Customer Reviews

Dance Sensation! - Nintendo Wii

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When I first heard about Dance Sensation, I was looking forward to trying it out. They claimed that you could "Learn 4 different dance styles...each with a progressively complex set of over 40 real steps".

When I read this, I figured this would a game where one could actually learn and perform real dance steps. Sort of like Just Dance, but where you'd learn real hip-hop, jazz, ballet, and Latin dance moves.

Unfortunately, the reality didn't match my expectations at all.

Like many rhythm games before it (Dancing with the Stars, High School Musical, etc.), the game doesn't involve real dancing at all. Instead, you just swing your arms to match on-screen cues.

Each dance move corresponds to a specific combination of Wii remote and nunchuk movement. For example, when performing ballet routines, you twirl your Wii remote in a counterclockwise circle to "perform" a "pique arabesque". you move your remove in a downward semicircle to "perform" a "grand pas de chat". As you progress to "intermediate" and "advanced" steps, you start to use the nunchuk as well.

If you match the required movement correctly, your on-screen character performs the "real" dance move. The animation of the actual move is accurate and the name of the dance step will be displayed and called out. By tying different dance moves together, you can make your character dance a complete routine.

The problem, of course, is that you're not really dancing nor even learning the steps. At the very least, it would have been nice to have a step-by-step tutorial for each step that the on-screen character performs. But the character moves so fast and the steps are so complex that you don't really have a chance to examine the real moves, much less to "learn" them.

The game is definitely geared towards young girls, with the usual trappings of typical Wii games. All the on-screen characters are girls whom you can name, dress in different outfits, and change hairstyles for. As you progress through the game, you can unlock different locations, medals, costumes, and hairstyles. And of course, there's the high-pitched, overly effusive "Great! Way to go!!" positive reinforcement every step along the way.

All in all, I'd say that a few years ago this would have been a great game. In fact, on a positive side, the use of the MotionPlus controller gives it a level of accuracy that previous rhythm games didn't have.

But of course, with the advent of Just Dance and the influx of games coming in the next few months that tout "real dance moves" such as Gold's Gym Dance Workout and the new Dance Dance Revolution, a game like this seems outdated and passé.

If you have a young girl in the house who's taking dance and would appreciate having the reinforcement of learning different dance moves (by seeing, if not doing), I'd say this would be a good title for you. But if the goal of you or your child is to actually dance those moves, chances are you'll be disappointed.

Don't wast your money, you just move your arms with the contoller and no dancing. My daughter was excited at first with the idea of the game but soon became bored and has not touched it since opening and trying it a few times. Waste of money. I registered the game on the website for tips and tricks and they do not have anything to help.

I got this game for my 4 year old daughter and was very disappointed. It was not explaining how to do the dance moves at all and the animated characters were not easy for her or myself to understand what they were asking you to really do. We have just dance 2 and LOVE that game so this one didn't even have a chance to fall short cause it never took off the ground to begin with :(

Bottom line: there are 8 "tracks" of music in this, 2 for each style. Each track is about 3 seconds long and loops over and over again. It's enough to get on anybody's nerves!! Other games have full music tracks from renowned music artists... the geniuses who made this game decided to put less than a minute's worth of music on it!!! If you're looking for something for very young kids, I recommend Alvin and the Chipmunks or the Just Dance games. If you're looking for something harder, We Cheer has a lot of tracks, or if you don't mind Japanese: Happy Dance collection has a lot of unlockable outfits, though not very many tracks and is very cute and fun for a little while. Helix is a fun techno dance game available through wiiware.

Ordered this game from Amazon April 2010 and still have not received it. I have always had great luck with amazon but the fact that I never recieved this item has caused me to think twice about shopping from Amazon.