Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Grooves (Wii)

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION: DISNEY GROOVES is a "DDR" game. For those new to DDR, it stands for Dance Dance Revolution, a genre of game pioneered by Konami that requires you to play a music rhythm game by using your feet while standing on a special dance pad controller. This game is bundled with two such controllers. The goal is to step on arrows on the mat that correspond to arrows shown on the screen. In Disney Grooves, in addition to matching arrows with your feet, you can also wave the Wii remote and the Nunchuk at certain times as indicated by on-screen prompts. You can rock out to 40 classic Disney songs.

The game can be played in three modes: Groove, FreePlay, and Workout. In the Groove mode, you take requests from a make-believe audience. A request may be to dance through two songs at a certain venue. By completing requests, you unlock new venues, characters, and costumes. In FreePlay mode, you can explore songs on your own or choose to have a dance-off with Mickey or other cartoon favorites. You can also explore this mode with others in a cooperative or competitive manner. In the Workout mode, you can set goals to reach, such as the number of calories burned.

This game would make a good addition to a family's library of Wii games because it is fun and it gets kids up and moving. With wholesome songs and several modes of play for both single and multiplayer, this game has much to like. Plus kids can personalize the way they play from what their avatar looks like (you can dress up your avatar to look like Mickey, Ariel or even Grumpy) to which venue they want to dance in. And with six levels of difficulty, kids as young as age six can learn DDR, while their older siblings can also find a challenge on the higher difficulty levels.

But the game is not perfect. Unfortunately, the hand movements are difficult to make register as earning points during the songs. However, you can opt to turn off the hand gestures.