Dance Factory Intro (2006, Codemasters)
11Dance Factory is a PlayStation 2 game developed by Broadsword Interactive and published by Codemasters. It has been compared with Dance Dance Revolution, but unlike the Dance Dance Revolution series Dance Factory can generate dance moves from any music CD. It can be played with any PlayStation controller and allows input from the EyeToy camera, but the majority of gameplay is done with a foot-operated Dance pad and is available with or without a pad in the package.
Dance Factory has a variety of modes:
Endurance mode encompasses playing through the five licensed songs on the game, or an entire CD from the user's collection.
Fitness mode is similar to Endurance mode. Weight is entered at the beginning which can be altered to the player's own weight, which can range from 10.00 kg to 200 kg. There is a calorie counter on the screen and mis-stepping displays "Pork Out" and "Gettin' Flabby" instead of "Miss". When a song is finished, the screen shows the number of calories burned and how far one would have to jog, swim or cycle to burn off the same number of calories burnt.
Creature mode gives the user a dancing creature avatar for each CD (or the one that comes with the five original songs). The initial appearance depends upon the chosen CD but the user can use some of the points earned by dancing in order to buy clothing and accessories for the creature, rather than graphic background themes. These creature accessories alter the appearance of the head, eye, chest, back, waist or wrist of the creature.
EyeToy mode allows the player to use the Sony camera as an input device as well as a conventional controller or dance mat.
Multi-player modes include:
Competitive "battle" modes, such as the simultaneous two-player "Creature Battle" mode, in which combo dance sequences can trigger special attacks
Collaborative and "Tournament" modes for two to 16 players (taking turns)
Players can enter their own moves for any CD tracks and then use those instead of the automatically generated ones. These custom dances can be shared with other users who own the same CDs.
Dance Factory has been widely reviewed. Without duplicating exhaustive lists and summaries elsewhere, the extracts here show the range of responses. Reviews have been polarized, generally positively by those who appreciate the key USP - the way that it can work with any CD, rather than just a few bundled tracks, and who found it suited their taste in music - but more critically by those who compared Dance Factory with Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series.