Dirty Dancing
Preview
A series of mini-games for the casual gamer.
by William Thompson
previewed on PC
Two left feet
The most important mini-game is the ‘dance lessons’ game. The ultimate goal of the game is to win the End of Season Dance Contest, so having as much practice and having as many lessons as you can, will certainly help in the end. Of course, dancing lessons come at a cost, so you must earn enough money to pay for the lessons from Johnny or Penny.
Spending Money
After completing the mini-games and earning your keep at Kellerman’s Camp, you have a number of options to spend your money on. Firstly, as mentioned previously, some of the various mini-games are ‘locked’ at the beginning of the game. These can be unlocked by paying a fee. Of course, opening up these mini-games gives you the ability to earn more money. Secondly, money can be spent on dancing lessons. The dancing lessons are required if you want to achieve the ultimate goal of winning the dance contest.
The third option for spending money is to buy things to decorate your cabin. You can buy all sorts of furniture and appliances. This part of the game works similar to any number of sim-style games on the market. Just select the item you want from the list, purchase it, and place it down where you want it. Objects can be moved if desired or rotated around in different directions. One major gripe I have was that when I purchased a television, it had to sit on the floor. There didn’t seem to be a way of placing it on a table. This was only preview code, so hopefully this will be fixed by the time the game is released.
‘I’ve had…the time of my life’
Well, maybe not. But I had a bit of fun with Dirty Dancing. Ok, so visually, Dirty Dancing is no Bioshock, Assassin’s Creed or Crysis, and the games can get repetitive and sometimes frustrating, but Dirty Dancing does have a simple appeal. The games can be played in short bursts, such as whilst sitting down with a cup of coffee whilst the little ones are asleep or during the break between your favourite afternoon soap operas. The interface is well laid out and the controls are extremely simple. For most games, a click of the mouse or use of arrow keys is all that is required. The audio contains a couple of the hit songs from the movie as well as some sound effect during the mini-games.
Dirty Dancing is actually aimed at the casual gamer market and fans of the movie and at a price that is one-fifth of regular games it is certainly worth a look if you fit in one of the those categories.
