Britney's Dance Beat
We know what you're wondering, and we'll make it easy for you. Yes, a game with Britney Spears' name CAN be more than pure crap. In fact, it can even be downright good.
Published: July 4, 2002
I've been running PSX2.com for more than half a decade now, and in that time, I've met with my fair share of surprises. Some games just come out of left field and smack you across the face with their greatness (Sky Odyssey was one of those games). Some you see riding high on a 60 foot tall tidal wave of hype (Stuntman was one of those). And some... Some you just quietly snicker at and hope that when the time comes, you can pass the game off to another staffer to endure. In the case of preview code for Britney's Dance Beat, that wasn't possible; our debug is a precious commodity, and I wasn't letting out of my site, so it fell to me to actually play through the (supposed) pile. Not only did I blink and lose a couple hours magically, but when I came to, I found that I'd been signing along to Britney songs. Be afraid.
Of course, it helps that I can stomach Britney Spears and her music. I've always dug the bubblegum pop sound, from the New Kids right on down, and while I will say I'm fonder of Ms. Spears' earlier stuff where she was just singing what was planted in front of her rather than trying to do her own stuff, Britney still fits in neatly with that sound. Admitting that will of course take me down a few rungs on the hetero ladder in some peoples' eyes, but I'll take that hit for the purpose of outlining one major flaw with Britney's Dance Beat: you have to actually LIKE Britney to like the game. If you don't, you won't like the game and reading any further is probably not a good idea. If you do, however, or at the very least could take her in mouthful-sized bites, you'll be okay, and you should by all means read on, because explaining the appeal of Britney's Dance Beat is easier than one would expect.
How is it possible that a completely original Britney Spears game could be good for anything other than helping a sick partygoer heave their stomach's contents in order to get back out on the dance floor? Well, here's the secret: it's not all that original, and it's made by people that actually know what a fun music game is. Those people would be the guys (and I'm sure at least one or two gals) over at Metro Graphics, the same group behind the Bust A Groove games. BDB captures that same pick-up-and-play quality that Metro's other games had, and just applies it to a slightly redesigned interface and drapes Britney across the whole mix. The result? A game slathered in Spears-ness, but otherwise quite fun.
Since it's probably worth getting out of the way, I'll just toss out the premise for the game so as to move along as quickly as possible. You play an aspiring backup dancer -- in one of three x- or y-chromosome flavors: Rob, Dan and Enrique on the he side; Elisa, Leanna and Carla on the she side -- that wants nothing more than to accompany Ms. Britney Jean Spears on her latest world tour, dancing your heart out alongside the buxom starlet. To this end, you'll have to progress through a series of trials, dancing along with some of Brit's hits. This is done quite simply with a reticle that has a band that sweeps around in a clockwise motion. Arrows corresponding to directions on the d-pad, and shapes corresponding to the face buttons appear, and as the band moves over them, you press the button. Simple, no? Of course it is, and therein lies the appeal. Once you manage to hit 10 buttons in a row, you'll fire off a blast that hits the competing dancer. The shots are unique to each dancer male or female dancer: Elisa and Enrique's make the button icons move away or towards the sweeping bar at the last second; Leana and Rob's make the icons change to another shape; and Carla and Dan's add arrows in addition to the icons that are already on the player's screen. This adds a little more complexity to an otherwise basic system, and makes two player games lots of fun when you have two people that are quick enough.
You'll do this song and dance (ugh, sorry, horrible pun) through five of Britney's songs; ...Baby One More Time, Oops!...I Did It Again, Stronger, Overprotected and I'm A Slave 4 U. The songs are split into two versions: a shorter clip that you must complete first, then a full recording that you can play through once you've played all the shorter versions. As you play through the songs, you'll amass points, and when you hit a certain level, you're given a pass to access to a montage clip showing backstage footage and probably the biggest incentive for fans to keep playing: an Immersion video of one of Britney's concert performances. It's a full song, and you're free to sweep the camera around 360 degrees and tilt and zoom it slightly. It's almost like being invisible, since the quality is great (not DVD quality, but certainly decent nonetheless), and you can pan the camera around to people in the crowd standing just inches away. They obviously didn't know what the camera was when filming and never look at it, so you can effectively crowd watch without being watched back. Oh, and then of course you can watch Britney.
