- Wii ››
- Simulation ››
- Boogie
Boogie
- July 18, 2007 16:51 PM PST
- Email this!
This is how deep EA's upcoming catalogue is: during their entire hour long press briefing, the company didn't touch on any of its sports titles, instead choosing to focus on the offerings coming out of its Casual division.
And it wasn't an hour of fluff either: they brought out some interesting games, such as Rock Band and Playground. What's most interesting is that while the company's sports titles like Madden 08 are its bread and butter, it's the "casual" games that are generating all the E3 buzz. It's no surprise that the high-profile Rock Band left a lot of hearts palpitating but it's EA's other rhythm game, Boogie, that really stole the show.
Bust A Move
Whether it was by accident or on purpose, EA's presentation of Boogie was exactly like its game: fun and charming. VP and General Manager of developer EA Montreal Alain Tascain came on-stage to show off his dance moves (or lack thereof) and his "unique" vocal stylings on the Pussycat Dolls' hit track, "Don't Cha." Listening to a grown man singing "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me" in a high falsetto was highly entertaining but it really showed off the embarrassing and good natured fun that the game has in store for gamers. Whether it was intentional or accidental, Alain really sold me on the game's potential.
The demo was broken up into two portions: dancing, in which Alain used the Wii Remote and Nunchuk control his onscreen character's moves, and the karaoke portion, where Alain used the microphone attachment to belt out his rendition of one of the 37 confirmed tracks. The best revelation, however, was the playback options that were demonstrated after Alain concluded his performance.
Video Killed The Radio Star
The video editor is where you can add special effects like the 3-D effect that EA demonstrated during their press briefing.
When I first arrived at the EA press briefing, I was surprised to see a pair of 3-D glasses sitting on every chair. We soon found out what they were for as Alain's performance of "Don't Cha" was replayed for us in 3-D. The effect was quite amusing, even if it did rob the game of its colorful visuals, and should provide for some interesting after-performance fun.
While we didn't get much in the way of specific information--Alain quickly scrolled through the character customization options and he didn't expand on the filters that you can apply to saved videos, for example--we did get a great taste of what the game is all about. More details are sure to surface in the near future but for now, Boogie has the potential to be a solid gold hit for EA.
