Yes, I Really Did Watch A Guy Play Boogie Superstar

Girls, girls, girls. No, it's not a Vegas review, it's the target audience for EA's Wii title Boogie SuperStar, which was announced yesterday. I swung by EA's New York press event yesterday, too, where the game was on display, and I took a look at it.

I'm presuming that very few of you reading this are young females between the ages of six and 12 who love to karaoke to Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love, or dance to the best of Fergie and Good Charlotte. The songlist is intimidatingly marquee, though, and one of the major takeaways from having the game demoed for me was just how far games have forged in getting the music biz to recognize their power in helping label artists stay relevant to a new audience.

And while Boogie SuperStar might not be a game specifically for you or for me, I think that's pretty important - equally cool was the motion recognition tech.

Hey Girls! EA is trying to get your attention! They've got a brand new game coming to the Nintendo Wii, and it's just for you! Boogie Superstar allows girls to sing and dance their way to superstardom to the tune of the hottest hits for girls! Girl-favorite artists like Fergie, Alicia Keys, Good Charlotte, Britney Spears, and Kanye West are just some of the artists represented by more than 40 songs that girls can perform by themselves or with their girl-friends.

“Boogie SuperStar promotes self-expression, creativity and empowerment for girls worldwide,” said Robert Nashak, VP of Casual Studios, EA Casual Entertainment. “We have created a game where girls don’t just observe someone else’s rise to fame, they experience it themselves, singing and dancing their way through a world most girls only dream about.”

So it's like Boogie, only for girls! Developed for girls by EA Montreal, Boogie Superstar is due out this October and comes packaged with a girl-microphone.

Hit the jump for screens and a press release so female-centric it made Totilo suggest a drinking game based on how many times the word "girl" appears.

Rez HD? Whatever! Ikaruga? *yawn* You lost us at "Ikaruga." What we've been slobbering over lately is the idea of Xbox Live Arcade combined with funky bunny dances and the puzzles required to trigger them. That's why we're so pleased to learn that Boogie Bunnies is our surprise XBLA game of the week. Surprise! The Sierra Online-published, Artech Studios-developed puzzler requires the standard three-in-a-row color arrangement system, but instead of gems or blocks, you get bunnies. There's apparently some boogieing going on as well, keep that in mind. 800 Microsoft Points will do the trick when Boogie Bunnies is released this Wednesday.

Boogie Bunnies [Xbox.com]

All good things must come to an end, and this week apparently marks the end of the amazing flood of great titles we've had over the last month. This week's offerings (with a few exceptions) are a bit lackluster which is probably fine by most people's bank accounts. Due to a long trip, I'll be concentrating on some overdue handheld action and I'm plenty thankful that there is nothing this week that is just begging to be purchased.

Shadowgrounds Survivor (PC)
Fight against aliens for control of the planet.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies (DS)
Now smaller and with multiplayer!

Boogie (DS)
Dance the night away on your DS.

Omega Five (XBLA)
A new sidescrolling shooter on LIVE.

Cruis'n (WII)
Racing to the Wii.

Cranium Kabookii (WII)
The board game in video game form.

Master of Illusion (DS)
Learn magic tricks. Fun at parties, fool your friends.

Speedball 2 - Tournament (PC)
Future sports hurt.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (WII)
The insanely addictive RPG puzzle game continues it's system wide dominance.

Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey (PC)
You know you want it.

Sierra Online Announces Aces of Galaxy

Today Sierra Online announced another XBLA (and PC) space shooter, following their horrid rendition of Battlestar Galactica (which, admittedly, is not out yet for final review but looked bad at E3). It's called Aces of the Galaxy and it's a third person, behind the ship shooter that looks at least nominally better than their first two attempts at blowing things up in space. A co-op mode will allow you to play the game with a friend. And yeah, we'd pay a few bucks for the experience when it hits this winter.

They announced some other stuff too that we just had no interest in, so we'll put the press release after the jump.