It bears mentioning that the graphics in the game are impressive, especially when you consider the load times for any given level are at max five seconds. Granted, there's not much on screen, save for a few sparely textured levels with minimal polygonal detail and some high-poly character models, but everything runs smoothly and looks clean with not flicker or jaggies. When Britney shows up during the in game sequences to dance for you, a splash of motion blur and some particles are thrown on the screen, but that's as flashy as the game gets. The real graphical treat is in the animations, which were captured by Britney and her real backup dancers at House of Moves, a mo-cap studio that's been a long time collaborator with videogame developers, and have worked on games for everything from Knockout Kings for EA Sports to Raven's Solider of Fortune games. The result, expectedly, is characters that move with fantastic realism. The animations feel completely natural and transition from one to the next with no pop or any other evidence that they aren't being performed by a real-life dancer.
Likewise, the sound packs plenty of punch, but doesn't go that far beyond the in-game music. There are some encouraging quips from Britney while you play, and the usual zips and whooshes from attacks while you play are clean enough. For all the music in the game, though, it's lacking one of the most obvious features: a jukebox. There are some slick electronica remixes, most notably the incredibly cool Riprock N' Alex remix of Oops!...I Did It Again that plays during the video vault menus. It never gets a chance to take off, and had some of the other menu music been included with the usual in-game stuff, it would have added just a touch more value to the game.
Britney's Dance Beat's biggest problem lies in the fact that once you've amassed enough points to open everything up (this can be done with a few trips through the tryout mode), there's nothing left to do. The game is probably about 5 hours of gameplay, and another half hour of extras. Once you've unlocked it all, the game will probably collect dust. For that reason, it's hard to recommend it to anyone but the most ardent Britney fan. Sure, there's stuff here for anyone that can handle Ms. One More Time, but once you've unlocked everything, the game is only good as a novelty for people that want to see the Immersion videos or watch the backstage footage. This is certainly a rental for the right audience, but it's hardly worth the full price. If it drops to the $20 level, it's certainly worth some serious consideration, but otherwise pick up a copy at your local video store.
Of course, it helps that I can stomach Britney Spears and her music. I've always dug the bubblegum pop sound, from the New Kids right on down, and while I will say I'm fonder of Ms. Spears' earlier stuff where she was just singing what was planted in front of her rather than trying to do her own stuff, Britney still fits in neatly with that sound. Admitting that will of course take me down a few rungs on the hetero ladder in some peoples' eyes, but I'll take that hit for the purpose of outlining one major flaw with Britney's Dance Beat: you have to actually LIKE Britney to like the game. If you don't, you won't like the game and reading any further is probably not a good idea. If you do, however, or at the very least could take her in mouthful-sized bites, you'll be okay, and you should by all means read on, because explaining the appeal of Britney's Dance Beat is easier than one would expect.
How is it possible that a completely original Britney Spears game could be good for anything other than helping a sick partygoer heave their stomach's contents in order to get back out on the dance floor? Well, here's the secret: it's not all that original, and it's made by people that actually know what a fun music game is. Those people would be the guys (and I'm sure at least one or two gals) over at Metro Graphics, the same group behind the Bust A Groove games. BDB captures that same pick-up-and-play quality that Metro's other games had, and just applies it to a slightly redesigned interface and drapes Britney across the whole mix. The result? A game slathered in Spears-ness, but otherwise quite fun.
