Customer Reviews

All Star Cheer Squad

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I want to start by saying that I've only played this game for a few hours, but so far I'm not impressed. I bought the game because I am having so much fun with the other cheer game, We Cheer and thought this might be even better since it uses the balance board. So far I'm disappointed.

The biggest annoyance so far is that the screens take so long to load from one practice or routine to another. After waiting 20 to 25 seconds for the first part to load you get three screens acknowledging that you're using a balance board, warning you not to jump on it and some other warning and then you have to step off while it calibrates and then back on and wait again. This takes another 40 to 45 seconds. And you have to do this between each practice, tryout or routine screen. It doesn't remember the balance board like the Wii Fit does where you only need to do it one time.

If during a practice or routine you want to go back and do it over, you have to go through listening to the cheerleaders explanations and go through all the screens, clicking the A button instead of just going to the routine or practice that you want to do over. There doesn't seem to be any way to click through the first part. So you end up standing around waiting much more than actually moving and playing the game.

The main reason I bought this game was for exercise, but there is a lot less moving around than with the other We Cheer game. Most of the time you're just moving the Wiimote and nunchuck in patterns which don't always register correctly. Sometimes wrong moves register as correct and sometimes vice verse. The use of the balance board doesn't make much sense so far because since you can't jump on it or hop from one foot to the other you're basically putting pressure on one foot or the other, not really doing the moves on the screen. And having to wait for the balance board to calibrate every 3 or 4 minutes when you go to another routine makes it hardly worth the time waiting for that to register.

One other problem is that if you were to actually mimic the arm movements the cord on the nunchuck isn't long enough to put your arms out to the sides unless you're a very small person, so you would need a wireless nunchuck. A better solution would have been to use 2 Wiimotes like the We Cheer game. So far, there is much less movement in this game.

The music is ok, but a lot of the same thing. The graphics are ok, you can see them in the description here. You can unlock some different outfits and routines. It follows a year in the life of a cheerleader and you can make up your own routines at some point in the game. I'm going to spend some more time and give the game a chance but I have to tell you that in the first hours I've felt mostly annoyance at the slow loading times and impatience, waiting for the game to get better. So far it isn't fun and finding the motivation to go back to it feels like a chore.

I hope to see some other reviews here, telling me I'm doing something wrong and there's a way to skip through all the delays. I really wanted to like this game.

Back story: I did try-outs and got to 'week three' with a corded-nunchuk, then deleted my game, bought a cordLESS nunchuk and started all over again. My scores all went up about 25%, not to mention the fun of it increased infinately, as face-whipping myself over and over, previously, with the corded nunchuk wasn't fun.

Visually, this is a robotic, uninspired, ugly-animated game when you get right down to it.

But in ASCS's defence, it has worked very hard on reproducing detailed, authentic, and varied cheerleading motions to a game. It fails to impress immediately because it hides what little is good about the game; for instance: that these cheerleaders do dance later on, and are capable of more than just looking like robotic clones directing traffic on an airstrip.

For the average, fun-seeking player (as the term 'game' implies to us as consumers) it's too little too little too late; which is a very valid experience for most buyers of the game, unfortunately. ASCS is a workhorse, and while that is not downgraded in my review at all, `gaming' implies fun and little frustration, and ASCS excels at frustrating in the beginning. It's got buried treasure but you have to persevere for it and they make it as annoying as possible at the start, so it`s no wonder people are irked. But after that, it really softens up and you totally get into winning competitions. But I do understand completely why it frustrated people to the max and why it's reviews were bad, and I had the exact same experience until I got more into the game. Games should sell themselves instantly out of the box, and this is not the case with ASCS.

Bottomline: Nice try, but it's an inevitable dust-collector.

Update: It's been a year since I reviewed this game. I haven't played it once since 2008. I realize the reason I don't play is the weird, complex set of button combos they expect you to remember while 'cheering' and the totally odd robotic, stick-like cheerleaders, horrible music, and songs with zero danceability. That sounds harsh but it's the truth. I recently purchased "We Cheer 2" and it's an incredibly enjoyable game. Go buy that one instead. Music rocks, cheerleaders look like live humans that are totally customizable AND "We Cheer 2" is 100% instanlty-immersible and a great, fun work out for girls, boys, women, and men of any age at all that keeps you striving to beat the next song and the next but isn't too hard for the average jane/joe to master.

