By Chris Kohler | Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Oct. 31, 2005 PT
He's tried kart racing, baseball, tennis and golf. Will dancing finally help video-game star Mario lose his carb-packed gut?
Picture courtesy of Nintendo.
Maybe not, but you can step the pounds away with Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix, currently available for the GameCube. The Nintendo-themed version of the popular aerobic dance game will charm kids and casual players with clever remixes of classic game tunes, but DDR aficionados will find the game far too easy.
The Dance Dance Revolution series lets players dance to the beat of up-tempo pop songs by jumping on a floor mat. As arrows pointing up, down, left and right ascend to the top of the screen, players step on the appropriate panels.
The $50 Mario Mix package, the first of the series to appear on the GameCube, includes one soft dance mat. Although it isn't as comfortable as the $100-plus deluxe mats available for competing systems, it is well-constructed, with a non-slip bottom surface and sturdy woven edges.
Taking advantage of Nintendo's rich stable of characters, Mario Mix features a unique Story Mode that lets players go on an adventure through the Mushroom Kingdom. Humorous story snippets are broken up by over 25 different songs that increase in difficulty as Mario gets closer to the final battle.
Story Mode is also peppered with a variety of minigames that use the dance mat -- you might have to stomp on enemies who appear on the screen in locations that correspond to the arrows on the pad, or stomp your feet quickly to make a running dash up a flagpole.
Mario Mix does throw a curveball to longtime DDR players in the form of different Mario enemies that replace arrows on the screen. You might need to stomp the arrow twice to kill a turtle, or avoid stepping on an arrow as a spiked icicle floats by it.
Unfortunately, while all other DDR games let you select from most of the included songs right off the bat, you're actually forced to play through Story Mode to "unlock" songs in Mario Mix's free-choice menu.
This is where DDR experts will become frustrated, because Story Mode is only available in two difficulty settings: easy, and ridiculously easy. And to unlock every song, you have to play through Story Mode at least twice, which quickly becomes boring.
Once you unlock a song in Free Mode, you can select a wide range of difficulty levels (which add more complicated step patterns) up to a maximum of "Super Hard." But "Super Hard" is roughly equivalent to medium difficulty in other DDR games.
This is especially disappointing because the songs are so well-made. Most of them are remixes of music taken from Nintendo games past and present. Anyone who's played a Super Mario game can whistle the classic theme songs, and as a fan of the series, I appreciated the effort put into the new versions.
The rest of the tunes are dance remixes of classical and traditional music, like selections from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Carmen. But unlike Nintendo's last music game, Donkey Konga, there are no licensed pop tracks to be found.
As you might imagine, all that jumping around is a great workout, and if you enter your name and current weight, Mario Mix will keep track of how many calories you burn as you play.
Kids love Dance Dance Revolution, and Mario Mix is a perfect introduction to the genre. The songs are child-friendly and age-appropriate. But what makes Mario Mix the perfect choice for beginners may very well turn off experienced DDR players -- unless they really love Mario.