Ener-G Dance Squad (Nintendo DS) Review

To sum it up in a sentence, this is a bit like Elite Beat Agents meets Barbie meets bargain basement. Amazingly, for what sounds like a fairly potent cocktail, this game doesn't suck. No sir, in fact it doesn't really do too much wrong, especially when you consider the market it is aiming for. The main bulk of the game is found in the 'Story Mode', which takes you from being silly old John Sargeant to a proverbial Rachel Stevens in a matter of hours. And not many hours at that. So whilst the main bulk of the game is pretty short, what there is here is very enjoyable and well put together. Graphically it doesn't make our eyes bleed and there is lots going on and a nice stylised look to all the artwork which gives the game a nice feel.

The main premise is to dance and get enough points to beat the challenge set and then move onto the next stage. There are a number of different types of moves that have to be completed by doing different movements with the stylus. So far so good. The further you get the more complex the moves get and the more you'll have to do, with one even requiring you to use the microphone. It's clear that the developer has taken some time to sit down and at least vaguely think about how to make a game that is playable. Somewhat shocking on the DS 'casual' scene these days.

The most disappointing aspect of this game is the music. Needless to say, for a dance game, crap music is a bit of a letdown. Whilst it is fine at first, the fact that you seem to be dancing away to the same song after two hours of play gets a little...hideous. We went a tiny bit insane as the tinny little DS speakers cracked out the same fairly tedious tune for the lord-knows-how-many time. Its like any Coldplay song, fine once, but will drive you to murder someone if you hear it too much.