Game: Boogie SuperStar
Platform: Wii
Publisher: EA
Developer: EA Casual Entertainment
Genre: Tweentastic dancing and singing
Release Date: October 2008
Why You Should Care: Dance moves can actually be a bit challenging; potentially good party game
Why You Should Worry: No downloadable songs; songs are not from the original artists
If your 12-year-old daughter wants to be the next Mouseketeer to rise from the Disney Channel and become a worldwide sensation, she can get started on her training by playing Boogie SuperStar. A sequel to last year’s Boogie, Boogie Superstar does away with the Spongebob-like creatures. Instead, customizable human avatars are available, most likely to appeal to the targeted female tween demographic.
In Boogie SuperStar, you are “discovered” by The Powers That Be and are taken to a secret island where you perfect your mad skills in singing and dancing. Once you think you’ve got the right moves, you compete in the Boogie Star Show in front of some very tough and critical judges.
Like its predecessor, you can either sing using the included USB microphone in a karaoke session, or dance using the Wiimote and Nunchuck. The game supports up to four players in Competitive mode, but two players in Co-op mode. The play list includes 40 songs, “made famous by popular artists”. As anyone who has ever bought a karaoke CD knows, this means that the songs are covers. There are no plans to have downloadable songs, which is a shame.
Not surprisingly the songs are mostly ahem, “made famous by” tween-appropriate pop artists like the Jonas Brothers, Ali and AJ, and Rihanna. However, there’s also music by Good Charlotte, Kanye West, and Alicia Keys. For the international version of the game, the play list will include songs from international artists such as Monrose (Germany), Finley (Italy) and Fito y Fitipaldis (Spain).
Since I didn’t want a horde of horrified gaming journalists stampeding out the door, I wisely chose not to try out the singing portion and instead watched the (male!) EA rep croon away. The karaoke session is pretty standard in that you follow the scrolling words onscreen and the bars change color to indicate if you’re on pitch. Although duets are available, the game only allows for one mic to be used, so you’ll have to share it with your singing partner.