EA have been known to release updates of their more popular franchises, rarely bringing out new ideas, this year however seems to buck the trend with quite a few original concepts due out from now until Christmas. One of these new ventures is Boogie for the Wii, but what is it? The box does not explain much on the shelf, so hopefully this review will clear up what this is all about.

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To compare Bogie with anything else on the market is very difficult, it’s a hybrid mix of Singstar, Donkey Konga, Parapa the Rappa and the Dance Stage games.

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As with most of the recent EA titles, the introduction to the game is spot on, taking you through the basic controls and what the game has to offer. First you can choose from one five characters, Juilus, an evolved plant from space, Bubba who is a newcomer to the dance circuit, Lea and Jet who are huge pop stars and Kato, a martial arts cat. You are able to choose which character and dress them as you like, many of the costumes are un-lockable by collecting points on the main game.

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The controls are quite basic, the Wii-mote needs to be swung in time with the beat of the song, the more in time you are, the more combo’s and higher score you attain. Depending on the direction that you swing the Wii-mote, your character on screen will dance to your command, swing up and you get a jump, left and right and they may clap in the same direction or spin around. With the A button you can change the dance style of your character. The more in time your dancer is, the higher the Boogie Power meter rises, once this is full you can use the B button to turn on the Boogie Power, you will then have a combo at the bottom of the screen to perform, do this correctly and in time to pull of a super dance move. At any time you can strike a pose, by holding the Z button the screen zooms in on your dancer and you are able to make their mouth move to the song, change facial expressions, and by moving the Nun-chuck around, make your character pull new poses.

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The game itself offers a few different game types, the main is Story Mode, where you play through with each character, and along the way you are able to unlock more songs and items.  This mode is split into to different parts; dancing and singing, with the dancing you have to gain a high score to move on. In the singing section you can drop the remote and go for the microphone that is included in the game. Here you will have to sing a pre-determined song, again trying to beat the high score. At the top of the screen you have your Dancer singing along (actually in time with your own voice), and at the bottom you have the words and bars that, depending on the height, dictate pitch (identical to singstar).

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There are other single player options available, Karaoke and Dance, where you can either sing, or dance to you chosen track. There is also a Video Maker, in this you can dance and then sing on your favourite stage, play it back and then edit it with zooms, effects and different camera angles. Making the music video is easy to do and can be quite creative, but it feels too separate from the rest of the game to want you to comeback to it too often.

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There are plenty of songs to choose from, not the original artists but some very close covers. Here are just a few to wet your appetite:

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ABC

Oops!..I Did It Again

I Want You Back

Kung Fu Fighting

Milkshake

You’re The One That I Want

Fergalicious

We Are Family

YMCA

One More Time

One Way Or Another

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There is also party mode, where up to 2 people can dance on the same stage and whoever earns the most points, wins. This is a complete let down as there is no multiplayer for the singing part of this game and I feel that this is a major omission on EA’s part.