5stars
27ratings4stars
14ratings3stars
4ratings2stars
2ratings1star
2ratings
Good graphics50% agree
Compelling gameplay50% agree
Good value50% agree
49 reviews
Great potential but slightly weak in design
Dance Factory is a fantastic game for DDR fans or music lovers who want to play something physically active. Codemasters did a good job of delivering a game that is appealing in both concept and graphics. The game comes with a few licensed songs that you can dance to on three different modes: easy, normal, and pro. The real novelty of the game lies in loading up your own music CDs on your Playstation, from which Dance Factory generates a unique stepchart. Music rhythm is pretty much always synchronized very well with the stepcharts. With long songs, the stepcharts tend to have something like a 5-second break after every 1.5 minutes so you don't get too worn out before completing a song.
Other features of this game include the dancing "creatures." A unique creature can be "extracted" from every music CD you use, and these creatures can customized with accessories and dance along to your music. When not dancing with your creature, you can dance with colourful background themes much like fancy screensavers. Extra themes can be purchased with points you accumulate through dancing. The game also offers a fitness mode that tracks how many calories you burn, as well as a battle mode if you have two mats.
In spite of its fun functions, Dance Factory is not without its weaknesses. Graphics-wise, you won't find the creatures or the themes especially intricate; both have rather repetitive movements. More serious players might also find the stepcharts too easy; players used to playing 8-10 footers on Konami's DDR series will find Dance Factory's pro level somewhat equivalent to 7 or 8 footers on DDR. (Normal is similar to 4 footers, and I haven't tried easy yet, but I can imagine it would be close to 1 or 2 footers.)
However, the biggest annoyance I had with this game was the ARROWS. They are spaced too far apart, have irritating animations, and cannot be customized. Every time you step on an arrow, its edges create a ripple effect that distorts the immediate area around it. When you have a fast series of taps (steps on the same arrow) it becomes especially hard to see when arrows start rippling one after another. Also, it generally creates an illusion that arrows are moving slower than they are, which may throw you off beat. Perhaps this is a feature that will just require some getting used to, and some people might not mind it as much as I do. I simply prefer arrows clear-cut like in DDR. Expert players might consider the animated arrows a bonus obstacle.
Overall, I can say that Dance Factory is a neat game designed more for fun and music enjoyment than competition. Its limitless capacity for songs of any type makes it a novelty among DDR-type games.Read full review...
Dance like a maniac
This game is a great investment for any casual to hardcore fan of the dancing series.
Pros:
- Easy to pick up and play.
- Not only does this one play pretty close to the DDR series, it takes the genre a step further by allowing players to plug in their own music discs, which means you can now dance to AC/DC if you'd like, as the game is designed to generate dance steps for the player on 3 different levels of difficulty! The game even reads burned cds which means you can compile your own mix of music of different artists from your library and play for endless hours!
- The game also allows the player to generate a random creature that you can have dance in the background of the songs you play, as well as earn points that you can use to purchase items to decorate the creatures.
- Good price, the game doesn't have much to it, but it costs significantly less money than most new games.
- Great way to keep in shape and to keep on your toes!
Cons:
- The game only contains 5 licensed songs that are included, so if your home music library is small, you will need to go out and buy more music.
- The amount of items you can purchase for your creatures are limited, around 3 or so different items, I guess it makes the game load faster anyways, not a huge deal, the creatures are sort of secondary to the game's actual purpose.
- The unlockable game items(backgrounds) are kind of bland and some are even hard on the eyes.Read full review...
DDR Dance factory PS2
This is a great game that will not get old fast like others. It really makes dance moves from any CD, even downloaded MP3's. Once the game loads it instructs you on when to remove the game CD and add your music CD. It's that simple. My daughter has other DDR games and gets tired of the same old songs that are either from no name artists or songs that are outdated. With Dance Factory she can decide the music she wants to dance to, and can change it up as her taste in music changes. Dance Factory is easy to use and we had it up and going in just a few minutes without reading the included instructions. This is the most flexible DDR game out there. It is a must buy if you are into the DDR games.Read full review...
Very good concept that expands on traditional DDR!
I hope this comes as no surprise to say that this product is a shameless clone of Dance Dance Revolution. However, it expands on the formula.
While the game itself offers only a few tracks, the key advantage is the ability to generate movesets for any audio CD.
While the actual program is kinda cheesy (dance creatures?) and somewhat limited in terms of background visuals, if you truly enjoy the concept and core gameplay of DDR but want your own music instead, this is an excellent choice.
