The Black Eyed Peas Experience

Well, wasn't that an experience. Having barely recovered from the travesty of justice that is Let's Dance with Mel B, I couldn't possibly have been less enthusiastic about yet another Kinect-based dancing game. Still, that's a game reviewers lot in life: it can't be all Modern Warfare and Skyrim, and you've got to take the good with the bad. Anyway, where was I. Oh, yes. The Black Eyed Peas Experience. With due caution I slipped back into my dancing shoes and fired up this new entry in the popular dance rhythm game genre, and much to my surprise it's not half bad. That's not to say it's particularly amazing either, but compared to some of the other pitiful nonsense that gets tossed onto a disc and sold to unsuspecting tweens as the "next big Kinect smash", the Black Eyed Peas Experience is positively phunkalicious.

Breaking into a genre like this one is going to be tricky for any new franchise, purely because rhythm virtuosos Harmonix have it pretty much sewn up with the Dance Central series. Instead of trying too hard to innovate with The Black Eyed Peas Experience, Japanese rhythm veterans iNiS chose rather to harvest a couple of the core Dance Central ideas, spice things up with a couple of unique additions to the formula, and then douse the whole affair in pure Black Eyed Peas party rocking atmosphere.

Not many artists could carry an entire music game on their own backs - especially when looking at current pop music. I mean, how many Lady Gaga songs are there that are worth caring about? Barely enough to fill a 3.5" floppy disc, let alone an Xbox 360 DVD, right? Right. You may not think that the Black Eyed Peas have the back-catalogue to support a stand-alone dance game on their own either, but a quick browse through the Black Eyed Peas Experience tracklist will show you the error of your ways. Remember, these guys didn't show up out of nowhere a year or two ago with "Boom Boom Pow" - in one form or another, they've been booming and powing since before Justin Bieber was out of diapers. A word of warning: if you consider yourself a hardcore BEP fan, prepare to be disappointed when you notice that this is a decidedly Fergie-heavy tracklist. For the rest of us though, it was when old Fergelicious joined the BEP ranks that the group really shot into the mainstream, so most of you will be satisfied with the bouncy tracks available here.

The music itself is only part of the equation though. Obviously we need the right songs to get the party started, but without a cracking dance game underpinning it all, the whole idea falls apart. Thankfully the mechanics holding the Black Eyed Peas Experience together make for a cheerful and rewarding rhythm game. As is the norm for games of this sort, dance routines are demonstrated by on-screen dancers - this time mostly in the form of the Black Eyed Peas themselves, with Will.i.am, Apl.de.ap, Fergie and... the other one... busting the moves on stage. Besides their help, there is also a guide bar at the top of the screen, which plays a useful animation explaining the upcoming move, along with a countdown to help you time the transition to the new routine. Having your own character standing with his or her back to you, facing the group instead of facing the screen, seems odd at first, but it's actually quite effective. In this configuration it's far easier to keep track of your left and your right, something that can become an issue when you're meant to be mirroring the on-screen dancers' actions.

Points are scored for mimicking the dance moves properly, with your accuracy scoring you fans as you go along your career. It's not hard to earn a "Good" rating for most of the routines without much practice, but consistently hitting the mark for "Incredible" scores takes some dedication. I found the motion tracking to be forgiving enough to not make it an exercise in frustration, but also not so simple that it breaks down to a Let's Dance with Mel B flap-fest. Prolonged exposure does reveal a sometimes random feeling to the motion tracking in some respects, although it's less pronounced than in many other titles. There is always help available when you need it too, for when things get a bit too disco-fantastic.

Spend some time learning the routines within the Deluxe career mode and you'll soon be racking up some serious points and growing your fanbase along the way. These supporters are basically your currency for unlocking new items for your in-game avatar, new customization options for the venues, and more. It may not sound like much of a draw-card, but I found that the unlock progress system was a good way to keep me playing, hoping to get that next pair of shiny trousers - it actually reminded me of the progress system we find in games like Battlefield 3, but with glittery hats instead of death-dealing assault rifles to be unlocked. Obviously these add-ons have very little affect on gameplay, but it adds a collection element which many developers neglect.

While it's easy enough to slip straight into the basic Party Mode and get straight down to the business of getting down, it's the Deluxe career mode which offers a surprisingly robust learning curve and lengthy growth process. Each song is broken down into segments which need to be tackled one by one, each introducing a couple of new dance moves. Only once you've passed each segment are you given the option of dancing the full track with the complete choreography in place. You effectively spend around 20 minutes on each song before you've done it justice, yet it rarely becomes tedious thanks to the vibrant and inviting visual feedback system which is constantly congratulating you, unlocking new goodies, and really just patting you on the back as you go along, all in high-energy bursts of colour.

Even with its engaging career mode, the biggest concern is still that of longevity. 30 tracks is plenty when you're reviewing a game, but it's hard to say how long those tracks will stay fresh later down the line when it's all you have. Also, unlike similar artist-focused rhythm games like Guitar Hero: Metallica - which included a huge number of songs by other bands chosen by Metallica - here it's all Black Eyed Peas, all the time. Even if Ubisoft does employ a DLC system to incorporate more of the group's back-catalogue, without other artists to flesh it out, this will always be one for the serious fans.

iNiS hasn't broken any new ground with the Black Eyed Peas Experience - a rhythm game still quite clearly derivative of the genre leading Dance Central - but in playing it safe the result is a solid dance experience. The presence of the BEPs themselves, both on-stage and permeating every aspect of the fluid, vibrant presentation, adds credibility and never feels like a last minute hack of a licensing agreement (Mel B, I'm looking at you). There is more fun to be had with a second dancer in co-op, and the inclusion of dual microphone support for two more players to sing along to these hits while you dance makes The Black Eyed Peas Experience a worthwhile party game too.

The menu system - something which is far more important in a Kinect game than usual - is well executed, all bold colours, easy to select buttons, and efficient navigation branching. Polished and confident, almost beyond its station, this is a straightforward but entertaining rhythm title which, while still some way behind the genre leader, is definitely worth a go for those who enjoy this sort of thing. I honestly enjoyed it more than I'd care to admit, even though I'm hardly what you would call a fan of the group. I can only imagine how the hardcore fanbase will just eat this up.

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