Wii Dance Hotest Party Hits 2 (compare with Dancing Stage for the PS-One and Wii Fit).

I’ve been on a diet for some time now. At first I took Alli weight-loss pills, but stopped taking the Alli pills a little over 2 weeks ago as my BMI is now below the minimum to get more Alli tablets.

I’m still trying to continue with the same diet and increasing my exercise further to continue the great results I’ve had since starting my diet. I’ve lost 1lb this week.

I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been using the Wii Fit to help lose weight and a little more recently I got out my old Playstation One dance mat as well.

The Wii-Fit was better at the start of the diet. I still like the ability to exercise whilst watching TV using the step or jogging “free play” games, but I’m not using it as much as I did the first 2 months. The dance mat is much more energetic and provides much better calorie burn than the wii fit.

The one thing about the Dancing Games for the Playstation 1 is that there are only about 3 decent songs that sound good and have a good beat to dance to on each game CD, most of the rest are poor quality songs which appear to have been created for the purpose of adding more tracks without needing to license the full songs. I have got 3 CDs in total so that comes up to about 9 decent songs, but involves switching CDs.

I have now got Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 2 for the Wii. Shortly after I got an email saying it would take a few weeks to order, but then once that expired I got a notification that they were unable to get any and they cancelled my order and provided credit for the item. I then bought from Argos, but have since noticed that Amazon now have 1 in stock (probably the one they were trying to get hold of for me). There were also some available using Amazon Marketplace, but when the additional delivery costs were added they did not work out any cheaper.

Review of Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 2 for the Wii

This is a review of the latest Konami dance game for the Wii games console. I purchased this as a bundle including the dance mat and the software. This is effectively a revamped version of the original PS1 dance mat games that were popular during the 90s.

I still have the original PS1 games, which as you would expect for a game that’s over 10 years old, are showing their age. The graphics are very poor and there are only a few decent songs.

The new Hottest Party games for the Wii bring the graphics up to date and add the wireless hand controller and nunchuck to create a full body workout.

The dance mat

The dance mat is better quality than those that we bought for the PS1. It includes a non-slip pad across the whole of the mat so it does not slip, compared to 4 small pads on the PS1 mat (Game own brand). It is responsive and easy to use, although the A and B buttons are in the opposite positions that I’d have expected – and functionality is the opposite of the PS1 mats.

The mat plugs into the legacy Nintendo Game Cube controller ports on the Wii. If your Wii is vertical then these will be on the top, or if horizontal to the left. There is quite a bit of additional clearance needed to insert the cables; I had to move my DVD player so that it is offset behind my Wii. There is a Wireless Wii Dance Mat available to purchase separately, but it is quite expensive. A USB mouse mat would have been better as it could have been connected to the rear of the Wii or even to a hub / extension cable.

Graphics and Songs

The graphics are much better than the older platforms. Although obviously computer generated the dancers look fairly realistic and are performing proper dance routines (rather than just jumping around getting in the way on the PS1).

On some songs the original artist is used and in this case the background shows the pop video to go with the song. For example Basement Jaxx, but most songs are cover versions made for the game and feature the computer generated dancers. This includes cover versions of Black and White, Walking on Sunshine and Umbrella to name just a few.

The number of songs is quite good and most of them are good to dance to. The fact that they are cover versions does not detract from the playability. In fact if anything I find the music video on the original songs distracting.

Gameplay – Dance Mat, controller and nunchuck

The dance mat can be used in conjunction with the standard Wii controller and Nunchuk (available to purchase separately)Gameplay – Gimmicks

A new part of the gameplay are aptly named gimmicks. These are arrows specifically designed to confuse you. They include arrows that need multiple taps, some that move around and some that appear at the last minute. These can be frustrating at times, but add a bit more interest into the game.

Summary

Although similar to the original dance games there are a number of new features and a better selection of songs. This is helpful in keeping the game interesting and so likely to increase the amount of use and exercise.