But not Mario stars, oh no. I’m not sure that Dancing with the Stars for the Wii is even worth the time it takes to critique it, but okay, here we go. To pull again from Doug Church, who points out that at the very least, players should know what to expect of a game based on the design and gradually learn what you can do in the world, this game completely misses that point in the entire concept itself. You don’t actually dance in this game. You move your hands and shake them around or wave them sometimes.
Then, it’s not even intuitive. On the screen when you just jump into play, it doesn’t say anywhere you have to hold down the B and Z buttons. You only find that out in the tutorial. Come on! Wii games should at least be easy to learn without even looking at the tutorial mode. The icons of the controllers should’ve had the B and Z buttons highlighted when it’s time to press them.
All that aside, it was fun watching David and Nis do the mashed potato. The one saving grace is the party possibility of the game, but even then, there are plenty of other much better Wii games out there, and they offer multiplayer co-op and competitive options (Wii Sports, Playground). I’ll hold out for Wii Fit, which doesn’t necessarily promise to rapidly burn calories, but it does have yoga and balance elements I’d love to do along with the Wii Sports fitness tests.
