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It's About Time Somebody Did This

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 78 / 79
Date: September 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I love DDR as much as anyone, but even the most hardcore player has to admit that it eventually gets repetitive when you're stuck with a very finite number of songs. Dance Factory is a long overdue idea that lives up to its promise. You really can pop in any CD and dance to it.

Granted, there are a few caveats. It takes some time for the game to analyze each track and come up with dance steps, about 30 seconds for a 3-4 minute song. If you're doing a whole CD be prepared to wait up to 10 minutes. There's a mini puzzle game included that you can play while it's creating your dance steps, but I found that this actually made the create phase run much slower. Once you're done you'll need to save the steps to a memory card to avoid waiting the next time around. It's not very space-intensive, however the game doesn't recognize Slot 2 or the PS2 HDD.

I should also mention that the game itself is on a blue-base CD-ROM, not a DVD-ROM. (When was the last time you saw a new PS2 release on one of those?) I've always had a bit of trouble getting my console -- it's the older bulky model -- to read some of these, and it took a couple of resets with the disc already in the drive before it would take it. Occasionally during play the song would cut out before it got to the end, and the game would tell me it had a problem reading it. This happened on different CDs so I'm assuming it's my PS2.

Once Dance Factory loads, you eject the game disc, insert your music CD and create your steps. I experimented with a variety of music types and got mixed results. It seems to work best when there's an easy beat for the game to pick up on. With some old-skool hip-hop and a dance collection that was very similar to what you'd get with DDR, I got pretty good steps. Sometimes they were spot-on, other times the game seemed to get the main beat confused with the half-steps, and I was never certain whether this was intentional. I got similarly decent results from an 80s/90s light rock CD, but highly complex or soft, beatless music (such as jazz and new age) is better left undanced to. Continuous mix CDs don't work so well either, since even in endurance mode the game stops after each song to give you your score, unexpectedly cutting off the segue into the next track. It works much better if there's a fade-out between songs.

My biggest gripe comes from the game's arrow layout. For some reason (possibly legal?) the designers chose to transpose the positions of the up and down arrows on the screen. DDR has pretty much wired my mind to expect: left, down, up, right. So I tend to look at where the arrow is rather than what direction it's pointing. This led to a lot of confusion when I first started. Also I felt the arrow columns are spaced a little too far apart in the one-player mode. Finally a couple of the background themes make it hard to see the arrows coming.

The difficulty also felt unbalanced at times. Even on the pro difficulty a few songs (mostly slower ballads) had steps that were too easy, but for most faster tracks the sheer number of steps was insane. It felt like there was a difficulty level missing between normal and pro. And the step generation algorithm never came up with anything nearly as creative as the human-created moves in a DDR game.

All this said, I'm still glad I got Dance Factory. Dancing to your favorite music is a blast compared to the endless Paranoia remixes. The game itself is far from perfect, but the sheer music variety it gives you makes it a worthwhile purchase for people who love dance games.

This game has its place

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 34 / 34
Date: October 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Our family has DDR. My two teenage boys are very good at it, and thrive on challenging dance moves. My two grade schoolers just have fun dancing. My wife and I join in occasionally. This game is not for intense DDR fanatics. My teenage boys give the same complaints that other reviewers here do, that the up/down arrows are in reverse order compared to DDR, so for those who almost play DDR with their eyes closed, this will be frustrating. However, for my younger kids (and their parents), we don't care. Our brains don't have DDR burned into them yet. Even my older boys acknowledge that being able to dance to their own music is fun and refreshing, even if it's not as challenging. I agree that some songs don't get read well by the dance making software, so you simply don't play those songs. But I was impressed how well many songs were translated into dance steps. Once you've uploaded songs from a CD, you never have to do it again (as long as you have your memory card inserted). As for CD-R discs, I've had no problem with them. I used quality brand discs, not the super cheapies. I haven't tried CD-RW discs, and wouldn't either. A big plus for parents is that this game has no annoying DJ's voice like our DDR game, and so instead of hearing the same techno songs over and over again with annoying comments like "You're not an ordinary fella!" and "Absolutely wonderful!", when my kids play this game I just hear normal music playing (and feet stomping, of course). As long as you know what to expect from this game, you won't be disappointed, as long as you aren't a super freak intense DDR fanatic. I'm glad we got it.

