Dance Magic (PC) Review

Dance Magic is a strange mash up of genres. Combining elements from fighting games, but with the general flow of music and rhythm titles, it's definitely an unusual experience. The tournament and battle modes make full use of this feature, by pitting two dancers against each other in a test of who has the sickest moves.

Of all characters, only three are available at the start, but after gaining some gold through various modes, it's pretty easy to unlock the remainder. All dancers have their own unique dancing style, and each one is also customizable with his or her own personal clothing and accessories, and further distinguishing them are their own unique combos and skillsets that take form on the dance floor.

There are five main skills in battles: attack, heavy attack, shield, break shield, and interrupt. While those moves are common to everyone, the directional inputs needed vary from character to character, so it's worth taking the time to invest in someone with an appealing dancing style, rather than switching between them. In addition to that, each dancer has certain unique skills that activate by performing three basic skills in a specific order.

Tournament mode, specifically, has a gauntlet of five bouts against other dancers, starting off with relatively simple opponents, and with songs with a somewhat mild tempo. As the tourney moves along, their skill, and the beat of the tunes increase, requiring more precise inputs at a much faster rate. The battles aren't too difficult, although it's important to juggle attacking, blocking, and removing the opponent's shield, all while maintaining a beat and inputting commands in the correct order.

It's an interesting and surprisingly addictive system, since it feels good to build up a combo, break the opponent defence, and then deal insane damage with a couple of stylish moves. The characters' unique spells make combos feel interesting every time, and once the rhythm gets going, it's easy to keep it up. Unfortunately, this does have some issues with timing, especially as the song's tempos increase. Even if it feels like the inputs are timed right, sometimes they still won't register as they should.

Tournament mode gives gold which can be used to unlock new characters and cosmetic gear, which, in turn, can be used on the cast in the tournament and battle modes. The later one offers a single round version of the tournament against the AI, or the chance to play with other players either locally, or over the internet. It's a decently competitive mode, and with a couple of friends, it's pretty fun, even if a bit imprecise at times.

Aside from these, there's also a more traditional Free Dance mode, where characters can dance to any track from the game's soundtrack, in Dance Dance Revolution-like fashion. It's also possible to add custom music to the track listing, although the rate that the game sets the beat to must be manually set. This doesn't always work super well, though, and sometimes the inputs don't really feel like they match up with the track, or with the erratic movements on screen.

It's worth taking the time to add a few custom tunes, however, as the in-game library doesn't really have any real showstoppers. A lot of the titles feel like rhythm game tracks, but they don't really have the punch they need to be played over and over. Some of them even get downright annoying the longer they go on, and as a whole, the soundtrack isn't really the best feature, which is a bit of a bummer for a title whose core gameplay revolves around it.

There isn't really any particular story to speak of, but the characters really ooze personality, both through their designs, as well as their personal dance styles. It's a bit of shame that even a small story couldn't be tacked on, because there's definitely something compelling about the cast. It's a lot of fun to see their moves and perfect their combos, whether dancing alone, or competing in the big leagues.