We got this looking for another game that would work with the Wii Fit board! Its about to be returned!!
I agree with the other reviews - this game has some serious flaws which affect playability and general fun!
First Wii Cheer had a great idea in allowing you to use one remote in each hand to execute the moves - this game, in contrast, has you use the remote in one hand and nunchuck in the other. This idea might work if you are a child...a little child, but as the cord between the two is not that long, the moves are either restricted or impossible to perform for an adult or even a child above 8/9!!
Second is the annoying delay - some of the moves you do are recognized too late if at all, the other times it identifies moves made, that have not actually been performed!! Add to this the need to calibrate the board between each dance set which adds a delay between play -very fustrating!!
This is a cute idea, but like many Wii games, it seems it may have been rushed to market before the kinks were worked out...its a shame!!

This game is not fun without a wireless nunchuck. It's not easy or fun to do the moves if you can't extend your arms to look like the character on the screen. The nunchuck wire slaps you in the face and occasionally gets stuck behind your head. If you had a cheerleader ponytail it would be mangled. I wish I would have bought the Wee cheer instead.

Ok, here is the thing. I am in college and love my wii, so when I saw an all star game I was so excited. I was an all star cheerleader, and I thought "how cool. What a good way to stay in shape!" However I am very very disapointed. I guess if you were a little kid or had really short arms it would be great. The game requires you to connect the numchuck to the remote to do the motions, however the cord connecting the two is so short, you can't even do the motions for real. I mean I was disapointed that I couldn't even make a high v.
Overall, great for kids who want to learn more about cheerleading or practice motions for tryouts for a team, but just not a good game for adults who want it to stay in shape.

This game is clearly designed for younger girls, so maybe it's my own fault for wanting to relive my high school cheerleader days. I expected cheesy dialogue, that was a given, but the gameplay with the Wii Fit Board is horrid.

In career mode you design your cheerleader, then head off to try out to join the Fox Squad. You learn moves in practices before heading into tryouts. This is all reasonable. What is unreasonable is that as you leave each practice (you have to complete 4 prior to the first tryout), you have to get off the board for it to recalibrate before moving into the next practice.

This feature causes game play to be really slow. Otherwise, there's a lot of potential and I enjoy the video replay option for tryouts, but I'm overall underwhelmed with this game.

I'm always on the lookout for Wii games that make me get up and move, preferably to music. Last week I rented We Cheer, and boy, did I move. Today I took that one back and rented All Star Cheer Squad. Bad plan. The real problem, I think, is that unlike We Cheer, which uses a remote in each hand (thus allowing a free range of arm motion), All Star Cheer Squad uses a remote with the nunchuck attached. If you are a little person with a very small arm span, great. If you're a grown person whose arms, when extended, reach farther than the wire between the remote and nunchuck goes, too bad. Essentially, for many of the moves your upper arms are more or less glued to your sides while your lower arms are just waving the remotes around so you don't accidentally rip the nunchuck out of the remote.

Additionally, as far as any sort of exercise value goes, thus far the routines have been less than a minute in length. I could have stood still and waved my lower arms about for 45 seconds to music for free. (Also, just personal preference, I thought the music on this one was awful. Are these even actual songs?)

I don't have the balance board, which might have gotten a little more movement going, but that wouldn't have solved the problem of minimal arm movement.

This is the first day of a 5 night rental for this game. I'm taking it back in the morning. If you want a cheer game that has good music, lots of movement, and doesn't require a balance board, go for We Cheer and leave this one on the shelf where it belongs.

As a former NFL Cheerleader, I thought this would be fun and a good source of exercixe. I was wrong. ASCS is cumbersome and boring! While connecting the nunchuck and remote you can not get precise movement, such as a high "V" or your arms straight out to the side. It was designed for a very small person (maybe a 3 year old).

I also couldn't find a "Save" control so everytime I want to play the game, I have to start from the begining with tryouts.... Horrible!

I have never had to wait so long in a game just to get to a play part. Have to wait for all the instructions. Have to wait for the board to callibrate *every* time. Have to wait as it loads dialogue. Have to wait as they talk. Have to wait as it goes from dialogue to main play. Then you have about 1 min of play before repeating the cycle.

Wait wait wait, not worth it.

I bought this game with such high hopes...and have had them crushed. The game itself is pretty fun, but the loading times and short duration of play between the loading times just kills it! Seriously when I play this game I stand in the middle of my living room watching the load screen for so long that I just end up sitting down from boredom. Then when the balance board is plugged in there are addition wait times while there are repeated warnings not to jump on the board, not to fall off the board, calibrating the board, now stand on the board....Finally you get about 45 seconds of doing a routine before it ends, then you go through a 45-60 second load time before you get back to the main menu. The game has potential, but is killed by the lack of flow between sequences, long load times, and unnecessary repeated reminders. I hardly play this game b/c it is so frustrating!