Get Up and Dance? No, Sit Down and STFU

I'm not one for dance games.  I appreciate the dances games that do the genre proud, but unless I've had a few "celebration scotches" at a New Year's Eve pajama party, I have no interest in embarassing myself. 

Lance dancing in Dance Central

I'm not sure, but I don't recall the "Ripping and Tearing" being a dance move in Dance Central.

That being said, there are games that do dancing right, like Dance Central, and there are games that try to copy that, usually unsuccessfully.  This brings me to my point.  I just saw a post from entertainmentwise.com that was showing a celebrity at the launch of a new video game.  That game is Get Up and Dance, for the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.  The "celebrity," if that's what you want to call her, is Amy Childs.  I've never heard of her, but it looks like she's famous for being a celebrity.  She is the former star of the two-season run of The Only Way is Essex, and she was on Celebrity Big Brother and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Now!  I'm pretty sure if you're on either of those reality shows, then you are not a celebrity. 

Get Up and Dance Amy Childs

You can tell a lot about a game from the celebrities they get to come to their events and promote their games.  Dance Central got Nick Cannon and Tyrese.  Dance Central 2 got the go-ORGEOUS Kelly Brooke.  Katy Perry promoted Just DanceGet Up and Dance got…Amy Childs (had to scroll up to remember her name).  Eh, not boding too well for this title.  Then there's little problem I'm having with the presentation.  I coulda sworn I've seen this style from another dance game.

Get Up and Dance screenshot

Get Up and Dance

Just Dance 2 screenshot

Just Dance 2…hmm…

Listen, if you're going to make a dance game in a market flooded with dance games, don't rip off another game's presentation.  Look, I haven't played Get Up and Dance, but right here is one main reason I don't want to try it.  Their developer/publisher, O-Games Inc. (or as I will now refer to them "Oh-boy-way-to-make-original-Games Inc.), didn't exactly try to rewrite the book on dancing games.  They're just trying to cash in on other games' popularity.  According to their facebook page, they are priding themselves on having a fitness mode, and they should.  Since it's only tracking your arm movements due to the Wii or PS Move controllers, the game is more of an arm workout than a dance game.  Imagine all the possibilities of swinging your arms and raising them and bringing them to your side!

Upon further investigation into the game, I found on gamepolitics.com that O-Games Inc. is preemptively suing Ubisoft to get the court to give them a declaratory judgment saying that the game "does not infringe upon any copyright or trade dress rights embodied in Ubisoft's Just Dance video games."  I guess Ubisoft was making some accusations about Get Up and Dance, and it looks like O-Games Inc. is feeling a little guilty about something.  They're suing a company so that the company can't sue them.  O-Geez Inc. 

"Get Up And Dance is a creative, innovative and fun dance and fitness game. We have a great product with strong unique features like Group Mode, which allows dancers to dance and score together in their own dance group. We are disappointed that Ubisoft has made unjustified accusations about our game and forced us to file a complaint."–Jim Scott, CEO of OG International Ltd.

Really?  Forced you to file a complaint?  I must say, their game looks real original.  Innovative?  I've never seen anyone do what they're doing in the dance genre.  Well played.  GG.

 

You can follow Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