Following the enjoyable Black Eyed Peas Experience (OXM rating: 7.5) for Kinect, Ubisoft and iNiS have set their sights a little broader this time with The Hip Hop Dance Experience, which serves up 40 licensed tracks paired with an array of very technical, high-energy moves.
The game’s designed to be party-ready out of the box, so every song — including R. Kelly’s “Ignition (Remix),” Nicki Minaj’s “Moment 4 Life,” and Run-DMC’s “It’s Tricky” — is unlocked from the start for single-player routines, two-player battles, and dance marathons in which one or two dancers bop through randomized songs until they miss too many moves. Censored lyrics and goofy slang make the game feel more pop than street, but at least the locations are nicely presented thanks to colorful effects and music-video snippets.
During “Break Time,” the avatar breakdances while you simply take a break.The choreography here is entertaining, and you’ll appreciate the variety between routines on different difficulty levels. The game also does a solid job of showing where you’re missing the mark on the dancer’s body. But the routines are extremely challenging, and unlike The Black Eyed Peas Experience, The Hip Hop Dance Experience makes little effort to teach you the steps. Moves can only be learned individually (not as a partial or full routine) from a separate menu, with no easy way to continue between each different action. It’s a disappointing misstep, considering how well Black Eyed Peas Experience taught players its many moves.
The routines here are fun when you know them, but getting there is more of a struggle than it should be — and unfortunately, that slows this dancer’s roll.
Learning each move individually in Power Skooling is a grind.PUBLISHER: Ubisoft • DEVELOPER: iNiS • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 2 on same screen • ACHIEVEMENTS: Challenging • COST: $40 • RELEASE DATE: November 13, 2012
+ Fun dance moves in high-energy routines.
+ Stellar soundtrack is diverse within the genre.
– Does a poor job of teaching its routines.
? Will we see more artist-centric Experiences?
caseycolette
March 03, 2013 at 9:23pm
First of all. After reading this, I am upset that Its Tricky by Run DMC isnt on the Wii version. I feel like they should have the exact same graphics, characters and songs... But I see now that they are not created equally. This one (above for Kinect) sems to be better, but I am not interested in owning 2 consoles, now or ever. I like the Wii, sooo I will just have to stick with that I guess.Where I disagree is- you say the Black Eyed Peas experience is "better".. I definitley disagree. As someone who owns both of these 2 games (even if they are on a different platform) I feel that the Black Eyed Peas game doesn't show you what move is coming up next and you are supposed to mirror it, without any clue as to what the characters is about to do, in perfect sync with the character. It's frustrating to say the least. I like that this new improved version shows the dance in the corner before it comes up, so you know what you are about to do. Black Eyed Peas doesnt do that.Also helpful is it shows the person from the front and the back so whichever way works best for you, I end up using both sometimes, but usally the back facing me is most helpful.My one complaint is I wish they had put some Aaliyah or some Eminem on the track list. Oh, ok- well.. 2. There's the whole kilocalorie thing on the Marathon mode, now that is just confusing as all get out.As for the songs...A lot of the chart toppers are on the Black Eyed Peas, but I end up usually only listening to the same 6 songs over and over, out of 20 something, gets boring quick. That is why I would give the BEPE only 3 stars out of 5.On the other hand, there are only about 5 or 6 songs on the Hip Hop Dance Experince that I do not like. I would give the Hip Hop Dance Experience 5 stars out of 5. I can play it over & over, never get tired of it, and get a great workout, which is the whole reason I bought it. But the Black Eyed Peas Experience, I would only give 3 stars (out of 5). Anyway- thanks for your article.Catch up with me on Locomotion of Expressions (Mommy Giveaway Blog) Thanks for letting me share my thoughts. Xo!~