Good idea, needs work!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: September 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my fiance who had become obsessed with various DDR games in the hope that I could replace the repetitive techno music with songs of my own and maybe join the fun... well I had no problem figuring out the setup and LOVE that I can in fact dance to any music I want... the only problem is.... well.. even after I have the game create a dance to go with my songs it leaves me wanting more. First of all the steps NEVER go with the music... and some of the songs shouldn't be hard to find a beat for at all. Second, I'm not very fond of the levels of the game. The easy is frustratingly simple, the normal level is not much better, but the expert is crazy!!! There is no middle ground!!! Plus I do miss the option to have the two players competing dancing on different levels... After all, I'm just not as good as he is! In this game both dancers have to choose the same difficulty. I know its frustrating for him to have to "slow it down" for me, and I get upset trying to keep up with him on the harder levels... Oh well I guess over all its alright.... at least I can listen to my music instead of "Cartoon heros"

An okay dance game ruined by the user interface

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: October 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I will not belabour the points (trans: shortcomings) enumerated by the other reviewers, but will add the following points missed that should further disincline one from obtaining this game.

1. Once the cd is read, and you've laboured your way through titling the disk, artist and particular song, you must confirm a jaw-dropping FOUR times to play any particular song. What is stunning is that the last confirmation is: "Go" which immediately follows your confirmation of "dance this song?".

Let me reiterate: it requires four confirmation to dance a song. DDR has zero: you select the song which immediately launches the dance. This user interface (lack of) design kills this game.

2. DDR has characters that look a bit silly, but compared to Dance Factory, they are Da Vinci's. Dance Factory's creatures are ugly and have lewd dance animations: in short, this game is /much/ better played /without/ the accompanying creatures, and "earning" a new creature is a dubious accomplishment.

3. Maybe the developer thought a majority of their target audience weighs 30 kilos, and maybe they are correct, but requiring me to enter my weight (over 75 kilos) at every session, when I have this information stored and easily retrieved from my memory card is simply assinine. Also, one of the FOUR confirmations ask for my weight again, at every song.

4. No goals for workouts? Tracking, if it's done, off task of the workout session? So this game is for something other than a dedicated dance workout person. The problem is that it has no compelling game play other than dancing individual dances. What I'm getting at is that I'd like to have easy access to a workout history, or, failing that, have a dance game that's captivating in some other way (e.g. DDR Extreme2's "dance master mode"), Dance Factory delivers neither.

5. I have an iPod of more than 300 CDs, already titled. Bundering my way through titling the songs again from the CD is an unnecessary pain, and I think my family learned a few new words from my Coast Guard days as I had to erase the previous character, AGAIN, to get the song title correct (and, THEN, confirm-confirm-confirm to save that information and THEN back-out,select,confirm-confirm-confirm-confirm to dance the thing, for goodness sake!). Does Dance Factory come with hard-drive support? Maybe. Do they advertise this hoped-for support. Not one bit.

6. Redundantly with the other reviewers: normal too easy, steps are not in synch with the beat, no control over arrow layout (which actually has helped me with the silly DDR puzzles in DDR Supernova), steps are often arranged in nonsense, and the timing often changes, more than often twice, midsong with no accompanying cues.

In summary: great concept, but poor implementation -- I do not recommend this game.

DDR is still alive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: November 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having been a closet DDR fan for many years this game was definitely the end all of dance games. You no longer have to dance to weird jap-pop and eurotrash techno. Loading your own music CDs is easy and even though the game doesn't "officially" support MP3 cds they do work. The graphics aren't anything special, but being able to dance to anything and everything is pretty great. The game tends to create better dances to electronic music and up-beat pop.

huh . . . bummer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm a hardcore DDR fan, and I can easily dance to most songs on "heavy" setting, so I bought Dance Factory to make steps that would challenge me but at the same time not barely pass the song and afterward pass out on my DDR mat (remember "The Legend of Max", anyone?) So, I popped the disc in and after I got bored of the five songs, I put a CD in. It took an extremely long time to load, but I can read, so I read a novel to pass the time, unlike those close-minded reviewers preceding me. Anyway, the CD loaded, I danced, and it was fun, although a bit random at times. It's an idea that should have been put to work years ago, and it feels like it was put to work years ago. If you have a lot of CDs you want to dance to, get Dance Factory. If you want the best dancing experience this year, get Supernova. If you want the best rythm game ever, get Guitar Hero (Sorry, I love that game!).

Fun and great exercise

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

We love DDR. My 3 kids and I all play it all the time. We were wishing recently for some new songs to dance to, and I stumbled across Dance Factory. I am so glad I did. I will never buy another DDR game again. This game lets you insert any CD and it creates dance steps for you. It works very similar to DDR, but since you can use your own songs you will never get tired of it. There are a few flaws, the biggest one is that sometimes the background is too chaotic and distracts you from the arrows. Otherwise-its great. My kids are really into Blank Eyed Peas and the new Fergie CD right now. We just popped in the CD's and were able to dance to all their favorite songs. FUN!!! I can't believe it isn't getting more favorable reviews. Some of DDR songs are lame and unrecognizable to anyone but die hard DDR fans. With this game, you can dance to anything from Beatles to Bruce Springsteen.

hrm...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really like how you can dance to the music you choose. This is a huge plus.