Since it's probably worth getting out of the way, I'll just toss out the premise for the game so as to move along as quickly as possible. You play an aspiring backup dancer -- in one of three x- or y-chromosome flavors: Rob, Dan and Enrique on the he side; Elisa, Leanna and Carla on the she side -- that wants nothing more than to accompany Ms. Britney Jean Spears on her latest world tour, dancing your heart out alongside the buxom starlet. To this end, you'll have to progress through a series of trials, dancing along with some of Brit's hits. This is done quite simply with a reticle that has a band that sweeps around in a clockwise motion. Arrows corresponding to directions on the d-pad, and shapes corresponding to the face buttons appear, and as the band moves over them, you press the button. Simple, no? Of course it is, and therein lies the appeal. Once you manage to hit 10 buttons in a row, you'll fire off a blast that hits the competing dancer. The shots are unique to each dancer male or female dancer: Elisa and Enrique's make the button icons move away or towards the sweeping bar at the last second; Leana and Rob's make the icons change to another shape; and Carla and Dan's add arrows in addition to the icons that are already on the player's screen. This adds a little more complexity to an otherwise basic system, and makes two player games lots of fun when you have two people that are quick enough.
You'll do this song and dance (ugh, sorry, horrible pun) through five of Britney's songs; ...Baby One More Time, Oops!...I Did It Again, Stronger, Overprotected and I'm A Slave 4 U. The songs are split into two versions: a shorter clip that you must complete first, then a full recording that you can play through once you've played all the shorter versions. As you play through the songs, you'll amass points, and when you hit a certain level, you're given a pass to access to a montage clip showing backstage footage and probably the biggest incentive for fans to keep playing: an Immersion video of one of Britney's concert performances. It's a full song, and you're free to sweep the camera around 360 degrees and tilt and zoom it slightly. It's almost like being invisible, since the quality is great (not DVD quality, but certainly decent nonetheless), and you can pan the camera around to people in the crowd standing just inches away. They obviously didn't know what the camera was when filming and never look at it, so you can effectively crowd watch without being watched back. Oh, and then of course you can watch Britney.
It bears mentioning that the graphics in the game are impressive, especially when you consider the load times for any given level are at max five seconds. Granted, there's not much on screen, save for a few sparely textured levels with minimal polygonal detail and some high-poly character models, but everything runs smoothly and looks clean with not flicker or jaggies. When Britney shows up during the in game sequences to dance for you, a splash of motion blur and some particles are thrown on the screen, but that's as flashy as the game gets. The real graphical treat is in the animations, which were captured by Britney and her real backup dancers at House of Moves, a mo-cap studio that's been a long time collaborator with videogame developers, and have worked on games for everything from Knockout Kings for EA Sports to Raven's Solider of Fortune games. The result, expectedly, is characters that move with fantastic realism. The animations feel completely natural and transition from one to the next with no pop or any other evidence that they aren't being performed by a real-life dancer.
Likewise, the sound packs plenty of punch, but doesn't go that far beyond the in-game music. There are some encouraging quips from Britney while you play, and the usual zips and whooshes from attacks while you play are clean enough. For all the music in the game, though, it's lacking one of the most obvious features: a jukebox. There are some slick electronica remixes, most notably the incredibly cool Riprock N' Alex remix of Oops!...I Did It Again that plays during the video vault menus. It never gets a chance to take off, and had some of the other menu music been included with the usual in-game stuff, it would have added just a touch more value to the game.
Britney's Dance Beat's biggest problem lies in the fact that once you've amassed enough points to open everything up (this can be done with a few trips through the tryout mode), there's nothing left to do. The game is probably about 5 hours of gameplay, and another half hour of extras. Once you've unlocked it all, the game will probably collect dust. For that reason, it's hard to recommend it to anyone but the most ardent Britney fan. Sure, there's stuff here for anyone that can handle Ms. One More Time, but once you've unlocked everything, the game is only good as a novelty for people that want to see the Immersion videos or watch the backstage footage. This is certainly a rental for the right audience, but it's hardly worth the full price. If it drops to the $20 level, it's certainly worth some serious consideration, but otherwise pick up a copy at your local video store.
