We Dance is the latest in Nordic Games’ “We” franchise for the Wii, which has included several different We Sing games, including a special Robbie Williams-themed version. With dance games such as Ubisoft’s Just Dance series still proving to be extremely popular, it makes a lot of sense for Nordic to branch out into such a popular category.
Having had the chance to spend some hands-on (and feet-on!) time previewing the game, it looks as if Nordic will have another hit on their hands, particularly around the holiday season when it’s really going to come into its own at parties. It also works really well as a fun dancercise workout.
The game comes complete with its own free dance mat, which is a major selling point right out of the box, and simply requires that you duplicate the steps and moves onscreen on the dance mat, in time-honoured arcade-style tradition. However, We Dance adds its own spin to the genre, giving you the choice of three different types of gameplay. You can opt to play with just your feet, which is the easiest mode, with just your hands, which is the medium mode, or with both, which is the hardest. We’ve tried them all, and definitely found hands and feet to be the hardest, and most challenging, but that will probably differ according to the individual playing, and depending on how co-ordinated you are (not very, in our case!).
There’s plenty of variety in the gameplay, as aside from the main game you also have a Warm Up exercise mode, a Dance School mode where you learn the choreography for each song by following the steps onscreen, and Dance TV, where you can take a breather and just sit and watch the videos for each song.
The game also features three separate mini-games for up to four players in Party mode: Jump, where you simply have to jump up as high as possible to avoid the onscreen bar; Step, where you have to step on the correct corresponding arrows on the dance mat, and Pose, where you have to run across the screen and throw yourself into a pose before the song ends.
Of course any decent dance game worth its salt needs a killer soundtrack that makes you want to get up and jump around like a maniac, and We Dance’s 40-song tracklist seems to have a solid selection of the latest chart hits such as Jay Sean’s “Down”, interspersed with classics such as the B-52’s “Love Shack”. All of the songs are graded in terms of difficulty, so you can ease yourself gently into the boogie-tastic action before tackling the more frantic numbers.
Just as with many of the Wii fitness games out there, We Dance also aims to help you improve the more that you play, so it also provides performance stats so that you can work on your weaker areas, as well as top scorer leaderboards.
All in all, a really fun work out, either on your own or with friends. It’s certainly not easy, and you’ll definitely work up a sweat if you’re doing it right, but overall it’s just a lot of fun, and bound to be another hit for Nordic.
Nordic Games will be showing We Dance at its booth at E3, located at Concourse Hall, Room 8005. You can expect to see the game in stores sometime in Q3.
