As I said in an earlier article, Rolocule is the dev team whose iOS games appeal more to Apple TV users than it does to iPhoners. Unlike other dual screen games which just provide alternate HD visuals on mirroring, Rolocule motion games are AirPlay exclusive. These games turn your iPhone into a Wii-like motion controller and are playable only over Apple TV.
Motion Tennis was their first game which was widely popular thanks to its unique and never-before style of gameplay. You can read our full review here. Motion Tennis for Apple TV is currently available for free in the AppStore to celebrate the release of their new game, Dance Party of Apple TV, which we will be discussing in detail today.
Dance Party for Apple TV is surely what it sounds like – A dancing game which can be played with friends at parties, over your Apple TV. But after spending a few hours with it, I can assure that it’s so much more than that!
Basically, each level in Dance Party has an on-screen dancer who steps to custom songs and the users have to mimic his/her moves. Your iPhone or iPod Touch is held in the right hand and the user dances as if he’s seeing his mirror image on the television. The app tracks the various motion sensors on your device, similar to the Wii controller, to find out how well you’re doing.
The game gives you live feedback as Perfect, Good or ‘a red X’ based on your choreo skills and you’re awarded with points. A continuous stream of avatars at the right bottom hints on the upcoming steps so that you can always be in sync with your dance tutor. At the end, all points add up to rate you in stars, along with an approximate count of calories you just burnt!
The game currently provides two free songs and three more can be unlocked via an in-app purchase, with still more songs to come. The Dance section is the single player mode which you can use to better your stars, for practice or for a work out. The Party mode unleashes the actual beauty of the game and literally turns your living room into a disco floor! You and your friends can play simultaneously (or one after another) in front of your TV and clash your dancing skills. An online mode is coming soon while the blind mode for expert dancers, which obviously I haven’t been able to unlock yet.
So coming to the main question – is it any good? Rolocule claims that they have brought highly polished graphics and much more accurate motion engine to Dance Party, as compared to their one year old Motion Tennis game. To be honest, the change is clearly evident right from the beginning.
You might remember me complaining about the physics engine in my Motion Tennis review, but Dance Party instantly feels different. Try messing with the steps and you’ll see that “X” mark thrown at your face while stepping according to the beat is bound to fetch you a Perfect. Of course as time passes you’ll learn to cheat your A7 chip, but that is a sort of necessary evil on all motion controlled consoles.
The songs are great and the steps are simple enough for users to replicate. Yes after each game, you do feel like you were dancing and the fun just multiplies when you’re in goups. There is no appreciable lag nor any lost connections worth mentioning.
So far, my only complaint with Dance Party is its poor replayability. Once you’re an expert with a song, you can consistently score high with them and your first-time-playing guests will probably lose to you, again and again. Though it would be impossible to randomly animate new steps, I would have loved if the order of steps were a little mixed after each session. However, the gameplay is not too simple like it was with Motion Tennis and getting to that five star rating can take forever. This brings some replayability to the game and it’ll probably be a week until you can get every step perfect in each song. Maybe this issue can be overlooked when more and more songs get added to the library.
Dance Party supports iPhone 4S and above, iPod Touch 5th gen, and Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3. If you donot have an Apple TV, Dance Party can mirror even to your PC or Mac with the help of third part softwares like AirServer. The game can be downloaded for free from the AppStore with two songs included. If you like what you get, you can buy more songs or unlock an unlimited songs package for 9 bucks.
In short, if you love to dance and have a supported iOS device & Apple TV, there is no game worth recommending more than Dance Party. Get Dance Party for Apple TV for free.
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