No, I'm Not Kidding

Let me start off by saying, Ubisoft, I hate your casual market approach to selling video games. The Imagine Series is horrible and the way you go around talking about being industry leaders is ridiculous. You are basically selling to a new market who does not completely understand the video game culture. Plus don't get me started about the rehash Petz series or any other crap that you're coming up with. I really hope that the casual games market is a fad so we can all get over it and come back to normalcy. I know it's not the case so I'll just have to put up with it.

With all that out of the way, I think people may have a stigma against casual games. Yes, most of them are stupid and aimed at people who don't know any better. The fact that some of the best games this year have been outsold by mini-game collections is alarming. But that doesn't mean that their isn't viable content.

Last week on the show, for my shameful secret, I let on that I had checked out Just Dance for the Wii. I'm sure everyone thought either I was crazy or joking. To explain a little better, I like music. Not necessarily music games but just plain old music and while I prefer Japanese music just listening to it makes me feel better. I also like dancing. I'm not a professional dancer. I just like to move around and get all the stress out. While everyone might not share the same excitement of dancing around, I know people are a lot less resistant when they are alone in their room.

For example, I did not play Just Dance at PAX this year. It was probably a regret of mine. It seemed fun back then but there were a lot of people around and the booth was being presented by the FragDolls. I was a little embarrassed so I opted not to try it out then.

Fast forward to today. I played Just Dance last night and dare I say it, I loved it. I'm not saying that you should go out immediately and buy it. I think there are people who will enjoy this game and there are a lot of stereotypical video game players that will hate on it. It's not the best game ever made and honestly, I don't even think that the Wii Remote measures anything. You just as easily could have put it on a DVD and people could pop it into a DVD player and dance along. The game is basically a Richard Simmons dance along. I'll go more in detail on the podcast this week but if you wouldn't mind learning some basic dance moves in the comfort of your own home, this is great for you. There are ways this could have been better, but again I'll go through those on the podcast.

11 of 31,
David