Dance Factory (PlayStation 2, 2006)

Dance Factory is a fantastic game for DDR fans or music lovers who want to play something physically active. Codemasters did a good job of delivering a game that is appealing in both concept and graphics. The game comes with a few licensed songs that you can dance to on three different modes: easy, normal, and pro. The real novelty of the game lies in loading up your own music CDs on your Playstation, from which Dance Factory generates a unique stepchart. Music rhythm is pretty much always synchronized very well with the stepcharts. With long songs, the stepcharts tend to have something like a 5-second break after every 1.5 minutes so you don't get too worn out before completing a song.

Other features of this game include the dancing "creatures." A unique creature can be "extracted" from every music CD you use, and these creatures can customized with accessories and dance along to your music. When not dancing with your creature, you can dance with colourful background themes much like fancy screensavers. Extra themes can be purchased with points you accumulate through dancing. The game also offers a fitness mode that tracks how many calories you burn, as well as a battle mode if you have two mats.

In spite of its fun functions, Dance Factory is not without its weaknesses. Graphics-wise, you won't find the creatures or the themes especially intricate; both have rather repetitive movements. More serious players might also find the stepcharts too easy; players used to playing 8-10 footers on Konami's DDR series will find Dance Factory's pro level somewhat equivalent to 7 or 8 footers on DDR. (Normal is similar to 4 footers, and I haven't tried easy yet, but I can imagine it would be close to 1 or 2 footers.)

However, the biggest annoyance I had with this game was the ARROWS. They are spaced too far apart, have irritating animations, and cannot be customized. Every time you step on an arrow, its edges create a ripple effect that distorts the immediate area around it. When you have a fast series of taps (steps on the same arrow) it becomes especially hard to see when arrows start rippling one after another. Also, it generally creates an illusion that arrows are moving slower than they are, which may throw you off beat. Perhaps this is a feature that will just require some getting used to, and some people might not mind it as much as I do. I simply prefer arrows clear-cut like in DDR. Expert players might consider the animated arrows a bonus obstacle.

Overall, I can say that Dance Factory is a neat game designed more for fun and music enjoyment than competition. Its limitless capacity for songs of any type makes it a novelty among DDR-type games.