Dance Factory review

Let's face it- if you've played one dancing game, you've played them all. The format is pretty standard by now: watch the scrolling arrows, step in the corresponding directions and, in most cases, trip over your own feet and embarrass yourself in front of friends and family. All to a thumping techno beat. This is how it has been since the genesis of the genre and how it will continue to be for the foreseeable future... at least until they program the PlayStation 7 to grow legs and join you in a tap-dancing duet.

So when a game like Dance Factory tries to tweak that tired formula by changing at least one of the standbys - enabling you to groove to any track of any CD in your music collection, not just the usual club crap - it definitely deserves props. It doesn't, however, necessarily deserve a recommendation. Especially when this one innovation is all the game has to offer and even it barely works.

Above: Yeah... not so much.

The problem's not in the setup. Choosing a custom foot-stomping soundtrack is as simple as loading the game, switching the data disc for one of your own CDs and waiting a minute or less for the track to be recorded. Go crazy - the game will accept literally anything, from classical to punk and everything in between, though sometypes of music will obviously produce better results than others. You can even name the song or album and store it on your memory card for later retrieval.