Dance: UK

I'd bought different dance games in the past but Dance: UK was by far the best, the song choice meant that even though you dont really know all the songs you can pick them up quite quickly. I'd bought the games in the past mainly to work out and I thought this one would be a far more fun way to get fit than going down the gym especially since it gave a calorie counter which depended on your weight. The only problem I had with the game was the parts in which there were three moves at the same time or keeping one foot on a space for a certain amount of beats, now im not sure if my difficulty with these moves were due to the game set up or my lack of co-ordination:)but ill let you all judge that for yourselves. All in all its a brill game which I would highly recommend

Dance: UK - It didn't take long for the dance arcade games to be converted to games console games. Dance UK is just one of the all singing, all dancing, play-in-your-own-home versions of the now classic arcade games.

Before you even open the box for Dance UK for the PS2, it looks girly. Now, I am a girl, so that's fine, but I think that's part of the reason my boyfriend won't play it. Though let me clear this up now - this is not just a game for girls... it's a game for anyone aged over 3 who has two feet (yes, it is ok if they're two left feet!)

Before You Use It

***********************

To really play this game as it's intended you need a Dance Mat. These aren't very expensive any more... you can get a basic one for around £7.50 ish if you look in catalogue books like Argos, and on the internet, and you can often benefit by purchasing a dance game and dance mat at once - there's plenty of offers that'll get you a game and a mat at a reduced price.

A dance mat, in case you've not seen one, is basically a square mat that you put on the floor that plugs into your console where you'd normally plug your controller in. There are icons on the dance mat to represent most, if not all, the buttons on a standard controller. The mat is set out so that if you stood exactly in the centre of it you would be surrounded by arrows, each representing a direction. You'll often find start / reset / L1 / L2 / R1 / R2 type buttons at the top of the mat too.

Once you've plugged your mat in and it's laid out on a nice flat surface, try and move objects that are breakable or will hurt if you land on them out of your way in case you slip, or wave your arms a bit too energetically!

All advice regarding the use of dance mats says not to do it in your socks! This is because you may slip - opt for bare feet or flat rubber soled shoes.

How to Dance

***********************

No matter what mode you play your game in, dancing is just the same. Part of the screen will show a display set out similarly to your dance mat, with eight directional arrows displayed like compass points (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW). From an empty area in the centre of these points an arrow will move seemingly from the distance towards one of the pointers. The arrow will be facing the way you need to step, as does the pointer that it reaches. Once the arrow reaches the pointer you need to make your move and step on the corresponding icon on your dance mat. Hard to describe, but pretty easy when you see it.

This method differs to most of the arcade style games as in those, arrows move from the bottom of the screen to the top, and it's when they reach the top of the screen that you need to make your move. This game also uses 8 steps, as opposed to some that only use 4 (i.e., it uses diagonals as well as back, forward, left and right).

In general, you only need to step on one arrow at a time, but occasionally you'll need to step on two at once which will involve a little bit of jumping about. So that you can easily tell from the display that both arrows have to be stepped on at the same time they will appear in the same colour. Otherwise, each arrow in turn appears in a different colour.

Dance: UK Mode

***********************

There are a few modes you can opt for within the game. Dance: UK Mode is the main game. This is where you take part in a dance competition. Each competition takes place in a tv studio-type setting. When you start you can opt for 'easy', 'medium' or 'expert' and this will set the tone for the game. The game then takes you through auditions and recalls.

In each audition you get to choose one of three tracks to dance along to. Although it's not stated anywhere, I can't help but feel the track listed at the top of this list of three is easier than the one at the bottom - maybe it's just a coincidence, but it seems to happen at each stage. If you do well, scoring about 8 or more stars out of 10 you'll get a first recall Where again you'll choose from three tracks and have another dance, this is followed by a second recall. From here you'll go to audition two and the recalls, then audition three and the recalls and so on until you reach the finals. In the finals you'll dance through five consecutive tracks, only progressing to the next track on successful completion of the current track.

Successful completion of Dance: UK 'unlocks' a dance recorder enabling you to record your own dance sequences to the tracks... needless to say, I'm not there yet...

Training Mode

***********************

I think I need more practice in this area! This mode gives you a chance to become more accustomed to the Dance Mat controller, and teaches you how to more accurately hit the arrows as the pass through the target pointers on the screen. This is done through short tutorial type tasks where you watch what you're supposed to do then do it yourself.

Juke Box Mode

***********************

Forget the competition, in this mode you can just choose a track, choose a difficulty level then have a dance! The steps used in juke box mode are the same as in Dance UK mode giving you the chance to practise some of the 'dances', or just the chance to try out some of the songs you've not yet come across in the game mode.

The Music

***********************

There are 32 tracks in total that you can dance to, however, until you've completed the game in Dance UK Mode you'll only have access to 27 of these. The tracks include a good range of new and older tunes, as well as some tracks created especially for this game.

A selection of the tracks you might recognise include:

- One Night Stand ~ Mis-Teeq

- Gotta Have Your Love ~ Liberty X

- Rapper's Delight ~ Sugarhill Gang

- Murder on the Dance Floor ~ Sophie Ellis Bextor

- Let's Dance ~ Five

- Make Luv ~ Room 5

- It's Like That ~ Run DMC feat. Jason Nevins

- Round Round ~ Sugababes

- Heaven ~ DJ Sammi

- I Gotta Get Thru This ~ Daniel Beddingfield

- Ooh Ahh Just a Little Bit ~ Gina G

- Hey Baby - Jose Guadaloupe

The Verdict

***********************

This game is great for a bit of fun, but for me at least is embarassingly difficult to do well at! I'm certainly not a dancer, and look more like I'm trying to stamp on bugs than dance when I'm playing this! It's definitely a game that I'll close the curtains before playing, but it's also definitely a game I really enjoy playing despite being fully aware that there are plenty of little kids out there who could give me a really good thrashing on it!

You can get hold of this game and a Dance Mat for about £19.99 now, so it's certainly worth buying as it won't break the bank. The fact that you can play it in multi-player mode if you have more than one mat, or in Head2Head Mode if you need to take it in turns on one mat means you can have fun with your friends / family with this one.

It's the kind of game you'll play regularly for a week or so, then you'll put it away for a while, maybe a month or more, then you'll get it out again. Certainly one that'll be fun for plenty of time to come yet. Fans of the game might be pleased to know that a new version of Dance: UK (which I think is called Dance: UK XL) is soon to be released, which seems to be pretty similar but with a heap of new tracks to move along to.

Definitely recommended to kids of all ages!