I’ve always found the way game reviewers rate games to be rather interesting. For example, reviews of Konami’s rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 2 generally say it is just like the original Hottest Party, with the same moves, the same look and the same sort of songs. And they all give Hottest Party 2 a lower score than its antecedent, not because it is less fun - logically if two games are almost exactly alike then they should be equally fun - but because they are knocking points off for not bringing anything new to the table.
The Basics
I never played the original Hottest Party, so for all I know the critics are right in saying that the sequel adds nothing new to the series. But I can say this: if you haven’t played Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii before, Hottest Party 2 is a blast.
As a matter of fact, I haven’t played any DDR games for a few years, simply because I had begun to feel that they were all the same game with different songs. So I was surprised to see a few things in Hottest Party 2 I hadn’t come across before.
The basics are still the same. Hottest Party 2 is played on a dance pad with arrows pointing right, left, up and down. Arrow indicators float up the television screen, and when they reach the top you need to step on the appropriate arrow. Sometimes you will have to step very fast or in syncopated rhythms, and sometimes you will have to step on more than one arrow at once, which will require some jumping. Arrows are timed to match the intricacies of the song that is playing, which makes it feel like you are dancing to the music, or at least stomping to the music. Miss too many times and a virtual audience boos you off stage.
What Makes it Special
Hottest Party 2 makes this all a little tougher with special arrows that require you to stamp the same place on the pad twice or that wander around aimlessly on screen before popping into position at the last second. The game also asks players to use their hands. Hand indicators appear as well as foot indicators, requiring you to shake the remote at just the right time. However, on the easier difficulty levels you can actually simply keep the rhythm with your hands and you will hit the hand markers as a matter of course, since they’re all on the downbeat. I'm told this changes somewhat on the harder settings, but my DDR skills are not such that I could find out for myself. Besides the basic single player mode there is a workout mode, in which the goal is not to play perfectly but simply to burn calories and a two-player mode in which some indicators will trigger attacks on an opponent. Previous DDR games I’ve played contained mainly songs you might hear in a really obnoxious dance club where everyone has to take ecstasy just to tolerate the music. The Hottest Party 2 soundtrack is more tolerable, with decent if rather soulless covers of fun pop songs like Black and White and Walking on Sunshine. Songs are generally fast dance numbers, although one of the most interesting and challenging songs I tried was a ballad called My Love which required me to find a very different sort of rhythm, and made me think of how interesting a ballad edition of DDR might be.
It's Dance Dance Revolution; Sometimes That's Enough
The most annoying aspect of Hottest Party 2 is this guy who keeps shouting while you dance with the grating cheerfulness of a morning DJ. He shouts out encouraging remarks like, “Nobody moves like you!” which is fine every once in a while but is intolerable when heard several times in every song. Happily the voice can be turned off, which I highly recommend. Konami has been pumping out DDR games for a decade, so it is unsurprising if there is little change from one to the next. Those who want to see big changes should probably follow my lead and skip two or three years between DDRs. Those looking for a new experience with Hottest Party 2 may well be disappointed, but even at their least original, DDR games are always irresistibly fun. And for all their complaints, even game reviewers can’t argue with that.
