Wii Fitness Game Reviews 4

Review of Dance on Broadway for Wii


Dance on Broadway

Reviewed by Nutwiisystem on June 17, 2010.
Summary: A great follow-up to Just Dance featuring dance steps and showtunes from Broadway.

just dance sequel on broadway
Just Dance was a revolution in dancing games. Before it, most dance games just consisted of moving your hands or stomping your feet to an on-screen cue. Just Dance was the first game to incorporate real dance moves to choreographed steps.

Dance on Broadway plays pretty much the same as Just Dance. It retains most of its features, both positive and negative.

  • You follow one of four silhouetted on-screen characters, mirroring their moves as they dance.
  • There are also icons that scroll across the bottom of the screen that tell you what moves are coming up (basically, what “pose” you should be hitting when the icon hits the arrow). Honestly, I didn’t find this as useful as simply mimicking the on-screen characters themseves, but I’m guessing over time once you memorize what the icons mean it’ll help you perfect your performance.
  • Up to four players can play at the same time. Like Just Dance, this makes for a ton of fun with friends or family.
  • Each player holds one Wii remote. No nunchuk, no second remote, no MotionPlus is used. This is good in that it simplifies things and there are no cables to get tangled up in. It’s not-so-good, as Dance on Broadway still suffers from a lack of precision in motion tracking.

In addition, Dance on Broadway adds a few neat enhancements that its predecessor did not have.

  • The casting of the four characters matches the song. For example, for “One Night Only”, there are four African American women which allows you to live out your dream of being one of the “Dreamgirls”. For “Aquarius”, there’s a nice mix of hippy guys and girls.
  • The choreography is more detailed. For some of the songs, each of the characters has their own individual dance steps resulting in a pretty cool and fully choreographed Broadway routine when four people are playing together.
  • The precision of the motion tracking is a little better than before, but still leaves a lot to be desired. Still, as before it’s so fun learning the dance steps that you don’t really care (I was thrilled with my “70%” accuracy, even though I knew it was really closer to 90%). They do give the advice to hold the remote firmly in your right hand, which I found helped.
  • The songs are decidedly less “intense” than the ones in Just Dance. The songs are rated by “difficulty” and “effort”, but in all honesty, even the most difficult songs were pretty simple. So it’s not as good a workout game as its predecessor, but more suited for those of us who have always dreamed of being on Broadway.
  • There’s the option to turn vocals off, meaning you can not only dance, but you can also sing along with the words.

Here’s a complete list of songs, the shows they’re from, and their rating of Difficult / Effort in parentheses:

  • All That Jazz from All That Jazz (1/2)
  • Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In from Hair (1/1)
  • Bend and Snap from Legally Blond (2/3)
  • Cabaret from Cabaret (3/2)
  • Dreamgirls from Dreamgirls (1/2)
  • Fame from Fame-The Musical (1/3)
  • Good Morning Baltimore from Hairspray (1/1)
  • I Just Can’t Wait to Be King from The Lion King (2/2)
  • Luck Be a Lady from Guys and Dolls (3/2)
  • Little Shop of Horrors from Little Shop of Horrors (2/3)
  • Lullaby of Broadway from 42nd Street (2/2)
  • Money, Money from Cabaret (3/3)
  • My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music (1/2)
  • One Night Only from Dreamgirls (3/3)
  • Roxie from Chicago (1/2)
  • Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins (2/3)
  • Thoroughly Modern Millie from Thoroughly Modern Millie (3/3)
  • Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Show (3/3)
  • We’re in the Money from 42nd Street (2/3)
  • You Can’t Stop the Beat from Hairspray (2/2)

In short, while I gave Just Dance 5 out of 5 stars, I’ll give this one 4 out of 5 mainly because I would have liked to see Ubisoft improve the motion tracking more than they did, as well as include more cardio-intensive choreography. Still, it’s a solid title which I definitely recommend.

There are a lot of titles coming in the next few months like Ubisoft’s Gold’s Gym Dance Workout, Majesco’s Zumba for Wii, and Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution which will also focus on real dance moves. I definitely commend Ubisoft for starting this trend, and hope between these companies they can really perfect the motion controls and get the world dancing 🙂


Rating:
4 of 5

4 Comments

  • Reply
    Pierre
    Jul 12, 2010 8:48 am

    Hi I just found this blog through searching for Dance On Broadway reviews and I really like the reviews here!

    I’m a Just Dance fan too, but from these videos it doesn’t look as engaging simply because you aren’t mimicking humans, you’re trying to appropriate animated characters’ movements, which looks a little harder as they’re stiffer/harder to predict.

    Also the constant camera cuts, while not drastic, are a little disorienting. Especially if you’re trying out the songs for the first time.

    I’ll definitely be buying it though because hey, it’s Just Dance with musicals! Thanks again for the review/site.

  • Reply
    Laura
    Aug 11, 2010 8:36 am

    I think I might actually get this, rather than just dance. To be honest, I still think I’ll prefer We Cheer 1 and 2, because it has the best motion sensor, and the dancing is more unique and fast paced, Dance On Broadway will still likely be fun!

  • Reply
    Kylie
    Mar 15, 2011 7:00 am

    I played this and I was upset. The graphics are horrible and when you play 2 player, all four players are still on the screen which confused me. The dances are also very strange. When I did the time warp, it was nothing like the original choreography. Also, I agree with Pierre. The camera cuts and it is hard to concentrate. And again, the choreography is very strange.

    My rating- 2/5

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