Boogie DS In Motion

What is it about Boogie that makes me so morbidly curious? Having just seen the trailer for the Nintendo DS version announced earlier today, I come away disappointed yet again. While I'm strangely fascinated by the 3D-glasses feature and the potential for mini-games (seriously!), this just doesn't seem to live up to its potential as a rhythm game contender. Maybe it's that cover of "Brickhouse" that makes me want to smash everything in sight that unfairly influences my opinion...

Boogie Confirmed For PS2, DS

EA's Wii dancing game that took the "rave" out of "rave reviews" and slapped it into a poorly-executed waggle-fest is getting a new lease on life, this time on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. Boogie, you may remember, was recently rumored to jump ship from Wii exclusive to EA cash grab, but today the uber-publisher confirmed it.

Both the DS and PS2 versions are planned to hit by Holiday '07, with the handheld port getting a true 3D upgrade. The kind of 3D only possible with the inclusion of red and blue lensed glasses. In addition, a new, now standard set of mini-games ice the cake that is Boogie DS.

Ease on down the road for a press release if you're still in the mood for some reading.

We're, at this point, two Jager bombs deep (FOR ENERGY!), one Corona (apparently the party beer of Germany) and one man-sized Paulaner Hefeweizen. Games are looking a lot better and Mark is sweating up a storm. After spilling most of my German beer on the floor due to premature intoxication on the floor due to waiting in line at the PlayStation booth to play something PlayStation Eye related, we looked for something that we'd like maybe a little more fun in our slightly buzzed state.

Unfortunately, we ran into Boogie, after the Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 kiosks looked to be totally occupied. After a couple played songs—Daft Punk's "One More Time", Kelis' "Milkshake" and who knows what Old Man Crecente did—we were more sleepy than pleasantly boozed. Fuckin' Boogie. It's literally a buzzkill.

We're off to Hall 2.

Boogie has had a mixed, but mostly negative critical reception. Last week when planning a Frankenreview, I was shocked at how few outlets had actually reviewed the game—which I assumed was due to EA being worried about reviews and withholding journalist copies. Jean-Charles Gaudechon responds to the critics, who've attacked the game's simplistic controls and gameplay:

"My philosophy in terms of design: Controls shouldn't be a showstopper...Difficultly should come from the game. It should be easy to dance...

Wii's 'Boogie' Vs. The Critics [mtv]

Boogie Coming To PlayStation 2

While EA's Boogie for Wii is seeing few game critics singing (and interpretively dancing) its praises, according to a new listing on game rental service GameFly, the game may have another opportunity to underwhelm gamers, this time on the PlayStation 2. The listing, rooted out by Siliconera, shows a November 15th release, making a pre-Thanksgiving cash grab very likely.

Obviously, EA has made no such announcement that the one-time Wii exclusive would be coming the Sony platform, so we're calling it rumor for now. But with its relatively simple control scheme and USB microphone support, a release of Boogie on the PS2 makes a Madden bus sized load of sense.

Boogie For PS2 [GameFly via Siliconera]

Week in Games: Boogie Edition

This week's new release list is looking rather anemic with half the list being populated by Mega Man titles. I am, however, looking forward to playing Boogie as it was one of my favorite games I played at E3. It was fun, simple and made me laugh a lot. Anybody else going to check it out?

Boogie (WII)
Sing, dance and create your own videos with a great songlist.

Mega Man Star Force: Dragon (DS)
Mega Man goes the Pokemon route, releasing three slightly different versions of the same game. Dragon is exclusive to Gamestop/EB Games.

Mega Man Star Force: Leo
(DS)
Mega Man goes the Pokemon route, releasing three slightly different versions of the same game. This one is Liony.

Mega Man Star Force: Pegasus (DS)
Mega Man goes the Pokemon route, releasing three slightly different versions of the same game. This one is Pegasusy.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PSP)
Ms. Croft's redesigned first adventure comes to the PSP

Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars (PSP)
Crazy Taxi 1 & 2 speed on to the PSP with new co-op modes and other cool stuff

Justify Your Game, Boogie

Hands-On, Boogie (Wii) (Again)

Clip: Boogie Duet

Gallery: High School Musical

Boogie Hits in August

Battlefield Dev Wants To Diversify