We Cheer - hands-on

Finally, we can release the inner cheerleader in all of us (maybe we can even free the one chained to our water heater), now that Namco Bandai has officially announced We Cheer. Set to occupy your Wii and pre-pubescent daughter’s free time this fall, We Cheer enables you to pull off cheerleading moves using only the Wiimote set to 30 contemporary tracks from the likes of Paramore, Hilary Duff and even classic feel good-anthems like “Walking on Sunshine." We had a chance to test drive Cheer to see just how much school spirit we contained.

Looking extremely similar to Bratz dolls, a squad of sugary sweet cheerleaders adorned our screen. Gameplay is like a mixture of DDR and DS-classic, Elite Beat Agents. Holding two Wiimotes, we had to match the onscreen motions drawn in front of you. Each Wiimote corresponds to a colored movement, e.g. red for your right hand and blue for your left hand. So if the blue marker motioned left, we moved our hand left and vice versa for red. Depending on the difficulty of the song, you’ll have to move quickly and perform tougher movements.

And because everyone loves to customize, you can create the perfect cheerleader from a wide variety of tops, bottoms and other cute accessories. With an exercise mode, two-player campaign mode and even a four-player Party mode, there will plenty for you to cheer about. We’ll have more on We Cheer in the coming months. For now, check out ournew screens.