favourite thing since tackling giant Mario in Mario Strikers so he lands on his big fat ass. There's timeless humour in seeing the camera swoop in on your character's mug, then tapping C to make them lip-synch (of sorts) to It's Raining Men.
You begin each song building up your Boogie Bar by simply moving the remote left and right, or up and down, in time to the beat. Once it gets to about a quarter full, holding the Z button activates advanced combos - these appear at the bottom of the screen in the form of arrows. Follow them perfectly, and in time, and you'll pull off such dance moves as the Electric Star Groove and Falling Blossom. Basically the sorts of shapes that'd have Ricky Martin retching with envy.
These combos not only look spectacular, they also earn you big points - the longer the combo, the more points scored. As every song has a score target for bronze, silver and gold awards (which, in turn, give you increasing numbers of tokens to spend in the shop on bonus songs and outfits), the higher you score, the better.
Blame it on the Boogie puns
No party game is complete without some sort of multiplayer aspect and Boogie doesn't forget to deliver on the dance-off front. Two players can take to one stage and try to out-shuffle one another for the most points. Pick up one of the randomly appearing bonus tokens, and you can do the equivalent of throwing marbles at the feet of your dance rival. Freezer Burn glues them in their disco diva tracks and the Reversamatic annoyingly reverses their controls, making combos next to impossible.
Boogie is unfortunately lacking in the karaoke head-to-head department - only one mic can be used during play, so there's no direct competing for best voice, although you can always try to better one another's scores. You won't be dueting You're the One That I Want with your loved one, but there is a mode where one player sings while the other dances, so you can always do the funky robot while they serenade you.
With over 40 songs included (not the originals, sadly, but most are well covered) and a whole lot of character customisation and video editing options, Boogie should keep any party going long after the neighbours have threatened to call the police. It's not as uber cool as Sony's Singstar - dancing green aliens take the place of original artist recordings and videos - and the track listing isn't as chart up-to-date, but there are plenty of party, funk and soul classics along with the odd complete white elephant (Gypsy King's Baila Me - it's good, but we're not really ready for karaoke En Espanol just yet).
Cool isn't everything though. What Singstar lacks is a big funny starfish doing an elbow dance that's strikingly similar to Peter Kay's in the Road to Amarillo video. Boogie's single player is targeted at quite a young audience - even in Hard mode, most won't struggle to get the top medals, But when you're playing with friends, this isn't an issue. Of course, the definitive verdict can't be delivered until we've held a big party, put it on and seen whether it gets things going or just gets our guests going - as in leaving.
The full verdict in our Boogie review next month and below, the complete track list (including the five unlockables), and the artists who (haven't) sung them - exclusive:
ABC (The Jackson 5)
Don't Cha (Pussycat Dolls)
Oops! I Did It Again (Britney Spears)
Dancing Machine (The Jackson 5)
I Want You Back (The Jackson 5)
Kung Fu Fighting (Carl Douglas)
Mambo No. 5 (Lou Bega)
Milkshake (Kelis)
Slave 4 U (Britney Spears)
You're The One That I Want (John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John)
Brick House (The Commodores)
Canned Heat (Jamiroquai)
Fergalicious (Fergie)
Get Right (Jennifer Lopez)
Get The Party Started (Pink)
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)
Groove Is In The Heart (Deee-Lite)
Karma Chameleon (Boy George)
Let's Get It Started (Black Eyed Peas)
Pop Muzik (M)
Stars (Simply Red)
That's The Way (I Like It) (KC And The Sunshine Band)
U Can't Touch This (MC Hammer)
Virtual Insanity (Jamiroquai)
Walking On Sunshine (Katrina And The Waves)
We Are Family (Sister Sledge)
Baila Me (Gypsy Kings)
Celebration (Kool & The Gang)
Le Freak (Chic)
Love Rollercoaster (Ohio Players)
One More Time (Daft Punk)
YMCA (The Village People)
It's Raining Men (The Weather Girls)
One Way Or Another (Blondie)
Bonus Tracks (spoiler alert!)
Dancing in the Street (Martha And The Vandellas)
Boogie Oogie Oogie (A Taste Of Honey)
Love Shack (The B-52s)
Tu Y Yo (Thalia)
SOS (Rescue Me) (Rihanna)
Linear Mode
