Common Sense Media Review
By Marc Saltzman
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
A fun, flawed music game for players of all ages.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
What's It About?
BOOGIE can best be described as two games in one: a dancing game, where you must shake the Wii remote to the beat to rack up points, and a karaoke game, where you sing into a microphone and are judged on pitch and rhythm. You first choose from one of the five available \"Boogs\": Each character has its own personality, moves, and customized clothing, accessories, and hairstyles. In Dance mode, you must swing the Wii remote in a given direction, in time with the music, so that your Boog can perform cool moves and earn points. In Karaoke mode, you put the other Wii remotes down, plug the microphone (included) into one of the Wii's USB ports, and then sing along with songs by reading the onscreen lyrics -- you don't have to be very good to see encouraging words flashed on the screen.
Is It Any Good?
Boogie is a good (but not great) music game for the Wii that has the right idea -- cute characters, a good song list, dancing, singing, and video editing -- but it doesn't equal the sum of its parts. The game would be a lot more fun if you had to dance, instead of making your character dance by whipping the controller around, plus the singing component is far too simplistic so you really don't have to try hard to pass these stages. The game isn't very challenging -- even for novice or younger players -- and after a short while it grows repetitive even though you can unlock bonus songs, locations, and items for your characters.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why music/rhythm games are all the rage these days. Do you like the singing part or the dancing part more? Did EA bite off more than they could chew by combining a dancing game and a singing game? Do you think this game would be more fun if you actually had to dance instead of waving the controller around?
Game Details
- Platform : Nintendo Wii
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Electronic Arts
- Release date : August 9, 2007
- Genre : Music & Dance
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : August 25, 2016
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