I will caution that, in the end, like most of the PS2, it suffers during close inspection - the movesets don't always match the main pace of the song - however, for a true fan or someone who is tired of the whiny techno, this is an excellent choice.
And if you want a laugh, throw in an audiobook.Read full review...
Good idea, poor execution.
I was pretty thrilled to try this out. Instead of exercising to a DDR game where I only like about half (or less) of a limited playlist, I could create my own dance list from a cd/songs of my choice. It's a wonderful idea and it doesn't take too long for the game to step the tracks, either.
Unfortunately, that makes this a prime example of a rushed job done poorly. I'm not anywhere close to a great DDR player. I had the game step a couple different CDs and tried playing them on the easiest setting. And there was not one song I could dance to. Even on the easiest, the songs would all start off pretty easy and truthfully boring, to the point you think, you might have to take the difficulty up a notch next time, but just about every song degrades toward the end into a travesty of steps that an octopus couldn't carry out. I literally didn't have enough feet to dance the steps, as there were times that more than 2 directions would need stepped at the same time. The beats were not off as much as they were just "weird". The game would step the songs in time with the basic underlying time signature, sometimes that beat would be completely wrong against the actual beat and rhythm of the song and the steps just didn't feel right. There are no options to personalize game play.
Also, the game is not fully compatible with most DDR dancemats. I have one that came with one of the newer DDR games and that pad doesn't include square or triangle buttons, however the triangle is needed to play the game. There are no options to customize button functions (to use say circle or select instead of triangle). there are three different layouts for the "buttons" on the dancemat, but none of them resolve this issue. So I spend most of my time when I'm not dancing switching between the dancemat and the analog controller to navigate menus.
On a positive note the game will allow you to record your own steps for your music, though I found that feature lacking as well, as you couldn't record holds.
Pretty much, its a great game if you have a couple extra legs or are happy just dancing the 5 songs that already come programmed into the game. Otherwise, skip it.Read full review...
cool concept, ok excecution
I love the idea of making my own ddr dances. Dance factory gives you two ways to do this, either let the game generate the steps for you, or go in and do it yourself. What i don't like is some dances that are generated feel off tempo. Also the steps that are generated are only on 1/4 or 1/8 notes, even if the music has 1/16 notes that feel natural to step to. The only other down side, is the arrow placement on the screen. If you've played a lot of ddr it may throw you for a while, but i got over it after a few songs and a bit of concentration.
However, there is an infinite playlist! and if you don't like what was generated for a song, you can go do your own steps. If you're on the fence about this game, i say that the pros out weight the cons and buy it! (honestly, if you hate it you can sell it back after all).Read full review...
Dance Factory for PS2
Bought this for my teen, but I also use it as it is a great workout-don't have to go to the gym! It is great because you can use your own music and it provides the steps to follow, it mixes up the dances. It takes a long time for your cd to upload into the game though. The graphics are "different" but ok. My teen likes the graphics of DDR better, but likes the fact that you can use your own music. Would buy it again!Read full review...
Works as designed. A good game.
Overall a good game. Easy to load and use. The controls are slightly glitchy. Slower songs produce rutines that are very enjoyable, however fast songs are very difficult and don't match the beats as well as other games in this genre. Memory card usage not nessessary. I wanted to dance to music I like and this game makes it possible.Read full review...
Buy used and cheap
This game is good for people who like to use DDR casually. For the serious dancer (such as myself) it is basically a waste of money. The up and down arrows are switched from the DDR series (which takes a while to get used to), the backgrounds can be so flashy that they are distracting, the messages get in the way, and many of the created dances are just not in sync with the actual music. I would recommend that gaming companies leave the dancing games to Konami and I hope Konami makes a better version of 'Dance Factory.' I do, however, love the fact that I can dance to my favorite music or songs that seem interesting. This is a good try by Code Masters, but it needs TONS of improvement before it becomes as big as DDR.Read full review...
Great all around family game
I love this game. not only can i dance to the songs that i want to dance to but my kids can dance to the music that they like. Since I have large age gaps in my children, my older ones can listen to teen music while my little one can listen to disney. I mostly bought this for my kids, but i got sucked in when i was able to put my music in as well. Great workout. And, you can actually have fun while working out (shocking as it may be). My kids were on it last night for a couple of hours and didn't even realize that they were also getting a work out. I would definitely purchase again, without a second thought.Read full review...