Bust-A-Move 2

Description

BUST-A-MOVE 2 is the lightning quick, ultra-intense, 100% addictive, arcade puzzler that's gonna grab you and never let go! As the balls descend, you're gonna need sharp eyes and quick reflexes to match 3 or more balls and pop them...fast! Insane two player action pits you against an opponent in a race to bust or be busted!!Review It's hard to duplicate the charm and success of an innovator. Despite the rash of counterfeit concepts and ham-fisted attempts at cashing in on a good thing, very few of the Parappa the Rapper clones out there ever came close to capturing the oddly addictive joy of the hip-hop dog. After all, he is the originator. However, one game did emerge from the rubble, due to a combination of two factors: great graphics and catchy music. That game was Bust A Move (no relation to the bubble-popping dinosaurfest we're used to in the US). Basically a dancing "simulation," Bust A Move was highly acclaimed, not just for its successful take on the burgeoning genre, but for adding two-player action as well. Now that more than a year has passed since the debut of the first game, Bust A Move 2: Dance Tengoku Mix has arrived. It is definitely bigger, but is it actually better? Perhaps not. Gone from the previous cast are fan favorites Hamm (the ReRun-esque body rocker) and the break-dancing Gas-O. In their places are Tsutomu (complete with maracas), Comet the waitress, Bio the biohazardous zombie, and Kelly the girl cop. Once the stunning CG opening fades from view, you'll find the game very familiar to what you found in the first episode. Character art is much wilder this time around, as a new character artist has gone over the top with the crew's design. After selecting your character, you can then choose a difficulty level. The difficulty settings actually affect the control display for your character. The easy level gives you a single bar to follow as your dancer performs his moves. The normal level lets you play as you did in the first BAM. The hard level leaves you to your own devices without the help of onscreen prompting; this level is best left for experts only. Basically, the game plays the same as the first, with special attacks and evades, although the popularity meter is slightly different. Gone is the tug-of-war-style popularity bar; instead, there is now a "Cool, Chillin' and Freeze" meter that lets you know how you're doing, in addition to the bar that keeps tally of your score. As in the first game, there is a two-player game, a practice mode for getting all of your moves down, and a dance-view mode that lets you watch the moves of whatever character you've beaten the game with. The game is vibration-compatible to keep you in touch with yourself as the opposing dancers hit you with their special attacks. The problem here is that this sequel is not nearly what it could have been. If there was any criticism to be leveled at the first game, it was that the beat was often too precise and too difficult to match, particularly on the slower numbers. This is still the case with the sequel. A subtle difference between the two versions of the game is that the music in the sequel is not as good as that in the first. While this may be subjective to the listener/player's taste, it might be worth pointing out that the music is performed by a number of groups from East/West Japan's roster and is not composed by the Avex Trax label as it was in the first game. There are no instant classics here like "The Natural Playboy" from the first game. While J-pop might not usually be your cup of tea, the music here is just not as good. Secondly, while the character art and design might seem "fresher" or more "street," the new dancers just really seem contrived and unnatural. (Bio - a rotting green zombie with an axe in his head? Come on! Gimme a break!) Lastly, considering the anal sense of rhythm you need to find the pulse on some of these songs, you'd think Enix and company might have put the Dual-Shock controller to better use and installed some force-feedback action to follow the beat itself. Now that would have been innovative. Perhaps the only saving grace is the inclusion of a large number of secret characters, but these too are cheesy beyond belief. Where's a flamenco dancer when you need one? As it is, Bust A Move 2: Dance Sengoku Mix

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UPC Number: 02148121066

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