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| DARN YOU, ANGELEYES! |
Last night was a win. I had friends over, wore Real Clothing, drank sangria from breakable glasses…
…and danced like the key to ending world hunger lay on my [flailing] shoulders [and arms].
Our good friends at Ubisoft sent me a copy of ABBA You Can Dance for the Wii, (available on Amazon) and generously gifted me a [pivotal] mirrored disco ball with lights. Turns out, all my daughters’ playroom needs to become a Studio 54-esque dance club are shiny lights. And for the complete removal of doll strollers, art supplies, and train accouterments.
This game comes from the award-winning Just Dance franchise and features 26 hit songs to dance to, sing along with (in the karaoke option!), perform as mini musicals, and enjoy along with live concert footage and actual music videos. Dance moves are depicted by rising figures on the sides of the screen, prompting players to sway, jump, and do crazy things with one’s arms.
I was lucky enough to have some very tolerant- and ridiculously fun- friends come play. Besides being unaware that I knew that many people with ABBA lyrical acumen, here’s what we liked:
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| Bringin’ it. Also, yes, we have a giraffe. |
-It’s really, really fun. So fun that you barely need to let the sangria kick in before you’re dying to jump up and dance.
-Four people could play at a time. This is clutch, especially when making it to Nationals on such group hits as Waterloo. (Okay, there’s no “Nationals” in the game, but we were really that good. There ought’ve been.)
-I won the first round. (That’s because a certain Liz didn’t know her Wii-mote was on and she missed the first half of the song. She might not view this as a plus, but I sure do. I won!)
-Our friend Sara may actually be a member of ABBA. She won every single round and, when her ABBA avatar unexpectedly dropped to the floor and did a crazy arm-sweep, she didn’t even bat an eye.
Things we questioned:
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| Back right corner. All you need to know. |
-It took us a little longer than expected to figure out what the heck we were doing. Like how to get back to the main screen without restarting the Wii, what each upcoming motion actually meant, and how to figure out whom was dancing for whom. Actual dialogue: “I was following the brunette.” “I was following the brunette!” “No, you’re the dude.” “Which dude?” And sure, a lot of this could’ve been chalked up to user error and/or my inability to “read directions.”
-The song Angeleyes is awful and unfairly hard to dance to.
-Dancing ability is measured solely on one’s right hand motions. Basically, you could be sitting down, but as long as the hand holding the Wii mote was doing the right moves, you could beat the person beside you who’s taking a knee and/or giving it their all. For example.
-It was a general consensus that it wouldn’t take too long to jam through all of the offered songs and it would be nice if songs could be unlocked after certain levels of awesomeness were attained. Some of the dance moves were repeated frequently throughout the catalog- which I personally had no problem with. Maybe I’ll actually get decently good at them sometime in 2012. (Then- REMATCH!)
We didn’t partake in the karaoke options (no microphones), and were momentarily charmed by the mini musical (oh, Butch), but spent a goodly three hours on the actual dance competitions. That’s where the real joy is, even when you’ve never heard the song before in your life and/or you may have just accidentally kicked a good friend.
I’m gonna hafta go ahead and recommend this game. Very little actual skill is needed to enjoy this one, and it more than brings the laughs, entertainment, and toned triceps.
Just don’t invite Sara. Not if you ever want to win, anyhow.
Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.
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