Post by Spooty Biscuit on May 20, 2006 7:13:52 GMT -5
This issue of Playstation Magazine (June 06) had a review for the game Dance Factory. Here's what they had to say...
"Dance Factory
Do the random, boring, ugly hustle
It's one of the holy grails of gaming, up there with working virtual reality and a decent Batman game: We who have obsessively shaken maracas, stomped on dance pads, and strummed guitar controllers have long wished for a rhythm game unbound by the musical tastes (or low licensing budget) of its makers, a game that creates rhythmic patterns on the fly for whatever music you feed it. Finally, after years of being forced to dance to the beat of cheap cover songs and badly aged techno, the makers of Dance Factory have given us what we want. And it kinda sucks.
Dance Factory, on a gameplay level, is a carbon copy of Dance Dance Revolution. Streams of arrows pour down the screen, which you beat-match on a standard DDR dance pad. Only, with this version, you can swap out the game disc with your own music CDs. After a long disc-reading break (I've seen the process take two minutes for a single track), the game plays your chosen song with arrows that follow the tempo, if not the beat, of the music. Though the timing usually works well, the arrow patterns are random, creating ridiculously uncoordinated steps on the dance pad. Worse, the game sucks the life out of any party anthem, monotonously droning on the downbeat with little variation, never acknowledging changes in the intensity or feel of the music. The Record mode, which lets you record your own routines, could've been the solution. Unfortunately, without any way to edit your work, you're stuck with whatever you can stomp out on a single run-through, mistakes and all.
I still think a music-customizable rhythm game could be amazing, but Dance Factory falls short of the Ideal. - Robert Ashley
VERDICT: Dance Factory proves that when it comes to rhythm games, memorable patterns matter more than good music. 1.5/5"
So essentially, it flopped. I'm not surprised. Oh well, maybe someone will actually manage to pull it off eventually...
"Dance Factory
Do the random, boring, ugly hustle
It's one of the holy grails of gaming, up there with working virtual reality and a decent Batman game: We who have obsessively shaken maracas, stomped on dance pads, and strummed guitar controllers have long wished for a rhythm game unbound by the musical tastes (or low licensing budget) of its makers, a game that creates rhythmic patterns on the fly for whatever music you feed it. Finally, after years of being forced to dance to the beat of cheap cover songs and badly aged techno, the makers of Dance Factory have given us what we want. And it kinda sucks.
Dance Factory, on a gameplay level, is a carbon copy of Dance Dance Revolution. Streams of arrows pour down the screen, which you beat-match on a standard DDR dance pad. Only, with this version, you can swap out the game disc with your own music CDs. After a long disc-reading break (I've seen the process take two minutes for a single track), the game plays your chosen song with arrows that follow the tempo, if not the beat, of the music. Though the timing usually works well, the arrow patterns are random, creating ridiculously uncoordinated steps on the dance pad. Worse, the game sucks the life out of any party anthem, monotonously droning on the downbeat with little variation, never acknowledging changes in the intensity or feel of the music. The Record mode, which lets you record your own routines, could've been the solution. Unfortunately, without any way to edit your work, you're stuck with whatever you can stomp out on a single run-through, mistakes and all.
I still think a music-customizable rhythm game could be amazing, but Dance Factory falls short of the Ideal. - Robert Ashley
VERDICT: Dance Factory proves that when it comes to rhythm games, memorable patterns matter more than good music. 1.5/5"
So essentially, it flopped. I'm not surprised. Oh well, maybe someone will actually manage to pull it off eventually...
