I hadn’t had much of a chance to get out onto my bike and get my cardio exercise. The Wii Fit cardio games weren’t keeping my interest and I wanted to try something new. So, I rolled out the DDR mats and started to play through Groove Mode in Disney DDR.
I have blogged about this game previously … I’m not sure there’s new information here, beyond how much I dislike this particular mode of the game, and how it pretty much ruins the game for me.
Groove Mode is the “primary” game mode of Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Grooves. You unlock additional songs and venues (and outfits for your Mii) as you clear challenges. Each “Venue” consists of:
- Dance Challenges
- Dance Requests – additional challenges on new songs
- Dance Requests: Dance Offs
There are some “obstacles”, such as the dreaded the “Hand Markers”, that you can turn off in all dance games … except the Dance Offs. This made the Dance Off challenges almost unbearable to me, especially when the goal was to get a certain amount of steps in a row; a hand marker would come up and I’d invariably miss it, breaking my streak.
Hand Markers, by the way, are motions where you have to move either your left or right hand (with the controller or nunchuk in it) to clear a “step”.
So it’s always easier to make a step … but clearing a Hand Marker, especially when there are two in a row, can be tricky.
Finally, it seems like the game was shorter than it should have been. And more aggravating, when the credits started to roll, they dragged on and on and there didn’t appear to be any way to stop them … so I turned off the unit. When I turned it back on, my save game appeared to have been wiped.
The fact that Groove Mode is essentially required (it unlocks songs and options that aren’t otherwise available in any other mode until you’ve unlocked them in Groove Mode) makes it very frustrating, especially when you get stuck on certain sections. It might be more fun with two or more people … I don’t know; my usual playmate was suffering from a couple of leg related injuries and could not participate. That you’re forced in certain game types to use certain options that you can otherwise turn off doesn’t sit well with me.
If it weren’t for Groove Mode, the other modes have much potential to provide you with fun exercise, particularly if you have a partner to do them with.
As fun as the dancing in and of itself might be, this game is way more expensive (even though you get two dance pads with it) at $70 than it should be in my opinion. Wait, if you can, until it drops to well below $50.