I have to agree with the other reviewers. What is with the arrows? I am really good at other DDR games, but I can't seem to quite catch the arrows at the right time. It tells me I have a lot of "perfects," but I can't figure out where the right timing is.

The beat and tempo of the steps is odd, too. Like there's 3 beats to a measure or something.

It's also difficult to figure out whether there are two arrows on the same line or if they just want you to him 'em really fast. If you play this game on a large tv (ours is 51 inches), you may never be able to tell with certainty. And the arrows are spaced far enough apart from side to side that you have to use crazy peripheral vision to catch all that's going on.

It's still a fun game, though. For the price, I'd recommend it.

Not for DDR nuts

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

To be brief, I love DDR and I HATE this game.

While I recognize that it's important for Codemaster's products to not be mere derivatives, there's no reason to for a dance-pad game to start by rejecting everything that's familiar about Konami's games.

Where do I start on what drives me nuts...

1) As other people have mentioned, the down and up arrows are reversed from DDR mixes. I found that eventually I got used to this. Still, was it really necessary?

2) The one player arrows are spread WAY too far across the screen, and the background and arrows flash through the same colors. These things together make patterns very difficult hard to read.

3)I, too, found no happy medium between average and pro levels. On a pro song (this was a rather upbeat Shakira dance song), there were stretches of nothingness, followed by stretches of near impossibility.

4) I found the interface VERY non-intuitive. Although all buttons are labeled somewhere on screen, it seemed like there were a lot of unnecessary menus and confirmations, particularly relating to saving or not saving. Also, for some reason it kept wanting me to enter my name (then confirming, "Enter name?" after I had...) though I didn't ever see the name used in the main screens. Perhaps in another records menu four levels back... Additionally, the default X button after a song dumps you back to the main menu. To play a second song in a row (the DDR default) you have to find the tiny instruction to press , which on a dance pad is a rather obscure, seldom used button. This pattern continued through everything I tried to do.

5) If playing two player, both players must dance the same level. This is no good when playing in a crowd of mixed abilities.

6) There is a max chain number, and it's not hard to reach. My little sister (a DDR whiz) ran into this the first time we ever played.

7) It bugs me that you can't compile a single dance list of all the songs you've saved and loaded. Seems like that's what we use the memory card for, such that after I've created some steps, I should be able to reinsert the game, and now have a single song list that includes
-built in songs
-songs from CDs I've previously loaded
-songs from the CD I just loaded.

I've given this one a few tries now, and I get sick of it after just two or three songs. If you're a big DDR fan, go buy DDR Supernova, and wait for Konami to do their own version of this.

Song Creation is Off Beat

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Dance Factory lets you play a dance game style game with any music CD you own. This would be great if it worked - but more often than not it is off just enough to drive you completely insane.

The game does come with five built in songs, and these are good to get you practicing on "well done" songs. They are I Like It, I Love It; I Like the Way; Pon de Replay; Don't Cha; Get Down On It. So far so good - these are fun to dance to, although DDR fans will find the up and down are REVERSED which will probably really bug you. People who have never played DDR probably won't care - but then it will really bug you when you then try to play DDR games :)

The real problem comes when you put in your own CDs. I had brought a pile of CDs over to the machine. I was actually lucky - I've given away most of my CDs at this point because everything is in iTunes. I've only kept my favorite CDs around - maybe 50 - for backup reasons. Luckily these have some of my favorite dance songs on them.

So I began popping them in. These songs had solid beats in them. You would think the game could easily pick out those beats. But NO! It was pretty close but most of the time it was off just enough to bug you completely. Sometimes it would get the half beat. Sometimes it was just off the main beat.

It got to the point that I would dance along to the music and accept the "poor" ratings just to have fun. It was more frustrating than anything else to dance off beat to try to hit the arrows.

Also there'd be a nice strong obvious part of the song that had no steps at all - and then a bridge or something with hardly any playing that would have a lot of steps. It just made no sense.

I realize completely that you can get bored of songs in DDR games. I was really looking forward to this game for that reason. However, they just don't have the technology down. Maybe in another release or two they'll figure this out and the game will become a must-have. I'm afraid the game really is just not up to that level yet.

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